Starter which was some deep fried pork in a vinegared sauce with shredded onions and carrots.
Out of curiosity, I decided to be adventurous and try the Syuto and Cream Cheese ($9). It comprises of salted skipjack tuna guts with cream cheese. Having head about eating all the fish ovary and sperm and dunno-what-nots sashimi from C & K, I decided that guts didn't sound so bad (since Im fine with eating all those intestine things from pigs and chickens). But boy was I wrong about ordering this - the tuna guts reeked of something that reminded me of blea chan, and they were so intensely salty that it made my taste buds shrivel from osmosis alone. Unfortunately, and very sadly we all concluded that the best part of the dish was the cream cheese.
My main was the Hotate and Potato Mentaiko Mayo-Yaki ($15++), which is a perfect portion for those carbo conscious people. The sauce was creamy enough, with the salty mentaiko blended in, and covered in a bubbly layer of baked cheese. There were at least 5 pieces of small scallops inside my dish. However, these scallops aren't the very super fresh kind that you'll find in more expensive restaurants - these were not sweet or juicy. Perhaps it's because this is an izakaya? Of course, the small portion left me hungry for more and hence I ordered the pork omelet.
This is the Mentaiko Spaghetti ($19). I personally don't quite like Mentaiko Spaghetti, because the sauce is somewhat too watery for my taste. Then again, I'm no expert in this field, the only other Mentaiko Spaghettis I've tried are from Satsuma and Waraku Pasta. The sauce was tasty indeed, and the noodles were al dente.
The Salmon Ikura Kamameshi ($15++) is their speciality (I suppose it is because there were so many posters on the wall promoting this dish). Though it reminded me of Sun and Moon restaurant (which is synonymous in my food dictionary as iron pot rice), this was pretty good with the rice being moist and infused with the delicious flavours from the salmon. The salmon was tender and juicy, and the vivid orange of the fish roe looked very pretty alongside the green beans and pale salmon. This dish takes pretty long to come - I was done with my main course before this was even served, which bugged me somewhat. Usually, when a dish comes out much later than others, most restaurants will tell you that it'll take slightly longer, or have the time frame in the menu.
My Tonpei-Yaki (can't rem price) - egg omelete with pork and cabbage. I liked this dish because it's the first tonpei-yaki that I've had which has the egg slightly runny, which is how I like my omelet to be done. The egg was soft, without all the brown bits (which come from cooking it too much) and crispy edges (which I really don't like). 
The pork was extremely fatty (great for all the pork fat fans out there) and the whole thing was covered with lots and lots of mayo and sauce - pretty unhealthy despite all the crispy shredded cabbage hidden underneath.
Onsen Tamago ($2++), which essentially, is half boiled egg, just that this one is marinaded already.
My Tonpei-Yaki (can't rem price) - egg omelete with pork and cabbage. I liked this dish because it's the first tonpei-yaki that I've had which has the egg slightly runny, which is how I like my omelet to be done. The egg was soft, without all the brown bits (which come from cooking it too much) and crispy edges (which I really don't like). The pork was extremely fatty (great for all the pork fat fans out there) and the whole thing was covered with lots and lots of mayo and sauce - pretty unhealthy despite all the crispy shredded cabbage hidden underneath.
Onsen Tamago ($2++), which essentially, is half boiled egg, just that this one is marinaded already. 
What really killed my dinner was the dessert - the Ichigo Milk, which was also called the Japanese Ice Kachang. For $5.90++, I was appalled to find that it was just strawberry syrup and a little bit of condensed milk. I was expecting to find at least a sliver of strawberry for decoration. However, the strawberry syrup tasted quite good, and if you don't mind eating ice with lots of syrup and very little condensed milk, this is the perfect dessert for you. 
Somehow, I think I expect too much from izakayas (which are supposed to be homely, cheaper Japanese eateries), but then again, this isn't exactly my idea of cheap.Best of all, the service isn't great - when asked what we would like to drink, we replied green tea (which is the standard drink I take in most Japanese restaurants). And then the server said "green tea is charged per pot". Okaaaaay. So we then observed that other tables had cups (of tea) which were refilled - and on asking the server further, she said "that is ocha, not green tea". Right! She didn't even bother telling us that ocha is not charged for, and expected us to deduce it ourselves. Not exactly my idea of a homely Japanese restaurant.
Anyway, the pict on the right is their cute seasonal menu in a basket.
Tamaya Dining Japanese Cuisine
45 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace
Singapore 229464
Tel: 68353539
First up was the Limon's Special Nuts mix, which was a variety of nuts marinated in a Thai- tasting dressing, with a slight hint of lemongrass (yum!) and a hint of spiciness.
For the Spanish menu, it was Pumpkin Soup, which is a wholesome soup made of pureed pumpkin. The soup was smooth and thick even though there wasn't cream in the soup itself. It's a healthier choice as it's packed full of beta carotene and flavoured simply with freshly ground pepper.
Mains was the Lobster and King Prawn Pahd Thai. The pad thai here is extravagant - can't compare meat-wise to my $4.90 pad thai in Diandin Golden Mile - it has a huge-ass king prawn, and 2 pieces of lobster in it. The prawn was spurtingly fresh, and it's not the kind of bicarbonated prawn you find in most restaurants, meaning that the taste is not compromised.
Dessert was Tom Banana with Pandanus Leaf and Coconut Sauce. The coconut sauce was rich and creamy, and the bananas were slightly sweetened. Actually, the lady boss says that their ice cream machine has yet to arrive, so the desserts don't have ice cream. I think this would be great with coconut ice cream.
$15++ on Mondays and Fridays will get you a Sashimi Set - with half a scallop (super sweet and fresh), Ebi (slightly slimy so I don't quite like it), Cooked Prawn, 2 pieces of salmon, 1 tuna, 1 snapper/hamachi??, eel, 2 tamago (egg) and lots of roe. 
Though I'm not a big fan of eel (I find it too salty and very filling because it's quite oily), it was tuesday and I thought it'll be a pity not to eat the eel. The set lunch comes with salmon sashimi and watermelon, as well as a cube of chilled tofu. There's really alot of eel for $15++ (Sushi Tei is insanely stingy with their meat nowadays), and there's even miso soup, fruits, beancurd, 3 pieces of salmo sashimi and green tea thrown in.
The first time I walked past Desire was during 
Desire is the restaurant located in Scarlet Hotel, which is a boutique hotel (
Asparagus with Egg and Truffles ($34) Grilled asparagus, warm egg, shaved truffles and Parmesan cheese crust drizzled with white truffle oil. 
The risotto was perfect - each morsel of rice was cooked through, but still had a slight resistance on chewing.
Char Grilled Chateaubriand with 
Warm Fondant Cake with melted truffle infused white chocolate and butternut pumpkin, laced with cream 
We had dinner on a weekend - and there were 2 big parties going on - even though we were seated about 5 m away from one of the groups, we could hear everything they were saying (cos they were really speaking damn loudly - they're either drunk or deaf) so the fine dining ambiance was ruined. The waitstaff were really apologetic about the din, and apologized profusely (even though it wasn't their fault). 
Desire 
Soft serve ice cream 
I'm so happy to find that 
Since I couldn't decide which flavour I would like to try, they have a mixed one, and they charge an in-between price of $4.10 (original costs $3.80 and YoguBliss is $4.30 for a regular cup). Actually, I had the large cup (shared between 2 people). I was very happy to see such a large cup (it is really big) but after digging into it, I was very dissappointed to find that the hole under the swirls of ice cream was even larger than I expected.
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