Tetsu Japanese Restaurant

Following my virgin taste testing session that took place at Persimmon, HFB was honoured to be invited to another launch at TETSU ("哲"), which has just opened its doors at Tanglin Mall.

Japanese cuisine aficionados will rejoice a first of its kind authentic Kushi-style Tempura along with Tonkatsu menu, prepared “LIVE” before their eyes. Seated at specially designed counter bars that are in close proximity to the chef who deftly prepares their Tempura and Tonkatsu, diners get to enjoy a visual feast right before their eyes.

Diners can have a choice from a wide array of freshest seafood, meats and vegetables prepared either Kushi-age style (Skewered with Breaded Batter) or Kushi-tem style (Skewered with Tempura Batter).

In order to recreate the most authentic Japanese dining experience, TETSU has partnered up with one of the most established restaurant groups in Japan with 48 restaurants and employing over 1400 people.

The Hana Group, renowned for their authentic Japanese cuisine and has been advising TETSU in all aspects of their restaurant.

The night was kick-started with an appetiser off the menu, the Cold Tofu with Century Egg and Ebi Roe. It was surprisingly a good dish to start off with as the combination of the heavy century egg and soft tofu attempts to tickle your palate along with the salty exploding sensation of the ebi roe when one bites into it.

The Edamame ($4.00) like others are nothing to shout about, but something that stood out was the aestheticism of the dish, which is visually evident in all the subsequent dishes – it is only then that I found out that TETSU prides itself on offering the most authentic Japanese dining experience, taking it down even to the smallest of details.

The layout of the Kaiseki sets and even the art of serving up these gourmet sets are specially formulated in Japan, to ensure that diners can get the full “LIVE” experience, at the best value. In addition, much of the restaurant’s tableware are all specially flown in from Japan.

Moreover, the good thing about the Kushi-age Soft Shell Crab ($3.00 per serving) is that it does not come oil soaked, although I would prefer it to be slightly meatier.

One might also be intrigued to know that in TETSU, one also get a choice of three dips for their deep-fried food – Tonkutsu sauce, Japanese Mayo and Curry Salt.

Onsentamago To Tofu Salad, or Half-boiled (Hot Spring-styled) Egg & Tofu Salad ($13.50) is another dish that is dedicatedly prepared by the chef – using their bare hands to measure the temperature of the water cooking the eggs, and the eggs only taken out of the cooking water when the water is too hot for their hands to handle.

The only non-authentic dish that we tried that night was probably their Salmon Carpaccio with French Dressing ($18.00). Although the salmon was very fresh and comes with a very nice bite, I feel that the dressing was slightly too sour for me – let’s just say that I prefer sashimi the way it is.

Highly recommended was their Rosu Katsu (A set served with Salad, Pickles, Rice, Miso Soup and Dessert cost $24.50). Similar to Tonkichi, one is also given a bowl of Roasted Sesame Seeds to grind and add to the Tonkutsu sauce.

The sampling of their second deep-fried dish convinced me that their cooking and preparation technique is indeed accomplished. Although I pride Tampopo’s Black Pork Katsu to be the best in taste of texture due to its marbling fats, TETSU’s version comes a close second - one do not really sample the oily aftertaste in the batter.

It was then I was told that TETSU’s chefs have undergone intensive training in the chain’s headquarters in Japan. The attention paid to the preparation of Tempura and Tonkatsu is meticulous – TETSU chefs strictly ensure that all preparation techniques, from marination, to the type of batter and oil, to the time of frying, adhere to their timeless traditional Japanese recipes.

The Roll Sushi ($18.00 for 6 pieces) was another item that was painstaking prepared in many process. One would probably mistook it for a salmon roll sushi if one weren’t told that the filling also consists of scallop and tuna, as the saltiness of the cooked salmon seeks to over-whelmed it. However having said that, it was still a pretty enjoyable sushi roll due to the crunchy batter and the aromatic Sesame Seeds and pairing of Ebi Roe.

The Kushi-style cuisine is very popular in Japan because the skewer-style makes it easy for customers eat and enjoy their sake, shoju or wine at the same time.

However to be honest, by the time the Kaiseki Set Course B ($45.00) consisting of 4 Assorted Appetisers, Stick Vegetables, Kani-Suki (Paper Pot Crab Sukiyaki), Kushi-age or Kushi-Tem, Udon and Dessert arrived, I was pretty much filled up and my palate started to fail me.

However, one thing I remembered clearly was the very unique Japan-imported Udon that gives one a very chewy bite – one has to try it to truly understand what I mean.

Disclaimer: No ratings would be given, as this is an invited taste test. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Pris and TETSU for their generous hospitality.

You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.

Tetsu, opening its doors at Tanglin Mall on January 17, 2008, pride themselves in serving Kushi-Tempura and Kushi-Katsu. Their concept is based on a “LIVE” preparation in front of you by their chefs, who have intensive training in their Japanese Headquarters.

The first impression upon stepping into Tetsu is really nice decorations. Contemporary yet not too modernize till the extend of losing the authentic Japanese feel. Chic furnishings like the curtains, and decors in the restaurant. The whole place exudes an elegant feel with its classy and clean look.

Tetsu certainly does not fits the bill with association to Food Junction, your local food courts isn’t it? But the truth is, Tetsu is actually owned and operate by Food Junction. Surprise surprise, i was quite astonished by this fact when i first heard of it. But i am pleased Food Junction is finally making full use to leverage on its experience and connections in the Food & Beverage Industry, to provide us the consumers with a wider variety of choices to dine at.

The counter bars in Tetsu are specially designed in such a way that diners can seat in close proximity to the chef, who will prepared their feast up for them, well its not just the stomach feast alone, there’s the visual feast right before you.

I was invited by Miss Pris Yap, who’s the consultant for Tetsu for a food tasting session. Here i will like to put Disclaimer first, the review written herein will not be influence simply because this is a food tasting session. Whatever written herein is the Frank and Honest opinions of my friend and i who went to Tetsu for the occasion.

We had the assurance from Miss Yap that they will seek our honest opinion to improve Tetsu, and that every visit to Tetsu will be the same, the food will not look or taste specially good just because this is a food tasting event.

My food dining partner joins me for Tetsu, and she’s a lover of Japanese food, so the review will be a combination of what both of us felt about the meal.

There’s also a VIP room which u can actually make a reservation to book it if you have a certain number of guests, around 10 at least if i’m not wrong.

At Tetsu, there are affordable set lunches from the Jubako, Katsu, Tempura,Sakana (fish) which are in the 20s to 30s price range. I’ll say the set meals are definitely value-for-money.

There is also the designer Kaiseki sets available. Kaiseki is an 5 course set, made up of 4 seasonal appetizers, designer salad, premium kushi-style main course, imported udon from Japan, and dessert at a mere $35. Of course there are more expensive options of the Kaiseki sets going at $45 and $55.

A wide range of Sake, Shoju, and wine are also available to go along with the food. We didn’t had any Sake because it was still early in the afternoon. Perhaps next time!

Salmon Carpaccio ($18)
For appetizer to start off our meal at Tetsu, we had the Salmon Carpaccio with french dressing. Carpaccio originated from Italy, and its usually slices of beef, tuna, or veal traditionally thinly sliced or pounded thin, with olive oil or vinaigrette drizzled over it.

We’ll preferred the carpaccio to be slice thinner, the thick and generous slices of the carpaccio at Tetsu is almost akin to sashimi portions. For people who like sashimi, they will probably have mixed feelings for this dish because usually sashimi lovers like the clean and fresh taste of the fish, and its raw texture on its own, but for this salmon, it has a french dressing on it.

Nonetheless, the Salmon Carpaccio is quite fresh, and with the current Citibank promotion, receive this as a complimentary with a minimum spending of $50.

The Salmon Carpaccio is an interesting take on fusion japanese & italian appetizer (although this is done with french dressing). The french dressing helps to balances the richness of the salmon with the complex sweet and sour taste of the dressing, the contrast between the taste is definitely appealing.

Roll sushi 6 Pieces ($18)
The roll sushi is covered with crunchy sesame seeds, but on the other end the sushis can actually can get quite dry. My friend thought that if the roll sushi comes with some sauce it will be perfect.

Traditionally sushi rolls are supposed to be eaten in one mouthful by putting the whole sushi inside. But the sushi here is a tad too big, so we couldn’t really fit it into our mouth.

Apparently it has salmon and scallops inside, though when mixed together the scallops taste can’t really be felt. The blend of crunchy sesame seeds and tobiko makes its quite yummy though. However at $18 for 6 pieces, it is considered rather expensive. Have this if you have the extra budget to spend on A la carte.

Onsentamago Tofu Salad ($13.50)
Onsen Tamago is hot spring egg. The eggs here are cooked slowly in hot water, so the whites are still soft while the yolks just slightly cooked. Blended together with tofu and sesame sauce, the combination offers a very refreshing approach to the normal salad.

The salad is served by mixing the egg together with the greens and tofu. A good appetizer if you are like us, prefer runny eggs.

Thats all for our A la carte starters, just to recap, we had the Salmon Carpaccio, the roll sushi and the Onsentamago Tofu Salad. All these three appetizers are ordered from the A la carte menu and are not in the set meals which are coming up next.

Rosu Katsu Set ($24.50)
The Rosu Katsu (Pork Loin) set is the actual main course that we are having for our lunch. There are two options for the Katsu set, you can choose from either the Rosu Katsu (pork loin) or the Hire Katsu (fillet katsu). Pork loin is fatter than fillet katsu in nature, which makes it more tender than Hire Katsu.

Another interesting point to note, besides the usual sauce that comes with the Katsu, Tetsu provides an alternative, the curry powder to go along with the pork loin. The curry powder is another option if you are sick of the usual sauce, however the powder here is quite on the salty side, so just dipped into it slightly.

The katsu is specially imported from Japan, lightly fried to produce a crust that is light but yet double the thickness of the usual katsu. The meat is marinated for 3 days to ensure its tasty and succulent texture.

Famed for their Katsu, the Kushi-age style (skewered with breaded batter) certainly lives up to expectations. The breaded style of the katsu is really good, the panko crumbs on it is very light which gives it a melt-in-your-mouth feel.

Furthermore, the katsu here has a generous cut, unlike some restaurants which cut the pork into very thin slices. At $24.50, the Rosu Katsu set is really a steal, definitely good value for money!

Fresh greens
The fresh greens are the appetizer which comes along with the Katsu set. Basically its a run of the mill salad with japanese sesame salad dressing, ordinary but yummy.

My partner likes the dressing for its slightly tangy but yet salty taste, and the texture of the sauce is creamy. But for me, i’m more of a fan for oily italian salad dressings, so this salad didn’t quite work out for me.

Kaiseki Set Course B ($45)
The Kaiseki Dinner course B comes with assorted 4 on a palatte as its appetizer, stick vegetable, Crab sukiyaki for the paper pot, with tempura as the main, and udon or rich, served with a dessert.

The main difference between course A ($35) and B ($45) is 10 bucks, with the addition of the Crab Sukiyaki. And the differiential between B ($45) and C ($55) is that C has an addition tuna carpaccio.

For our main course in the Kaiseki set B, the tempura is done kushi-tem style (tempura). It comes with six tempura, prawn, salmon, pork, beef, scallop and vegetables.

Tetsu is being known for its Katsu and Tempura aspects, and to tell the truth, we found the tempura to be quite a disappointment as we had expected better things from them. Right, the prawn was a bit small, not fat enough for a tempura, we didn’t get the “kick”from eating the prawn.

The Salmon (beside the prawn) was done better than the appetizer in the course.

My partner love the fresh air-flown scallop from Japan.

The seasonal vegetables are zuchinni and okra which my partner found it to be all right, but i didn’t like my vegetables to do it in this way, i prefer them green!

The pork and beef were quite average too. One thing that my partner concluded was if the mains are done in Kushi-age (breaded) rather than the one we had Kushi-tem (tempura), we felt that it will be definitely be better.

We felt that the tempura batter had nice texture, but it wasn’t seasoned enough, so it was quite tasteless for us. Nevertheless the batter is very light, not that oily and it didn’t leave any oily aftertaste that mediocre tempuras do.

The only reason we can conclude for the disappointment in the Tempura is because we had such high hopes for them, so even they are quite good, but they didn’t come out as well as we are expecting. You should try the Kushi-age (breaded) for this main!

Assorted 4 on palette
This is the appetizer for the course B. One thing that i liked about the starters in Tetsu course meal is that they are changed regularly because the chef will always pick the freshest ingredient for the current season.

The appetizer is suppose to comes in the different flavors, sweet, salty, and sour. Specially designed to tantalize your taste buds and “prepared” them for the main course.

I like the zesty chicken too which comes with orange and lemon flavour to provide the sour-ish taste.

My partner didn’t like the Salmon teriyaki, she preferred the tamago and prawn which helps to the sweet flavoring of the salmon.

Cod is done with miso, to give the salty flavor.

Stick vegetables
The Stick Vegetables also comes part of the Kaiseki set B. Its just your normal vegetables, but it comes with a soy-bean like sauce.

Kani-Suki (Crab Sukiyaki)
The prelude to the main, there’s the snow crab legs which are filled with snowy sweet white meat. However we lamented the fact that there is only two crab legs.

The Japanese straw mushroom is always nice in sukiyaki. And the soup base here is nicer than the other sukiyaki we tried before. It tasted sweet but not excessively so till its artificial.

Inaniwa Udon (warm)
The Inaniwa Udon is also imported from Japan. but the warm udon had a nice soup base so it’s good for rainy days.

Inaniwa Udon (cold) ($6.80)
The udon is not the fat kind, and its sort of flat like ipoh hor fun, nice and slippery! One of the udon comes with the Kaiseki set, and we ordered another one to try both the cold and hot udon.

Banana Tempura & Ice ($7.80)
In our frank opinion, the banana tempura is a ripped-off. For two pieces of banana tempura, we can get better ones at the hawker center at 50 cents each. Certainly not worth the price tag of $7.80!

Kisetsu ice & Warabimochi Monaka ($7.80)
This dessert fares slightly better than the Banana tempura. The combination of the Japanese Mochi with one scoop of normal vanilla ice cream is quite good, but still not worth the hefty price that comes along with it.

Kokonatsu Milk Purin ($5.80)
We concluded that the Kokonatsu milk purin, or coconut pudding is the best among the three desserts. This pudding is something new to us, not your usual run of the mill Japanese dessert which you commonly find in Singapore Japanese restaurants even though its supposed to be a classic Japanese dessert.

Coconut flavor wasnt that strong, we like the sublet flavor! hmm it was really pudding not creamy so i dont really like it
The coconut pudding is good to try for novelty, and it comes with the Kaiseki course set anyway, so there’s no need to order additional dessert.

Tetsu is certainly a nice place to try if you are looking for Japanese food. The set meals are really value-for-money, and the Kaisekis course meals, although heavier in price tag, but they provide more in variety and quality also. We felt that if its two person going to Tetsu, you can either order two set meals, or order one Kaisekis Course meals, and something from the A la carte menu.

The reasonable and affordable pricing at Tetsu means that you will no longer need to spend a bomb for your favourite Japanese food anymore. Tetsu offers a really chic environment, quite unlike your traditional Japanese restaurant. Its an excellent place to either bring a date for her cravings of Japanese food, or a group of friends where you can chill out with the selections of Sake, Shoju, and wine.

My friend and i, plus Miss Yap had a great afternoon enjoying and discussing about Japanese food, restaurants, and some off-topic conservations. We were so full from the meal! My thanks to Miss Yap for inviting us to a wonderful lunch experience at Tetsu.

And one other thing which I noticed, when we went in during 12 noon on a Monday afternoon, there wasn’t much people in the restaurant. But when the clock ticks towards two, the crowd starts coming in already. So you will be fine if you go during normal lunch hour, but still better to make a reservation.

I’ll certainly revisit Tetsu to try out their other stuff, maybe i will have the Kaisekis done in Kushi-age style (breaded) the next time! Tetsu’s at Tanglin Mall level 3, and remember to use your Citicard to get the free Salmon Carpaccio!

All in all, the Katsu is excellent! Its really a must-try if you visit Tetsu. The other fame of Tetsu, their Tempura leaves more to be desired, we felt that their Kushi-age style is better than the Kushi-Tem style. Nevertheless, the Kaisekis course meals are still value for quality. The desserts area is the part which i felt Tetsu must really improve on if i were to go back for a revisit. Being a big fan of any dessert, i must have a nice dessert after every meal. And the desserts selection there can’t quite make it for now.

I highly recommended and advise you to go to ladyironchef to read on this post, simply because the post is way too long, and there are many more nice photos of the food!

” Singapore’s First LIVE Kushi-style Tonkatsu & Tempura restaurant “

I've been on a quest to find good tonkatsu since coming back from a trip to Japan some months back.

I think this is it. I had actually ordered the hire katsu (pork fillet) set because my calorie counting conscience chose to rear its head at the most unfortunate time. The hire katsu was not bad and I thought the batter was fluffy and tasty. But OMG. I took a piece of the rosu katsu from someone else.....and was completely bowled over. THAT was so full of taste, juicy and creamy, with just the right combination of fat and meat. I don't know what they put into the meat man...opium??? It was very very good.

Our party of six had also ordered an assortment of things to share, ranging from tofu (both steamed and fried) to a number of skewers. Those were not bad as well and I would return to try more skewers.

Service was very prompt and friendly. The place had an up-market feel. I remember peering in some months back and thinking that the food would be too pricey for me. But really, prices were fairly reasonable.

Well done.