Lunch at Shiraishi Japanese Restaurant, Ritz Carlton

Shiraishi is a small Japanese restaurant located in the Ritz Carlton hotel. It only has about 15 sushi-counter seats, a tatami room and another private room with regular dining furniture. It serves top flight Japanese food and as you would expect, the ala carte menu is rather pricey. Fortunately for ordinary patrons without expense accounts, Shiraishi’s lunch options are very reasonably priced, considering the quality of the food. There are lunch sets ranging from $30 for the tempura set to about $70 for a bento with a lot of goodies. The higher priced options have more variety and more exotic types of raw food such as sea urchin. We were seated at the counter and settled for the Edomae sushi special ($40) and the Shokado bento ($40).

The Edomae Special of Shiraishi Japanese restaurant was a selection of assorted sushi served on the usual wooden platter. The presentation was simple yet attractive in a zen like manner. On the platter, the individual items of sushi had a nice healthy look in terms of translucency and colour. While this was a basic sushi set without any exotic items, the quality of the fish shone through. This is probably the best sushi in Singapore at these prices.

The Shokado bento is recommended for those who like variety. One compartment of the bento contains a generous portion of sashimi. The blob of wasabi was freshly grated from a wasabi root with a shark’s skin grater. The use of fresh natural wasabi makes such a difference in taste and much gentler on the palate. Another quarter of the bento contains vegetables. One section contains bits of many things such as grilled cod, tofu and what seemed like bits of chewy seafood – maybe octopus or jellyfish. This was an interesting bento. The highlight was the sashimi that was fresh and had the clean springy texture that makes Japanese raw fish so addictive.

The meal at Shiraishi Japanese Restaurant ended with a simple dessert – a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. We believe that this is the best place in Singapore to have a Japanese meal for $40 ++. Considering the quality of the food, the location of this in the luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel in Singapore, the most expensive city in the world 2015, we think this is great value for money. In fact, as far as our memory can recall, we believe the prices have not been increased by much since many years ago. Which explains the strong following that this restaurant has and therefore reservations are essential.