Tetsu - Tasting Session

I've been to Tetsu before for ladyironchef's food outing (quite long ago), so when I was invited for a tasting session, I jumped at the chance. Tetsu specialises in serving Kushi-style tempura and tonkatsu.

The photos here look much nicer than my usual photos cos they're taken by my sister (who is 1000x more pro than me at photography, and uses all her fierce lenses - my p&s camera is no match...)
Sashimi Moriwase
The skinny fish in the middle is a saiyouri (aka halfbeak) is a long slender fish with a pointy snout. It's flesh is white, slightly translucent, and tastes best when paired with grated ginger and finely sliced shallots. It is clean tasting and doesn't have an oily or fatty taste. The amaebi, scallop, salmon, tuna sashimi were all extremely fresh, and the presentation was really pretty.
Dragon Roll
Tetsu uses tobiko (flying fish roe) which is slightly bigger than the usual prawn roe for their dragon roll. Initially, I thought that the dragon roll would taste weird as there was lettuce wrapped into the sushi (just like how the western countries have carrots and lettuce and other weird things in their mega big maki rolls), but it tasted great - espeically with the generous scoops of tobiko (flying fish roe) on each piece of sushi.
Appetiser of Fugu Mirin Boshi ($10++)
Fugu is the much coveted puffer fish. In the fresh form, the flesh of the pufferfish is transulcent and whitish. It's usually served as sashimi, and is presented in a crysanthemum pattern (the flower at funerals) because if the chef doesn't prepare the pufferfish properly, the meal will definitely be that diner's last one. The dried sweetened and preserved pufferfish has the texture of jerky, and goes very well with japanese mayonnaise.Renkon Chips ($4++)
The deep frying sealed in the sweet nutty flavour of the lotus root, and each thinly sliced piece was crunchy but didn't have an oily aftertaste. Grilled Aji (mackeral)

The lightly salted aji was grilled to perfection - the skin was crisped and not charred. It went very well with the grated daikon (radish).

Katsu Curry Rice ($16.50)

Served with Miso soup and pickled cabbage
The curry sauce tastes robust, with lots of aromatic spices and didn't taste too sweet. The sauce was golden brown, thick and stewed with carrots, potatoes and onions.

The pork cutlet was very well done - the batter was very crispy, but was not hard and pokey like how some of the breaded batter used for other pork cutlets are. The pork cutlet was juicy, and didn't have the oily taste even though it was deep fried.

The Katsu curry rice was so nice we decided to request for an additional pork cutlet. This special pork cutlet was served with fresh shredded cabbage to counter the oilyness (even though it didn't taste oily, it's still deep fried). The yellow mustard went really well with the pork chop too. Freshly ground sesame seeds to go with the barbecue sauce for the pork chop.

Cheese Pork Cutlet

The pork chop is stuffed with cheese, which makes it an even more decadant dish. The cheese is runny, gooey and has a slightly alcoholic smell. We think that they use a mix of alcohol and cheese, so that the cheese stuffing would be more runny. Yaki Niku ($16++)

Since I didn't eat it, this is what it's supposed to taste like:

The grilled prime beef tenderloin is served medium rare, and is very soft and juicy.

It's served with a slightly spicy and sweetich sauce made from onion, ginger.

Hiyashi udon

The smooth udon was served chilled, with grated ginger and finely sliced spring onions, as well as dipping sauce. The udon was smooth and chewy, and we happily slurped up both plates of udon.

Yuzu Ice Cream on Strawberry Sherbert ($5.80++)

I dont' particularly like yuzu, since it tastes like orange, but my sister enjoyed her ice cream. I did pinch a bit of her strawberry sherbert, which was very light and refreshing.

Jikasei Goma Ice Cream ($4++)
Homemade black sesame ice cream - it's packed with loads of black sesame seeds, and is probably my favourite dessert from Tetsu. Very fragrant, and creamy.

Maccha Ice Cream with Azuki and Shiratama ($4.80++)
Green tea ice cream with sweetened red beans and dumplings. I liked the chunky red bean paste, as well as the smooth, white glutinous rice dumplings.

Tetsu also has a private room, which has a projector and screen. They even have blinds so that the room can be darkened during the day.

The food at Tetsu is very well executed, and they have a really wide variety of food. They also have special lunch menu with bento sets starting from a very affordable $18, available from 1130-3pm on weekdays.

Thanks to Rachael for the invite, Pris and Alex, as well as to all the staff at Tetsu.

Tetsu

163 Tanglin Road

#03-18 Tanglin Mall

Tel: 68363112