I have been to Hachi a number of times this year and my last visit to Hachi on Saturday was just amazing. I always have the Omakase which is the chef's menu. They seem to be pretty protective over what they will be serving. One of my dinner mates was trying so hard to pry out from the chef what was up for serving today with no luck.
They have raised their prices from 70 to 88 before tax but i think its still well worth it. They change the Omakase regularly so I have never had the same menu.

I will try and recount all the stuff we had coz there was so much. there were 10 courses but definitely not in the right order though i try...
1) appetizer started with pickled veggies - ok, nothing fantastic
2) silken tofu with uni - this was nice! maybe i am biased but i love uni!
3) fresh oyster with some japanese sauce - sweet fresh and delicious
4) momotaro tomato with sea salt - love the contrast of the salt against the sweet firm tomato
5) deep fried prawn with fried ginko nuts - this was so nice.. we all loved the combination of the prawns and nuts
6) assorted sashimi - can't remember what was in it but it was very fresh
7) a roast duck dish - not bad
8) the main was an entire fish cheek grilled nicely over charcoal. it was massive and quite honestly i am surprised they served each of us one huge cheek! lovely texture of the meat with the smokiness of the grilling
9) sushi - 3 kinds - can't remember what they were but they were all fresh + miso soup
10) green tea icecream

we ODed on sake - ended up with 2 720ml bottles which really brought the prices up. But if you are not a sake drinker your bill is pretty good as it will just be over 100 per person after tax.

I will be back there soon!

Having read about the newly introduced set lunches, I was excited to give it a try. The daily set lunch ($17) is a steal. The day of my visit, it was a gindara kaarage with maguro sashimi. But since I am the sushi whore, my mind was set on the sushi set ($38).

The sets came with 2 appetizers, miso soup, dessert and coffee or tea.

The appetizers :
1) potato and egg salad was very tasty with savoury bits of sliced ham, small chunks of potato, crunchy sliced cucumbers and celery. It was also not overly mayo'd.
2) tang hoon salad that was simply dressed with a sesame sauce.

The miso soup was also quite good. Tofu puffs, carrots and a slice of salmon belly gave the soup full of natural sweetness and body.

Alas, the sushi set was disappointing in the sense that it was obvious that there is a difference between sitting away from the counter in an obvious business lunch and at the sushi counter, where you can try to make friends with Chef W.

What that translated in reality was that the quality of the sushi 'neta' was just mediocre. The sore point of my sushi set was the maguro sushi. Instead of a smooth piece of hon maguro, I got a stringy cut. There was also no chutoro in sight.

Oh well!

To be fair, the 'neta' was sliced thick and generous compared to the rice. This allowed the flavour of the fish to come out and the seasoned sushi rice just melded really nicely to enhance the flavour further.

The dessert was a scoop of orange sherbet that was unfortunately way to sweet. I would definitely try to avoid this if there is a next time.

I am feeling "eh" about this place now.

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. :)

For Hachi's regular customers like I am, you need to know that the Hachi we knew and loved at Orchard Emerald has moved to Mohd Ali Lane, off Club Street. I found this out after making the reservation, fighting through orchard road traffic and showing at the dark, locked front door.

:) it was a little embarrassing too, cos i had a good friend with me and it was a treat for him.

But we called Hachi found out they moved and decided not to give it a miss. I was missing the izakaya atmosphere where we sit in front of the chef at the counter, pour him beer and sake from our bottles and attempt to chat about life in japan and sashimi in blundered japanese and english. and more importantly, i wanted to be surprised by the chef's menu. (At Hachi Orchard Emerald, you don't order the food. You eat what they bring you)

But alas. Or as the singaporeans would SMS "Haiz", the concept at the new premises has changed.

The space is bigger, more swanky and more like a usual mid-high end japanese restaurant with its lovely dark woods and cream furnishings. the sashimi counter is gone and hidden in the kitchen. The Chef from Kyushu does the serving (or perhaps that day he's on a break from the kitchen). The one thing thats taken me aback a little is THERE IS A MENU NOW. Hmm. i wonder why he's changed the concept but i was a little shy to ask.

I wasn't really paying attention to the menu cos i was busy asking the waitress if the Chef's degustation menu was still available. The moment she nodded i breathed a sigh of relief and handed back the menu. We came all this way to be fed what the chef thinks is best, not to just order another unagi don set.

We had 10 courses of delights at about $70++ per head. Whoever was cooking still had the touch of the Chef. Their understanding of ingredients came through clearly at the 5th dish - a turquoise coloured bowl with bright vermillion tomatoes roughly sliced. it had a sprinkling of sea salt on it. Doesn't sound too exciting... but that first slice of tomato got us both gasping and grinning and going "holy crap how did he know...?" The tomato was cold, sweet and with the salt it combined in the mouth in a thoroughly unique flavour. Other epiphany was the sashimi platter - key action point at this dish is the eat everything you see on the plate with the fish. There were shio leaves, chrystanuem flowers, wasabi flowers (i think) - when eaten with the sashimi next to it and a dab of soya, the condiments added another layer of flavours on top of the fish.

We also had a small bowl of clam soup- really light and flavourful, sucked at the bones of a fish skeleton deep fried and dipped in a ponzu sauce (chef left a layer of meat too!), an amazing stew of black pig, charcoal-grilled eggplant in a tasty sauce that we slurped up.

We ended dinner with skinny cold and hot udon and ice cream (red bean - soso only, black sesame- good stuff).

So the food didn't disappoint and the staff wer patient and friendly (we were the last to leave and still they didn't hound us).

But i do miss the ambience of the previous location - limited tight spaces, proximity to the sashimi slicing action and having a sake with the Kyushu chef who opens up as the night progresses - that is the kind of stuff that makes a great meal unforgettable.