Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

Work has been piling up recently, and I had to cancel clubbing for tonight because I couldn't fathom the thought of waking up half a day later and rushing through an essay all tired and blur. Since Daphne already had clubbing scheduled and subsequently had to push quite a number of plans away, I felt it was only right of me to treat her to dinner. Judging from the rather interesting reviews on Shokudo from various food blogs, I decided that we too should have our first taste of the new food bazaar in town.


The very first thing you find yourself doing is comparing this place to Marche, because the first thing the girl at the entry does is to explain to you the concept of cashless buying and using the card as a means to go about with your self-service orders. And then she would (try to) end quite firmly (if not threateningly), that a loss of the card would result in a $100 fine. I always wondered how it would be if we consolidated all our orders in one card, spend much more than $100 in that card, and then lose it, leaving us with the empty ones. Haha.


As you can see, even the stalls bear the semblances of Marche. In a recent interview with the general manager of Marche however, he expressed that he did not see Shokudo as a "copycat" and added:

"The Marche concept is not defined by swipe cards and cooking stations. For the past 25 years, we have built our reputation on our total commitment to freshness and quality" [Stomp Foodies Club]

Well, with that remaining outlet in Vivovity and pretty disappointing food now, I hope that commitment could be relooked into!

Well, let's not ramble any further shall we. Here's the food.

Shokudo Mushroom Cheese Burger: 6/10


By far one of the hot sellers at this food bazaar, this burger bears high expectations for anyone who reads about it (like me) or simply those who walk around the restaurant and see it almost on one in every four tables. I'm not kidding, it's that popular.

However, and hopefully not because of the prior high expectations, this burger was not warm enough to my liking and felt pretty ordinary actually. The beef patty admittedly was good, very rich and well flavoured, and the buns well-toasted. Went well with the sunny side up. However, I've had better ones, and to say the least, even Botak Jones is better than this. I would return to Globetrotters at United Square sometime soon, because their burgers are actually a hidden specialty.

They were pretty much stingy on the fries too, don't you think?

Iwate Mushroom Soup: 4.5/10


I had my reservations when Daphne suggested having mushroom soup. Not only was this meant to be a Japanese restaurant, I somehow had this sense that it wouldn't be good. And it wasn't, instead quite like its name "iwate"... watery (geddit? haha); very diluted and lacked the thickness and richness necessary for good mushroom soups. Even pepper couldn't save it.

Sausage Omu Rice: 7.3/10


Omelette on tomato flavoured rice with a yummy looking pork sausage. Too bad I can't touch that, but then again, it looks quite pale compared to the beef ones. Still, Daphne liked it, though her complaint was that it was not hot enough. Funny though, since I saw the guy put it straight from the grill. They really should do more about reheating.

Homemade Cheesecake: 9/10


Ha! The winner of the day. This small wonder (yes, it's smaller than my palm) eased my slight disappointment really, and Daphne too went high on this. Very smooth and soft texture, nicely mixed with the crisp of the biscuit base. Sweet, and goes down your throat delicately. Ooh la la.

The bill wrote that it is "Shokudo Tofu Cheese Cake", as compared to the display as merely "Homemade Cheesecake". Maybe that's why it's as soft as beancurd.

Service
The usual Japanese greeting, but I realised the staff appears to have a majority of Chinese nationals! *Gasp* Chinese manning a Japanese restaurant, interesting.

Price
Shokudo Mushroom Cheese Burger: $7.80
Sausage Omu Rice: $7.80
Iwate Mushroom Soup: $3.80
Homemade Cheesecake: $3.80
* A can of Sprite: $2.50

Place
Raffles City Basement
#B1-44E

Additional Comments


1. Yeap I mentioned self-service, but the usual 10% service charge still applies.
2. Long queues from 7.15pm onwards, so be sure to be early. No reservations allowed!