Sushi Tei, Raffles City

Armed with a $30 voucher and a free-and-easy Good Friday, we decided to go to Sushi Tei for lunch. Sushi Tei for me has always been that 'decent' mid-range Japanese food chain. We arrived close to 12pm, and there was already quite a number of people - mostly families.

To start, we had the sashimi salad with sushi tei dressing. I had earlier discovered that this dish gives you quite liberal amounts of sashimi (salmon, tuna, octopus, squid, other random fish) and is therefore excellent value for money at <$10! I particularly like the dressing, which is a bit light and miso-infused. We tossed in half the dressing and dunked the rest of the sashimi in wasabi soy.

I was recently converted to loving Nattou (納豆) - that little fermented bean bugger. Stinky, sticky, mushy and lovely, it's a good start to a sushi set. Sushi tei's one was ok.

We finally decided to delve into the realm of aburi (炙り) - which basically means flame broiling with a flamethrower. The white slab of swordfish (めかじき)combined with a light taste of burnt fat gave it an interesting taste! Unfortunately swordfish doesn't have much fat to begin with, it was good nonetheless but we both preferred swordfish raw.

We also ordered dashimaki tamago (だし巻き卵) - and while it is essentially a compressed/folded omelette, this was sweet (from dashi), fluffy and soft. Much nicer on its own methinks (without any sushi rice getting in the way).

Aburi salmon roll to complete the aburi experience! This was much yummier than the swordfish version - there is just something divine about slightly charred, flaky salmon that melts in your mouth. However there was just too much going on here - the salmon is wrapped around avocado, crabstick and cucumber, and then topped with roe and drizzled with some mayo thing. Would have been much better by itself, or with rice. But then again this is some sort of in-house specialty, so..

Still feeling peckish, we ordered the 'up' unagi (上鰻). I was delighted by the generous portions - but upon first bite realised it was cold from the sushi belt. Still good, but should have been a bit warmer for total enjoyment!

This interesting little Champs-Élysées sushi was fried prawn roll with fish floss. Crunchy fried prawn wrapped with a little mayo, and coated with mucho fish floss. I quite liked it but Bunny didn't really fancy. Should refrain from ordering sushi without raw fish next time.

Pleasant and cheap sushi (because of the voucher!), Sushi Tei's standard has been quite consistent and they do have interesting items on the menu from time to time. Being mid-range (which for japanese food, is already expensive), don't be expecting too much!

HGW Link: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/sushi_tei_raffles_city/