Santaro at Amara Hotel

The husband and I love a good lunch on a weekday when he gets the day off, and there's nothing better than a great Japanese bento to look forward to during lunch time. We used to go rather frequently to Bimi Kaiho in International Plaza - my husband is the only other person I know whom, similar to me, had with his family faithfully followed the restaurant since their days in Outram Park. Bimi Kaiho is unfortunately rather small, which makes getting a table very difficult. I also think that their food has seen better days (and prices), although I still patronise the place albeit less frequently than before.

We've recently started patronising Santaro at Amara Hotel, which is an institution by itself When you get to a restaurant that proudly displays photos of politicians on the wall, it's either really good or really expensive (frequently both). They have a brilliant set lunch menu that is extremely good value for money. You can choose between a sushi, sashimi, tempura, saba, grilled beef set (they all have sashimi) for $28+++, and the prices go up from there for other bentos. But the entry level sets are good enough on their own - all you really want is good-quality food that is fresh, and cooked properly. Santaro does not disappoint.

The bentos come with a salad...

...as well as an amuse bouche of some sorts. This was salmon head cooked in a sweet soy broth with daikon. I'm not a fish head fan, but this had me slurping up every single drop. It was incredibly tasty and fulfilling.

I ordered the sashimi set, which also came with tempura and chawan mushi.

Their sashimi is F R E S H. After having eaten recently at a Japanese restaurant at Cuppage that served us a mountain of sashimi that appeared to have been cut with a cheap pair of scissors, I am a firm believer that it is better to have fewer slices of fresh sashimi that is properly cut, than to have a lot of sashimi that has been massacred. I was surprised to get awabi (abalone). The aji (horse mackeral) was astoundingly good.

The tempura was a fairly substantial serve, with 2 prawns and assorted vegetables.

Chawan mushi does not get much better than this...absolutely slide-down-your-throat smoothness.

The husband ordered the sushi set, which came with udon instead of rice.

A close up of the sushi.

Dessert of the day

The service is very good, with tea promptly topped up. Granted there are cheaper places elsewhere that do a pretty decent bento as well, but a $28 lunch set is a pretty good price for the ambience and quality around the Tanjong Pagar area.

Santaro Japanese Restaurant

165 Tanjong Pagar Road #02-26

Amara Hotel

Singapore 088439

Tel: 6324 8388

http://www.santaro.com.sg/