Itacho Sushi: Cheap and Good?

I often shy away from sushi and sashimi restaurants in Singapore. After eating well at speciality sushi-yas in Japan, one never quite gets used to the drop in taste and flavours of fish which is shipped, however carefully it is done, is not quite as fresh and tasty as being in Tsukiji market at 7am and having a sushi breakfast. But as a foodie nation, I think we are fighting back. Singapore's sushi scene has improved a lot. The top restaurants are always very good, but super pricey. And the low end ones are not worth mentioning. Enter Itacho.

Looking very much like a chain restaurant...indeed they are...with branches in at least 2 locations in Singapore, more than 10 in the place of origin Hong Kong and even in China. I did have a meal at their APM outlet in Beijing, but it was nothing to shout about. This meal, at their Ion Orchard outlet, however is something to shout about. One of the better sushi meals I have had in a long time in Singapore.

Arrive early...a long queue often forms at the rather large restaurant. We arrived about 11:40, and it was begining to fill up. I guess fresh, succulent sushi, done well needs little prose to describe, so I will mainly let the photographs do the talking, safe a few notes.

Remember this is a meal for only 2 persons...though I imagine the average Singaporean foodie might eat a bit less than this humongous meal...

A mixed platter of squid, soy sauce roasted salmon. Very good indeed. Limited to 4 pieces per person, this was offered at an incredible S$0.40 per piece!!!

The chawan mushi looked like a soup...indeed it was a shallow layer of scallops in a beautiful broth covering the traditional steamed egg with chicken and ginko nuts.

Hand roll of soft shell crab. We wanted deep fried salmon skins, but they didn't have those.

Some sashimis next....fatty yellowtail and fairy shrimps. Nice touch is to have deep fried the prawn heads, for a tasty, crispy, eat everything...every bit delicious.

More sashimi

And the grilled eel sushi...look at how large the fish is on top of the rice!

And this amazing flame scorched fatty yellowtail

This is amazingly good. The flame scorched parts have a slightly burnt, smokey flavour, and the inside of the fish just explodes in the mouth. Fantastic.

Uni rice

Creamy uni, on top of rice. Superb.

Swordfish sashimi

Assorted sushi

Scallops sushi...whole scallop on rice...

And some grilled pork sushi to round up...

Overall, value for money. In total, this was sub S$200 for all you see above. Not super cheap, but for the quality and quantity we ate, I think very good value for money.

Itacho Sushi
B2-18 Ion Orchard