Came here with the parents out-of-the-blue. My mom kind of likes Japanese, so we figured why not. They've got two menus at lunchtime - the ala carte and the sets. Suggestion is to go for the sets - they do offer a fair variety that is more value for money, especially compared to the ala carte.

My mom and I are boring. We both ordered the salmon sashimi and tempura lunch set ($36 each). It comes with one plate of salmon sashimi slices (beautifully decorated on a bed of crushed ice, I must add!), one plate of assorted tempura - three prawns, one piece of lotus root, one piece of brinjal, half a piece of mushroom, two pieces of asparagus and a fan-like battered object which my mom believes to be tempura-ed noodle strands. That is quite a lot of tempura, trust me. Also comes with the usual bowl of white steamed rice (very fragrant and tasty), one bowl of miso soup, one bowl of steamed egg custard (yummy!), pickles, a salad, a choice of coffee or tea, and dessert (a scoop of green tea ice-cream).

And yes, the food was pretty good. Sashimi was fresh, tempura was tasty... And boy was the meal heavy. There was just so much food. Even the service was top-notch, with the service staff being attentive to us, refilling our green tea without prompting, and even allowing my mom to change her order even just before the first order was being served to her.

The only downside - possibly the ala cartes. My father ordered the unagi don, which is four slices of grilled eel on a bed of rice, and a side of miso soup. According to him, the eel was fresh and delicious. But his order also came to the same price as our set - $36.

Moral? Unless you want the exotic like yellowtail sashimi, it's better to get a set for the most out of your meal.

Both me and my other half ordered their set dinner which was quite value for money. My Kuriya set dinner came with assorted sashimi, rice, miso soup, chawanmushi, assorted tempura and yakitori. All for like $52++ The unagi yakitori was gd. Sashimi was quite fresh.

My other half ordered the wagyu beef sukiyaki set. Excellent beef!! One of the better wagyu beef we had and at such reasonable price of $68++ it also came with sashimi and dessert.

Service was alright though they were not v prompt with topping up the tea and the tea was cold =_=

We've always ordered a la carte at Kuriya (especially from its seasonal menu) but feeling adventurous and desiring variety, we decided on the monthly course (abt 8 items) at our most recent dinner there.

May's course included

1) some creative items -- shrimp wrapped around an egg yolk (the yolk seemed to have been steamed/poached and was rectangularin shape), rice wrapped in bamboo leaf (rice was too sweet), some green soy jelly.

2) the more traditional items such as its 4 types of sashimi, grilled cod, chiraishi (tuna, salmon, swordfish on a bed of Japanese rice), vegetable tempura all met expectations in terms of freshness and crispness.
Only gripe was the sashimi having only a small piece of amaebi..

It could be due to the late hour but I thought that the course could have been served more leisurely, where the next item is served only after the last item was completed. Would have been a more fine dining experience..

Since we were famished, we also ordered the fresh sea urchin in sea water ($40), soft shell crab roll ($12) and our usual fav garlic fried rice.

Most memorable dish was definitely the sea urchin. I thought the uni I had in Inagiku was the best but this tops that! The uni came soaked in a glass bowl of sea water resting on a bed of ice. One can see the sponginess of each uni (unlike some places where it just looks like a glob) and that raised my expectations. The melt-in-my-mouth texture and freshness made the $40 worth it ;)

The soft shell crab roll was a bit disappointing with the soft shell crab kinda soft. Another thing to note is the sauce; unless you can take spicy (very!), stick with the mayo.

I like Kuriya's garlic fried rice for its almond chips - gives a nice bite/crunch to the dish!

i had eaten dinner at here before( 2005) , which was quite good then.. the sushi was not that bad when i ordered alacarte..

but fast forward to sometime in 2006..
i went to try their set lunch sushi set $25 bucks.. then came the disaster.. the sushi they served were very bad(the toppings they used were all low grade stuff , normal ebi, salmon etc).. like those u could get in the supermarket... total waste of money... i should have went to isetan and grab some sushi instead...

Can't remember why Mum and I were in Orchard on a weekday afternoon - might have been one of those periods when we just needed a break and decided to hang out together when everyone else was working. Anyway, we did the girly thing - ladies at lunch. Picked Kuriya cos we were zonked out from Isetan, and went for the set lunch, which we heard was good value for money. It was! The food was very fresh, and I think the menu keeps changing, which is clever.