I had a major craving for Japanese curry for dinner yesterday and so the initial plan was to to head to Coco Ichibanya Curry House over at 313 Somerset, but as we were walking there, we noticed that a couple of new restaurants had opened just next to it, namely, Sushi Express, MK Restaurant (Steamboat) from Thailand (read about my experience at MK Restaurant in BKK here) and another Japanese restaurant called Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant.

After checking out the menus and looking around, we decided to switch our dinner choice to Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant (ごはん処 やよい軒) instead to try it out!(:

Yayoiken Japanese Restaurants (ごはん処 やよい軒)
313@somerset #B3-33/34 Singapore 238895
http://www.yayoiken.sg

Our culinary team has created an extensive array of dining options, which include Japanese set menu with excellent nutritional balance. Rice and miso soup accompany each main dish of meat or fish along with side dishes of vegetables or Japanese pickles called “tsukemono”. All the menu items you can enjoy at Yayoiken have been carefully designed to embody the wisdom of Japanese culinary tradition. We are also very particular about the quality of each ingredient we select, especially rice, which is only imported from Japan after passing stringent quality and safety inspections. At Yayoiken, we want our customers to enjoy a wide variety of high-quality menu items in a pleasant and relaxed environment.

———————————————-The Decor & Layout ———————————————-

Here’s how Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant looks from the outside:

The super attractive and enticing display of the food available at Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant.

The interior is really big with plenty of seats available. I like the fact that the layout is very simple,  nice and clean.

———————————————-The Menu  / Prices ———————————————-

One thing unique about Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant is that it has both a physical menu as well as a touch screen menu – kinda reminds of Sakae Sushi! The menu is really comprehensive and you’ll definitely be spoilt for choice(:

It also has different language selections – English, Japanese and Chinese.

We decided to order via the touch screen menu instead of using the physical menu to test out the system, so unfortunately, I didn’t take photos of the menu! Not to worry, I koped these photos from the Yayoiken’s website for your viewing pleasure:

If you’re interested to take a look at the exact pricing and food photos, check out the menu on their website HERE:

>> Click HERE to view Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant Menu <<
>> Click HERE to view Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant Menu <<

Surprisingly, ordering through the touch screen menu was a breeze and our orders came in no time!(:

———————————————-The Food ———————————————-———

Here’s what we ordered:

1. Oomori Fried Potato (French Fries) – S$4.40

The fries were really nice and crispy when they arrived pipping hot. I had a couple while the bf polished them off(:

2. Tamago Yaki (Japanese Omelette) – S$3.90

I just decided to randomly order the Japanese omelette to try out since I rarely see this on a typical Japanese menu in Singapore. To me, taste wise is fine, but bf thought it was slightly sweet – still, he liked it!

3. Katsu Don + Zaru Udon (Pork Cutlet & Scrambled Egg Rice Bowl with Cold Udon) – S$15.90

The bf ordered this set as he is a HUGE fan of katsu don, so he’s always going to Japanese restaurants or stalls to try out their katsu don for his verdict. For this case, he felt that the pork cutlet is relatively tender compared to most places, while the egg and onions were really tasty. His only gripe is that the rice wasn’t sticky enough which is a rather lame reason ;x Meanwhile, the zaru udon was shared between both of us. The weird boy likes it plain and said it tasted like chee cheong fun while me, being a normal person dipped it into the cold sauce given. It wasn’t too bad – but well, you can’t really go wrong with this(:

4. Katsu Curry (Pork Cutlet Curry Rice) – S$15.90 + S$1.90 (Special price Top up for kaijiru (Japanese soybean soup with clam))

For myself, I mentioned I had an insane craving for curry rice right? So naturally, I ordered the Katsu curry rice! I would have preferred the chicken cutlet, but unfortunately, they didn’t have it. Ah well! So for the taste test – I felt that the curry was relatively sweet, not spicy at all and it does contain quite a lot of chopped ingredients in the curry such as some beef, onions, carrots, potatoes which I wasn’t much of a fan. Still, the sauce and the rice does taste relatively decent, and the portion is pretty huge (both the rice and pork). On the other hand, the bf liked my curry a lot.

Along with my curry is this yasai salad (tuna & corn salad) which was meh, while I topped up an extra S$1.90 to try the kai jiru instead of the normal miso soup. The latter was decent and came with a generous portion of fresh clam.

Ah and we decided not to get any drinks and got iced water each which was free(:

———————————————-The Verdict ———————————————-———

So here’s a photo of us with all our food.

That’s alot right? Hehe, we almost couldn’t finish everything and had to share! In total, the bill came up to about S$49 – S$50 for 2 of us which I thought was relatively decent considering the amount of food we ordered. Ah, almost forgot to mention – the service was excellent – efficient and very observant(:

With regards to whether we would be coming back to Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant or not..mm, the bf would most likely do so for the katsu don and I would just join him. The food isn’t 100% fantastic, but it’s decent so I’m willing to try out the other dishes. Wouldn’t recommend you to drop by just to try the food, but if you’re around the area, you may want to try it since it’s relatively affordable (for a date) and portions are big! Service is pretty good too.

If you’re looking for curry though, I would suggest you head to Coco Ichibanya instead(:

mitsueki’s Personal Rating: 3/5
The bf’s Personal Rating: 4/5

Till later,
♥ mitsueki

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