Itacho Sushi 板长寿司

Soft shell crab and maki rice is a grear, wonderful complement that is so delicious to the tastebuds! Love the crispy, freshly fried soft shel crabs that is wrapped with chrunchy cucumbers and soft white japanese rice. The outside of the maki is not wrapped with the usual seaweed but rather it is covered with flavourful pork floss! Add a piece of giner and a dash pf soya sauce and the maki is perfect.

This outlet at ION is popular, everytime long queue, and usually have to queue earlier. But the wait is worth it, as the food is good.

I like their Aji (mackerel), their roasted fatty salmon (at the counter), their scallops (the normal-sized one), the eel, the Hirame (flounder) and the Tamago (egg). Go for the fresh sashimi of the season, you won't regret it.

I'm disappointed with their Hamachi, and Ikura though I usually love yellow tail and salmon eggs, but somehow theirs don't fit my taste. Avoid the cooked dishes, stick with the sushis. And generally avoid the cheap promotions, they are cheap for a reason...

2013-04-07

SGD 30(Lunch)

Itacho has been (and still is) one of my favourite places to go to for sushi, especially their roasted salmon/salmon sushi -really divine and at reasonable prices of approximately $1.20 per piece too. Today I decided to try their lunch set and opt for the $9.90 Sakura Don which consists of diced tamago, assorted fish and Japanese cucumber on a bed of rice, served with miso soup. The sakura don was slightly disappointing, the rice was slightly too wet (presumably with the fish and the cucumber) and I found bone in my fish (considering it was chopped into small piece I thought it was off-putting). Other than that, the portion was substantial, the serving of the fish to vegetable/egg ratio was decent, and the miso soup was hot with ample seaweed and leek in it. For it's price at $9.90, I would say you get what you pay for and it's a decent set meal. 3.5/5

The soy sauce salmon sushi was at a half-price promotion when I went, meaning that instead of 80cents per piece it is now 40cents. Itacho also limits it to 2 per person! Once again, I was disappointed by this. The salmon barely had any meat at all, just fatty (skin?). It also had a slightly fishy smell, had no particular flavour whatsoever and even though the rice was compact, the fish was neither cold nor warm and tasted on the whole, like eating slightly-salty fatty skin. Will never eat this again even though it's one of the cheaper selections. 2/5

Ambience wise, it is definitely a nice, chill place. Furnished with wooden tables, it all has a pretty zen feel to the restaurant save for the bustling chaos during peak dining hours. You also get a drink (hot/cold green tea) on the house when you order more than $10 per head. The hot green tea is nothing fantastic (tea bag green tea), but it complements the sushi. Don't expect stellar service here, you'll be lucky if you received exceptionally good service -after all, people come here for the food not the staff.

I would recommend the sushi instead of the sets -try the salmon, roasted salmon and shrimp egg, I had a far better experience with them! The quality of the sushi is good for the price, and it's also great to share when you order an assortment. Price wise, expect to pay around $20+ per person at least for the sushi if you're trying out a few types. Do note that for reservations, min spend is $25 per head and if you don't end up spending $25 you'll have to takeaway sushi to make up for the balance/order more. Not ideal, but given that Itacho is high in demand, I wouldn't be surprised they have this policy.

2013-04-15

SGD 14(Lunch)

As per the title, the salmon with soy sauce sushi is only available for order of 2 pieces per diner (40cents each). It looks more like salmon with skin though and taste like fatty tuna where the salmon melts when bitten. Also tried the roast duck breast sushi ($1.50), roasted salmon sushi ($1.20), spicy salmon sakura inari sushi ($1.90), curry lobster with tobiko ($1.30) and whole sea eel ($6.50). I especially like the whole sea eel, simple with just the thin unagi and thick sauce. The curry lobster did have a strong indian curry smell but it came with wasabi so i didn't really like it. The roast duck is served as a slice on top of the rice with a nice pink color to it. Service wise i wouldn't rate it to high as our waitress was kind of not warm enough for a restaurant service staff....she shd at least put on a smile

2013-04-15

SGD 14(Lunch)

This restaurant outlet at ION is very popular, everytime long queue, must wait quite awhile to get in to eat. Hence, have to queue earlier. But the wait is worthwhile, as the food is good. I am a fan of japanese food, especially salmon sashimi. The restaurant's green tea that they serve is the genuine one, which smells and tastes nice. Not really into green tea but here is an exception. This place is a MUST try for its sushi, and once again I would try japanese curry food, and itacho sushi does it well too.

I love japanese food and Itacho Sushi has really affordable sushi. The sushi is priced at a reasinable price and the quality of the ingredients are not too bad. however, the serving portions may vary from branch to branch. The salmon roll is not bad as the sushi rice is wrapped around succulent, fresh sashimi!! Their sushi on promotion also changes hence giving the restaurant a good variety of food.

The restaurant have a very welcoming design with a strong Japanese theme and accessories to give a much Japanese feel to the customers. But the seats are actually quite limited and one thing I found it bad is that the staff do not really helps you to refill your tea automatically at all. I will need to ask for refill a few times before they will refill our drinks which I felt disappointed about the restaurant.This dish is just normal for me, nothing special as I still prefer the one selling at Kazokutei.This is one dish which I felt worth the money spend, the sashimi is very fresh and the tender of the Salmon belly is one of the best I have eaten so far.Fresh salmon are being roasted using a strong gas fire which made it a bit cooked on the outer layer of the meat but still having that nice texture of Salmon sashimi feel. Nice dish indeed.Slices of Avocado mixed with lettuce, crab meat, cherry tomato and egg topped with some mayonnaise. Not a bad dish and actually if they used some fat free salad sauce would be better.

2012-08-30

After patronizing so many of it chains outlets, i still prefer this pioneer outlet located in ION Orchard and I have benched mark the food standard according to ION Outlet. Once we stepped into Itacho, we will never fail to order lots of dishes and it will covered up the whole of our tables.

Food
They served quality Japanese food as compared to other outlet. You can forget about Sakae Sushi.

Fried Soft Shell Crab - $7.00
Not too Oily and it tastes fresh as compared to other outlet. At least it wont feel like eating fried soft shell crab that had been left there for hours.Lobster & Mango salad roll - $4.50
The combination of lobster with a slice of mango on top tastes good.
Cooling mango at the first bite.Roasted egg with curry lobster - $3.80
Itacho sushi is an outlet which serves a variety choices of Tamago as compared to other Sushi outlets. Sweet tasting egg with lobster and abit of curry fragrance feels local to me.Roasted Egg (Tamago) - $2.40
Original choice of roasted egg without any fillings. Roasted Eel - $2.80 / each
Look at the length of the eel in the picture. Portion is generous.Salmon & Salmon Egg Roe - $6.20
Sashimi and Egg Roe lover will definitely like this!Grill Unagi with Teriyaki SauceService
Service is moderate. I usually dine in big groups and staff have not much issue allocating seats for us which is a plus point!

Ambience
Outlet is rather small and packed many times. A noisy atmosphere.

Price
For quality food, price is worthwhile paying.

Recommendation / Tips
Do expect long waiting hours during dinner times. You May wait up to an hour or more. Do make reservation if possible

If you like Sashimi, try its swordfish sashimi.
Roasted Egg/Tamago is a must try!

SGD 20

Went there for late lunch with a colleague and here's what we ordered. Fish Roe topped on sushi rice. I was surprised when this dish came as I was expecting it to be of a bigger portion. It was just two mouthfuls of rice at most. The saving grace was the copious amount of fresh fish roe showered on the sushi rice. This is the BOMB, seriously. Lobster salad on salmon sashimi wrapped with sushi rice.

Cost: $30-40 for 2 person.

2012-12-06

SGD 20

I must admit that the impression I had on arrival was that, this joint would blow a big hole in the wallet/pockets on any given day. The almost all Korean service crew were friendly to welcome & usher the customers. While I was ushered in, I panned my eyes to witness a relatively occupied restaurant. As it appears, this may just be 1 of the joints with a stronger following than I’d expect.

I was immersed in the menu. Interestingly, the dishes on the menu come with surreal names, to the likes of; kraken roll, Kentucky roll etcI have to say the names were quite intriguing and it was rather tempting to want to try all of them.

I love their hand rolls

2012-07-12

I used to love Itacho very much, in fact used to be crazy over it, so crazy that I could have this three times a week. However I have found that lately the quality has deteriorated quite a far bit.
Anyway here are some of my favourites. Oops but i forgot to take photo of THE favourite, which is the salmon sushi.
I prefer unagi to anago, I know some of my friends call me silly for it but well.. anyway here is a photo of my Anago sushi ChawamushiSalmon Sashimi, i cant get enough of salmonMOre salmonOotoro sushi! FantasticMy unagi rice. Love unagi! One of those things that bring me to heaven

Itacho sushi is very tasty.The sushi was surprisingly good.
Prices are quite high but it is generally reasonable.
The rice and the ingredient ratio was a lot better than many of the other sushi chain restaurants.
And the service is excellent too.
I like this fish egg.
It is so juicy when i eat it.
When bite on the egg,it will burst and give some sweet taste.It is really nice..!

Had their jumbo hotate sushi. Very fresh and tasty indeed! I love their steamed egg with crabmeat! It tasted like shark's fin somehow. I like the smoothness and softness of the egg. It is really tasty and steamed to perfection. The crabmeat was in fine pieces all at the top. Try it and you will know it! The waiting time is pretty short but queue is always very long especially on peak hours. Service was great and food was definitely awesome!

I love their steamed egg with crabmeat! It tasted like shark's fin somehow. I like the smoothness and softness of the egg. It is really tasty and steamed to perfection. The crabmeat was in fine pieces all at the top. Try it and you will know it! The waiting time is pretty short but queue is always very long especially on peak hours. Service was great and food was definitely awesome!

As usual, the queue at this place is very long during meal time. Nevertheless, it is worth queuing as the food is delicious. Ordered the unagi don with scambled eggs ($11.90) which I think is kinda value for money as the portion is quite huge. Really full after eating it! Hence, you wanna try a variety of food, do share this with someone. As usual the grilled salmon sushi is on promotion - $0.40 per piece and limited to 2 per pax. Though it tastes as good as before, I feel that the size of the sushi seems to have became smaller.

2012-06-29