Zaku Japanese Restaurant is one of the new restaurants that had opened at Capitol Piazza, Singapore. It is a casual restaurant where the sake and beer are given as much prominence as the food. Looks like a good place to adjourn to for happy hour after work or before watching a show at the Capitol Theatre. Given the awful haze that we are currently experiencing, this may also be a pleasant location to pass some time in the comfortable environment of an enclosed air-conditioned cocoon.
Zaku Japanese Restaurant is housed in the Capitol Galleria side of the mall. The restaurants and pavements here are encased within a giant glass canopy. The space inside is air-conditioned which means it is safe to come here to eat and walk around in the ‘open’ even though the haze PSI index has gone beyond 300. It was nice to sit around in what seemed like an alfresco area and escape from the real hazy world, even though it was for just for a while.
Zaku Japanese Restaurant serves a fairly wide range of food, from raw items, grilled food to the usual rice and noodle dishes. There is also a set lunch menu. Here are some pages from their menu.
The set lunch items starting from $12 looked interesting. We selected two from the list: the Pork Ramen ($12) and the Saba Shio Don ($15). There was an option to add a beer to the meal at $5 each. We took up the option and selected the Archipelago Belgian Wit and Summer Ale.
The pork ramen meal was a bowl of ramen topped with char-grilled pork. There were some salad and pickles as side dishes. The ramen was nice and chewy. The soup was quite light in taste, that is to say, not one of those thick rich kinds. The best part was the pork slices which were grilled to have slightly burnt bits which added a smoky flavour to the dish.
The Saba Shio Don meal was a bowl of rice topped with two pieces of grilled mackerel with a soup and tomato salad. The mackerel was well-grilled and served in generous portions. This was clearly a heavier meal, more suitable for the hungrier patrons than the ramen. We think both dishes were good and the prices very reasonable for such quality of food and location of restaurant.
The two beers were both good but with different personalities. The Archipelago had a light, fruity taste while the Summer Ale was more sharp on the palate and with a bitter aftertaste. The happy hour prices for the beers (300 ml) were $7 each, which made the lunchtime price of $5 one of the best beer prices in downtown Singapore.
Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Value: 5
Atmosphere : 3
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs
Zaku Japanese Restaurant
#01-84 Capitol Singapore
15 Stamford Road
Singapore 17890
Tel: 6384 7955