Ishinomaki Grill and Sake Bar @Palaris Renaissance

As part of our redeem-voucher-coz-Starhub-points-expiring exercise, we had a 1-for-1 $60++ 6-course Omakase deal at Ishinomaki Grill and Sake. It was a fairly popular place for Saturday lunch, and there were at least 2 other couples enjoying the same deal, all seated at the same corner of the restaurant.

We were served potato salad as the appetiser prior to the start of the omakase lunch. Pretty standard.

• First item was a Platter, consisting of tamago slices with cheesecake texture, grilled fish and marinated seaweed of sorts. The tamago was very special, as it had a somewhat cheesecake texture 😮 There was a distinctive bonito flavour to it. We asked the staff, who explained that it was egg mixed with seafood.
• Next up was Green Salad with wafu sauce. Sauce was yummy, and the greens were quite fresh.
• This was followed by 5 generous thick slices of Salmon Sashimi, served on a bed of ice. The fish slices was very fresh and of the right temperature; addictive!
• We then had Chawanmushi, which was unfortunately on the bland side.
• The Grilled Gindara was served almost at the same time as the chawanmushi. This must be the toughest cod that we had ever had. Too overcooked 😦 The green miso paste was quite nice though.
• The Potato Dumpling was the next to arrive. Filled with minced salmon, carrots, mushrooms, ginko nuts, this was clearly the highlight of the meal! The potato had a slightly QQ and chewy texture, and the entire combination was very delicious!
• Just when we thought it has ended, we were served Bara Chirashi. Though the rice was slightly on hard side, the chirashi had some excitement in texture, with marinated minced mushrooms hidden underneath the rice, and the sesame seeds and roe giving a nice bite. We also like that the fish were not overly drenched with soy sauce. It was a relief that the food got better after the gindara!
• And then suddenly, there was a dessert. We thought it was a 6-course omakase? Anyway, it was a Yuzu-infused Jelly. We enjoyed the flavour, but the texture was a bit too heavy.

The couple next to us arrived later also had the same omakase deal, but they were served cod first, before the sashimi and chawanmushi. And they didn’t have any dessert. It was kinda weird, since we thought there should have been a proper sequence for the food?

But for this price, it was really quite value-for-money, despite some of the misses.