Yayoiken, Liang Court

 Had a craving for some simple and cheap Japanese food so a quick google later we decided to check out Yayoiken at Liang Court. Lots of Japanese restaurants for the picking at Liang Court (and Central nearby), so this place mustn't be that bad!

 Located in the basement just near the Meidi-Ya supermarket, I was hoping for some place with sashimi / sushi, but turns out it was a don / tonkatsu place instead, kinda like Ootoya. No biggie - either way works!

 Starving and late-ish for dinner (after 8) we made our orders and waited patiently and were sadly reduced to eating pickled vegetables. Fair number of Japanese locals dining here, as well Japanese locals waitering here as well, which is always nice!

{ Miso Katsu Set ($13.90) }

Simmered pork cutlet with miso paste set

 I settled for the Miso Katsu Set (apparently they use some special miso ... forgot what!) - your familiar tonkatsu simmered in miso sauce, with a side of egg, potatoes, and your rice and miso soup. Sadly, no salad or free-flow miso soup / rice like other tonkatsu places! But no matter cos we were pretty stuffed when we were finished. While the miso sauce was great (and really salty of course) the katsu was generous but fatty, definitely the cheaper cut of cutlet but what'd you'd expect for the price.

On retrospect I shouldn't have ordered the miso katsu and should have gone for the regular katsu - while you don't get the oily aftertaste of a regular katsu, the soggy crust kinda takes away the oomph of it as well. Much prefer my katsu crunchy with proper sauce and mustard!

{ Pork mix toji set ($13.90) }

Sliced pork, fried prawn and pork cutlet topped with egg set

 I ordered the mix toji set with pork (you can also opt for beef), simply because I felt like having something sauce-y on rice. Underneath the gravy and egg are slices of pork belly, pork katsu and the prawn-tail fritter things. It was okaaay. I mean everything becomes a soggified mess, which kinda takes away the enjoyment of the deep fried items. The bowl of rice that came with this seemed smaller than other places, but not an issue for me either.

We decided to have dessert elsewhere (the crepe kiosk outside) as the selection was a bit limited here.

Yayoiken is alright.. but won't really go out of our way again to come back - and I suppose there are a lot more options for other 'real' Japanese food in Liang Court.

Yayoiken
Liang Court, 177 River Valley Road, #B1-50

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Main website : http://www.yayoiken.sg/
HGW Link (100% recommended at time of writing) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Yayoiken_Japanese_Restaurants__Liang_Court/
Rating (out of 4) :