Until the time that I had discovered that Botan (36 Pekin Street, #01-01 Far East Square, tel:6536 4404) is located at this place, I had never really taken much note of what location was I passing through everytime I happened by this specific unit in Far East Square. So in essense, I have no idea for how long has this Japanese restaurant been around. Or if it was another establishment in the prior times I had walked past. Rather innocuous looking as a Japanese restaurant that's wedged between the more conspicuous Harry's Mirchi and Shin Kushiya, this place is easily overlooked since there is very little apart from a menu stand that reaches the pedestrian path. Since I have discovered it's presence, I've been telling myself to drop by one day to check out the food. Now that I've actually tried it, the next thing I'll be wondering to myself would be, when will I come back? Because I'm quite sure I will. Pretty verbose way of saying that I discovered a place and that I liked it eh?

The interior of the restaurant appears as simply furnished dining hall with little frills. I would say that this is one of those places where there is a greater emphasis on the food that is served rather than upkeeping veneers which is something that I don't really put so much value in since it just means that the cost is usually passed on to us. Appreciated, but unnecessary. Speaking of cost, prices here are by no means cheap. However, this is far from being up there in the realms of pricey restaurants. In fact, I would say that it's quite affordable for what they serve.

The anko kimo (angler fish liver) here is pretty good. It wasn't as creamy nor as chilled as the ones that they serve at Kazu, still it was very decent in terms of taste and portions.

I'm having chazuke for the first time and despite the taste being quite different from what I had expected from a tea based porridge, I found myself quite enjoying this. I'm not sure if the mentaiko or the nori had that much to do with the resultant flavor of the broth, but it tasted quite like fish soup rather than any tea flavor and the heap of toasted sesame seeds adds a depth to the fragrance of the porridge. Try to imagine teochew fish porridge, without fish slices nor the hint of ginger in the broth.

I like the uni sushi here. The portions of the sea urchins toppings are quite generous. These things really fill up your mouth and for $6 a pop, it is certainly much more affordable than many of the other Japanese places that serves at least decent ones. I'll be sure to get more of these the next time I'm back here.


The umaki tamago here are quite good. Despite the slightly dry appearances, they are actually oozing with juices when I tried to pick them up with chopsticks and they are served hot. The sweetish egg was soft and really just slides down your throat in a comforting manner. Packed in the tamago are also almost equally tender pieces of teriyaki marinated eel which doesn't seem to have any bone at all. I've been avoiding unagi for ages because the generally don't taste very good to me. These are one of the exceptions. Another something which I am sure go for again.

Chirashi bentos are the way to go for bentos for me. Apart from their own brand of aesthetics which I find quite pleasing, the contents are something that I enjoy about Japanese food. I am thinking that for $30, Botan delivers a rather generous serving of the bento with the usual slices of raw fish and tamago, a dry smoked mackerel, simmered vegetables (a couple of pieces are wrapped in egg yolk!), teriyaki chicken, potato salad ball, 3 pieces of tempura, more unidentified mix of root vegetables/green battered crabsticks/fungus like things, chawanmushi, miso soup and watermelon. The quality of the raw fish slices are actually not bad and there is certainly no complains about the portions of those at all. The rice below is interesting because of what's on the top. A medley of sweet from the pink fish floss, saltiness from the ebiko, seaweedy-ness from shredded nori and fragrance from sesame seeds that are scattered over the rice.

delicious pics