I cannot stand buffets. I have absolutely no control and will just grab everything in sight (in a polite, considerate manner of course) before proceeding to bloat myself silly and feel terrible for days after. Still, like any true Singaporean, I could not resist the allure of the all-you-can-eat Japanese-food carrot that my friends dangled in front of me when they invited me for the buffet at Himawari Japanese Restaurant at Alexandra Road.
The quaint little restaurant is tucked into a secret little corner in an estate of office buildings and, when I first alighted from the cab at the gate of the compound, I thought I had got it wrong. Despite its lack of visibility, though, Himawari is apparently quite famous amongst foodies here and several of my friends actually identified the place correctly based on the pictures I took. Starting in on the food, it wasn’t hard to see why.
The first thing that struck me was how varied the menu was. Operating on an ala-carte buffet system, I saw every conceivable type of Japanese cuisine I knew of, from the usual sushi and sashimi to cooked dishes like tempura to shabu-shabu and suki-yaki steamboats. My friends and I ordered a bit of everything and, being a sashimi fanatic, I ordered several helpings of raw seafood.
The ingredients were fresh and of great quality. The sashimi I had came in generous servings and had a solid bite to them. The salmon was especially delicious, without any kind of fishiness at all. The octopus, too, was chewy without being too rubbery and went great with the other fish.
The cooked food was decent, although more of a mixed bag than the unanimously fantastic sashimi. I had the saba shioyaki (one of my favourite fish dishes) and it was done just right, with crispy skin and tasty morsels of fish meat that weren’t too cloying or fishy. The shishamo (pregnant fish) were lukewarm and tasted a bit stale, though. The agedashi tofu, too, was soggy and unappetising.
The steamboat, like the sashimi, was great. The soup base was fragrant and flavour-packed without being too salty and the ingredients provided were fresh and crunchy/chewy (when applicable).
Service was also great, although the outlet seemed a little understaffed when we went there (and the place was fully packed, even though it was so out-of-sight). At over $40 a head, I doubt I’d be returning very soon or often (for the sake of my burgeoning tummy as well as my deflated wallet) but it was great as a once-in-a-while treat.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Himawari Japanese Restaurant
991B Alexandra Road #01-08/09 Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1110
