Tatsu (萊佛士坊)

I had a 5pax family dinner for a special occasion at tatsu asia square 2 on 7.11.2014. :-)

daughter was keen to explore the different chirashi don. decided to try this place even though i was not impressed with the photo of the S$40 chirashi don on the website menu.
since we were there, might as well try some of their recommendations.
i don’t know the current price at sushi restaurants as seldom take now, but S$35 seemed reasonable (though at first the server say S$25 to S28 depending on size, but later became S$35).
the aji did not disappoint. it was very sweet. the presentation though was somewhat disappointing. i told the server they should served the sashimi as a whole fish like most sushi bar & also in japan, but i get it that they might be offering what they thought was good serving by serving up the flesh & having the bones deep-fried. usually sushi bars would serve with the fishbones whole, then when you finish the sashimi they would take it away to deep-fry. unkai even did it better by “pengkang” which was not as convenient as deep-fried but tasted a lot better. :-)
we ate up the deep-fried fish head & bones.
gyu tataki was a recommended dish, it was good & a dish i would order if i come again (not likely though!).
the menu showed kaizen (海鲜) chirashi don as S$40 & aburi (torched or flamed) don as S$50. i asked the server & she confirmed that both had exact same ingredients. i guess one needed to pay for the labour & torch. we decided to order 3 chirashi don.
i would say this was a huge disappointment (which was not unexpected i having seen the website photo). it was a good chirashi of course. the fish were fresh & sweet. they were very thin slices though & w/o any quality sashimi cuts.
compare this with the chirashi don at mikuni which has 2 pieces otoro, botan ebi, uni at S$45 (after 50% feed at raffles discounts). actually there was just nothing to compare! or the S$20 chirashi don set at ginza kuroson. granted kuroson’s is only for lunch & the sashimi cuts were just as thin. or with the sashimi & unagi don set at sun with moon.
i have not yet tried the chirashi don at flying squirrel & sushi koi, but they are around S$25 & it looks to me the quality would be better than here at tats.
the salmon skin temaki was also a recommended dish. it was simple but nice & tasty.
our helper does not take raw fish. so we ordered a seafood fried rice plus a crayfish teppanyaki. these were good restaurant standard. though the japanese preparation with lots of mayo not my favourite.
my other daughter ordered a beef tenderloin and a aburi salmon maki. tenderloin was 200g size & quite tasty. & the maki was again good standard.
dinner came to S$330 for 5pax w/o drinks. it was so so really because the chirashi don was really below par for the price.

For full review: http://chefquak.com/2014/11/10/expensive-very-average-chirashi-don-tatsu-asia-square-2-on-7nov2014/