Sakuraya @ Westcoast Plaza

Here's what I had for Christmas dinner with my family - somehow my family is very un-festive so we usually eat Japanese or Chinese during Christmas and Indian for our CNY dinner (but not the extended family one cos my grandmother will protest). Of course, since I was on call on Christmas eve, all these lovely goodies were eaten through my post-call daze, which somehow makes food taste less good than sleep... I suppose I have bad luck which even bathing cannot get rid of.

Lots of fresh fish . We had the scallops and the cockles (top left) though we didn't attempt a whole fish even though the counter lady kept recommending the red one over the top right hand corner.

Many more sashimi packs - choose anything and they will prepare it for you

Loved the little orange pile of uni (sea urchin) which was reasonably fresh (though definitely not the freshest) and the bloody cockle, which is the super-sized version of the sea haam we get in char kway teow here. Tastes much cleaner too! And we had 2 different types if scallops - one's a razor scallop which is a rather big skewed looking shell, about 1.5 times a whole hand (my hand at least) and the normal kind of scallop which was sweeter and had a smoother and softer texture. We also got a nice pack of oysters at $11 per box. They were clean tasting, creamy and fresh (though, like the uni, not as fresh as some I've tasted) but it's reasonable freshness for the price. Ate this with ponzu sauce, which is my favourite way to eat raw oysters.They also had the 'fish sperm' (technically it's fish testicles I think?) which is cholesterol laden super creamy tasting and melt in the mouth. Looks a bit like brain (though I haven't had the opportunity to try brain before) and I like the way theyh prepare it wiht ponzu sauce, some spicy radish and finely sliced spring onions.
Those round disc shape (white and purple) are the bubble-gum chewy raw octopus. I dislike the rubbery boiled ones that's usually found at the take away sushi counters cos they're always tasteless and have such a tough texture that makes them a chore to eat. Fresh octopus doesn't have much more taste, but the texture is less tough and it remindes me a bit of ika (squid) but slightly more chewy. I think I will stick to the prepared chopped octopus marinated with sauce and wasabi from now on.
In the back, we have mekajiki (used to hate this but now it's on my top 3 most favourite sashimi), kampachi and hamachi as well as salmon. It was really too much sashimi so we ended up taking back some of the salmon and kampachi (though they all disappeared from the fridge really fast). Felt like I was eating a sashimi buffet here...Seafood handroll - nothing special but the rice is pretty nice. I don't think they toast their seaweed though...

We ended up eating so much at Sakuraya that we ended up paying enough to get a decent Christmas set at a nice restaurant. Super fresh Sashimi washed down with sake always makes for a yummy meal. Sakuraya offers fresh sashimi at very reasonable prices (think of the Isetan/Mediya supermarket price) but with casual restaurant style service.

Sakuraya Fish Mart

154 West Coast Road

#B1-50/51/52 West Coast Plaza

Tel: +65 6773 6973