Shin Kushiya (VivoCity)

I have to agree with Pheurie P that the standard of the yakitori at this place was not far from a total disappointment, especially at the prices they charge for each stick. That's about an average of about 3 bucks for the usual meat on a stick, and about 6-9 bucks for more 'premium' dishes.

The beef tongue was an absolute joke. A few miserable, shrivelled lukewarm pieces of meat on a little plate for about 8 bucks. We couldn't even tell from the taste and consistency whether it was tongue - it might just as well have been overcooked liver.

The golden mushrooms wrapped in pork, which is usually a favourite with us, looked good but didn't taste that great. The mushrooms and meat were somehow clumped together such that there was no crunch to the bite, and I suspect the mushrooms may not have been that fresh as well. The same criticism applies to the mushrooms stuffed with meat paste.

The garlic fried rice (about $5), which we ordered as a filler, tasted so bland that we might as well have ordered white rice.

On the other hand, to be fair, there were a couple of promising dishes such as the foie gras at $8.80/stick (then again, very few places manage to screw up on grilling foie gras) and the chicken thigh at about $6/stick. The oysters wrapped in pork weren't bad, although they were a little dry.

As Wonderdoggy has pointed out, this restaurant seems to have been designed to pass off sub-par food to the unwary masses who have not yet had the chance to have proper yakitori. For these prices, I might as well have gone to Shunjuu, Satsuma or a host of other places which actually serve much better food for a relatively marginal difference in the cost.

Imagine a dimly lit cosy corner with sleek black table and simple - but expensive chairs - to the soft romantic strains of Japanese orchestra with a good view of a starlit sky.

Well that's not what this place is about. This is Singapore, where to find stars??? No, those purportedly on caldecott hill don't exactly count.

The decor is nice enough, but the booths are not private enough. I got a seat with my friend right NEXT to two women and we were separated by a translucent silk curtain.

Yes, so all night long, we got to listen to how Judy went out with Steve from purchasing without telling Cheng Soon her on-off boyfriend who is now probably ex-bf given how the human resource girls on the 17th floor found them kissing in the pantry on the 23rd. well you get the picture, just add liberal doses of snorts and sniggers and u get pretty much my entertainment for the night.

The food is above-average - if you are lucky not to get the lemons (figuratively, not the real citrus kind pumped full of vitamic c goodness).

The foie gras - fatty on a stick - is a delight. As they should be, at $8.80 a stick with two pieces of liver. Crispy and aromatic woody scent on the outside, oily juicy and slippery buttery heaven on the inside. It was great! Even better than the ones I had at Kazu and Wahiro.

The Wagyu beef - at $32 a serving - was miserable. I can't help but compare that with the grilled wagyu cubes at Kazu. You'd get more bang for the buck if u get the ones at Kazu.
Nonetheless, it was tender and juicy but miserably thin. Imagine my shock when my rather health conscious friend was picking out the fatty strips fastidiously before eating them, the meat, not the fatty strips.

The salmon fish head in sake was pretty good although i didn't taste the alcohol at all. still, the flesh was juicy and bereft of the normal dryness and flakiness one tend to find in other grilled fish.

The yakitori - pork belly sticks, gingko nuts, salmon belly - were pretty run of the mill unfortunately. they weren't bad, just.. not good enough.

And now for the service, bad bad bad.

they are friendly enough and attentive to a certain extent - meaning longer attention span than a humming bird. but my attempt to remind them to get my fish head took three tries and it came well after we finished everything and were debating if we should get dessert.

getting iced water was also a major pain. we were well into the fourth dish when it came and we had to repeatedly get their attention before the drinks came.

all in, it was about $100 for 2 sans sake - which they had an extensive list although we didnt feel like having it

Okay, so we finally stepped into this place, stone-grill, skewers etc.

I had put off writing this as I was rather traumatized by the little worm that visited us on a nice bed of Salmon/lettuce sushi (Spicy Salmon Maki) thinking he owned the garden.

This cavernous place doesn't feel like the urbanized Vivo at all. Liked the curtains though. They were rather interesting to have at a restaurant.
The rest of the food was ok. Loved the salmon belly skewer.

Well, we were happily digging into the chawanmushi and the donburi when this non-descript waitress set the plate of sushi in front of us. None of us noticed anything different.

Suddenly, my boy pointed and when I looked. I was speechless. Okay, maybe I should have screamed and fainted, and maybe we'd get more out of this. (You'll see why I say that).

We signaled to a waitress who amazingly remained composed (the worm looked abit like those white ikan bilis. It had the CHEEK to wiggle to and fro facing my boy and me as though he were saying "Hi! Who are you two?!) And then one of the supervisors started fussing over us. WHO SAYS SERVICE RECOVERY ENTAILS MORE OFFERS OF COMPLIMENTARY FOOD.

We took our same order back (despite my apprehension at eating the new plate - I only had 1 piece.) BUT THE WAITER GAVE US COMPLIMENTARY DESSERT. Hey. When we order enough to eat. You give us more. We'll waste. I couldn't even eat another bite when he set 2 mini desserts in front of us. I simply told him. I'm full. Guess what he said:"It's ok, it'll be thrown away anyway." Now, what's that supposed to mean? I'm a dustbin?

I'd take a discount anytime. No Food please.