Tanuki Raw @Orchard Central

Been here twice this week, had the counter seats both times, and it was fun walking the bartender make the drinks.

Service in general was friendly and pleasant. There was no queue when I was here for lunch, and a 25-minute wait for dinner during Happy Hour.

Here was what we tried so far:

• Golden Kani Maki ($18.90++): This huge rolled maki was too huge 😮 The deep fried soft shell crab was not really crispy, maybe because of the salted duck egg hollandaise sauce, which barely had any hint of salted egg yolk flavour.
• Tanuki Kaizen Chirashi ($24.90++, $22.90++ for lunch): A good variety of fresh sashimi on top of Tanuki’s signature mixed rice, the sashimi slices were thick and fresh. There were uni, tuna, negi toro, salmon, aburi salmon belly, scallop, sea bream, sword fish, white tuna, yellow tail, ikura, tamago, and ebiko according to the menu, and it was sheer pleasure just looking at all of them 🙂 The tamago was quite interesting, as the texture was a little spongy.

• Freshly Shucked Oysters ($2++): Actually, the usual price was $5++ per piece, but during Happy Hour (5pm to 8pm), one could purchase up to 6 oysters at $2++ with purchase of an alcoholic drink (~$10++ per glass from Happy Hour menu). The oysters were fresh and yummy 🙂
• Truffle Sweet Potato Fries ($10.90++): This was sweet and rather addictive, and we liked the truffle sauce.
• Foie Gras Truffle Yakiniku Donburi ($23++, $19.90++ for lunch): This was our favourite! The US Black Angus short ribs were tender and juicy, and the pan-fried foie gras was oh-so-sinfully creamy and rich. The Tanuki’s signature mix rice was delicious and flavourful.
• Salted Duck Egg Char Siew Donburi ($18++, $15.90++ for lunch): The Japanese Nagano pork belly char siew was so tender, and not overly fat. The salted duck egg hollandaise sauce was not very obvious though, so breaking the onsen egg made a huge difference to the white rice.