Japanese Bazaar

Fancy a place where you can have all the selections of Japanese food to choose from without forking out too much like you always do at the usual Japanese buffet? I found one restaurant which is conveniently located at Raffles City shopping center providing a large variety of dishes to please and excite your palate. 

Shokudo Resturant has just opened this month after a revamp of the basement and presents a very similar dining concept as Marche or Vil'age.  Having learnt a little background of Japanese during my poly days, shokudo means  "dining room" in japanese. I believe the founder has the intention to share the dining experience with everyone with different preferences and to all ages especially having such a food bazaar in a big dining room.

My colleague, W and I  dropped by there after work for dinner after having some donuts from J Co. Upon entering into the resturant, we were given a card each by the waitress to order our food and we could choose any seats of our preference.

There were plenty of seating spaces and each area with their distinct and unique interior decor. From sakura flowers with ladies dorned in kimonos in the backdrop,  manga anime characters to the modern Tokyo city landscape.

Each area is accompanied with their style of furniture as well. From wooden chair and table, cushioned sofas to the usual marbled tables. I was quite fussy finding a good spot without having a stench of grilled food on my clothes and away from the central area which was bustling with crowd that we changed our seats twice. Thankfully, W was not at all annoyed because to me personally, the seating does affect the dining experience. 

The entire place has a lively atmosphere with patrons ordering from different stalls and like me, browsing through the selections and deciding what to have. What I like about this concept is that you only pay at the end when you leave the resturant. This gave me ample time to finish my food and walk around to browse the rest of stalls.

There were many other different stalls that you can choose from ranging from pasta, pizza, sashimi sushi, rice, noodles and even hot pots. With such a great variety of authentic Japanese food, I believe each individual will find something he likes here.

I stopped over the ramen stall and tried the assorted mushroom and vegetable which had a choice of spicy or original ($8.80). I went for the latter. I also had the soba noodles instead of the ramen. If you are a fan of udon, you can also request for a change of the noodles.

It is being prepared freshly on the spot by the chef and when requested for an extra topping of spring onions, he readily gave it to me. This made me smile with that special touch of serice.  The broth is tasty and the assorted greens went well with my soba.

To accompany my food, I  had a cup of iced Japanese macha($2.50) which according to them is imported from Japan in ready-to-drink packagings. So I supposed, it should be of good quality green tea and I like the mild green tea flavour.

We were quite satisfied after our meals and W commented that he had a very different dining experience especially he has not been to Marche before. When paying at the cashier, it was fuss free since they have 4 counters available which made the transaction very smooth.

Experience a shared Japanese meal with your individual likings from the food to the seating ambience in town!