Ebisu-tei Japanese Restaurant

We're always curious about new lunch places. So when this Japanese restaurant popped up at Kampong Bahru Road, we were very curious and dropped in one day for lunch. They had lunch menu sets that were pretty affordable. There were set meals at two different pricing, and add-ons were at special prices too.

It took us awhile to decide, and then a very long while for the food to be served. It was apparently a one-chef restaurant. A single Japanese old chef preparing all the food. So we were chatting a very long time before we finally ate.

All the sets come with chawanmushi, miso soup and fresh fruit. Most of us got the full sets served up, but XP's set, which came last, had a missing chawanmushi. We were told that the kitchen ran out and his will be served later as soon as the next batch is cooked. Turned out his was the better one. Both batches had the same low volume (I guess they were trying to cut cost for set meals), which was roughly only about a quarter the cup full. Ours were not smooth, pathetic looking chawanmushi that had uneven surface and rough texture, and the mushrooms looked shrivelled. His turned out beautifully smooth and silky. Even the mushrooms looked brighter! Could it be ours were leftovers from the day before?

First batch chawanmushi

Batch two chawanmushi - so much better!

We ordered a set each and some random stuff to share. Teriyaki chicken set was a chicken chop served with teriyaki sauce, some lettuce on the side, and a bowl of white Japanese rice. The Bara Chirashi don was fresh assorted sashimi atop Japanese rice. Their sashimi were quite fresh and E totally enjoyed his lunch.

Teriyaki Chicken set

Close up of the chicken

Bara Chirashi set

I ordered Maguro and salmon belly negitoro. I was somewhat surprised because negitoro was supposed to be chopped up tuna belly. The bowl turned out to be tuna sliced sashimi, with chopped up salmon belly. For a moment I thought was my own misinterpretation of negitoro. So I just googled, and yes, toro is generally referred to tuna belly. And negi refers to spring onions! Which is sadly missing in this bowl! So the entire dish was named wrongly! It wasn't a big portion, but since salmon belly is quite fatty, this was a nice portion. I would really have loved some spring onions in the chopped up belly though. But still, I liked this dish in general.

Maguro and salmon belly negitoro don

Although we came away very happy with our lunch, the long wait is a huge deterrence for future visits. We saw many bottles of sake with customers names tagged to them, and a lot of them are Japanese names, so I'm guessing this place is quite popular for some drinking in the evening.


Ebisu-tei Japanese Restaurant
59 Kampong Bahru Road
#01-01
Singapore 169367
Tel: 68361039