I’ve only heard good words about this place when it was back at Orchard Emerald. And pending an omakase dinner here *soon* (I can’t tahan the wait lah! :p), darted here on a last minute whim to satisfy my craving for happy food. :) testing testing mah.

Hachi now serves set lunches priced from $18 to $38, with a daily special at $17 that includes an appetizer, salad, steamed rice, miso soup, dessert and coffee/ tea to end. Lunch omakase is at a reasonable $60, (but sometimes one has to practise self restraint! >.<), so almost resolutely, I picked the Sushi Set ($38). Sashimi is the barometer of freshness any Japanese restaurant can deliver, thus be the measure of quality.

Otoshi of the day was a nice portion of Potato Salada dressed with spicy mentaiko, a bracing start to a superlative meal. The Green Salad that followed though was nondescript, but nevertheless a thoughtful inclusion to make for a square meal.

As befits a Japanese restaurant, the quality of sushi is high. Sashimi slices shrouding the sushi rice pads were swimmingly fresh and sushi rice was indubitably the tastiest I’ve eaten. The variety I had was astounding. There were kanpachi, maguro, ika, hirame, botan ebi, chutoro, shime saba to name, and the most undreamed-of piece of nama nasu!

Having eaten eggplants in all manner of recipes and presentation, this baby one was novel and truly tasty. Nama nasu on sushi was simply awesome. Albeit uncooked, there was no raw vegetal taste of the baby eggplant yet tasting so sweet from nature’s nectar. Served with a smattering of yuzu kosho (spicy citron) on the top and a slight smear of wasabi below, this was remarkably exemplar.

Then there was this gorgeous piece of hirame that was both crunchy and sweet all at once, shime saba sans the fishiness, and my favoritest botan ebi which was a bright burst of fresh flavor. Even the ika (eew!) keke was so pleasantly agreeable. :)

And the most incredible of it all? There was no salmon in my sushi set! :)

Midway through the meal, I was pleasantly surprised with a deep fried botan ebi head that was not rendered in superfluity. Excellent with a smidgen of lemon juice, Chef sure wasted no head here! And so eyes, feelers, innards, I ate it them…this crunchy crustacean.

Dessert was an omg exotic-sounding Boysenberry Ice Cream I chose over the familiar watermelon green tea flavor. There was something different about this ice cream, so fragrant from the milk I suspect Hokkaido milk was used in the making. Especially soft and creamy, and especially delicious.

The sure fire way to eat well is to go where the natives go. Nestled in a homely shop house environs in the heart of Chinatown, the lunch patrons are typically well-heeled Japanese salaried man all wanting a taste of Japan. The waitresses have the friendliest disposition, attentive yet not fawning over the natives. Chef Watanabe indeed, is the most worthy itamae, one who does not show preferential treatment and one who is conscientiously attentive all through my meal proper.

Oh did I mention they serve fresh wasabi? And that was for a set lunch. :)