Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar

3rd May 2012. Written by Xin Li.

Tori-Tama, the restaurant group of which Sansui Sumiyaki and Bar belonged to has just opened another restaurant at Clarke Quay just next to Liang Court. The new establishment named Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar aims to offer a contemporary and international twist to Japanese cuisine.

The interior of the restaurant is stylish with a contemporary Japanese style featuring the wooden chipboard panels found at Sansui Sumiyaki and Bar and a modern interpretation of a Japanese panelled doors and windows with mirrors.

At the launch, we were given a buffet-style sampling of some of the dishes offered at the new restaurant. Japanese classics such as Sashimi station featuring maguro, sake, hotate and petite ebi was being offered. Personally, while the maguro and sake sashimi was generously sliced, the maguro has a sourish flavour which I didn’t enjoy. The ebi on the other hand was quite sweet, but tiny.

The Chirashi was quite delicious with all a colourful range of toppings such as tamago, cucumber, tuna, salmon, mackerel, sweet prawn and shreds of shiso. Add abit of wasabi and soy sauce, this makes a tasty treat. My only complaint is that the rice seemed to be dry, perhaps after sitting at the buffet counter for too long.

Other items being featured at the buffet included their Argentinean Beef Ribeye which was too dry but carried a pleasant smoky beefy (duh!) flavour.

The Negima, Corn Fed Chicken Roulade was very salty but has great texture – very tender and juicy.

There was also a Shabu Shabu Station offering beef or pork. You could see from the beef slices, the marbling was beautiful and it tasted rather good. The broth was rich in flavour and the meat was as good as it looked.

For desserts, they served a Ume Jelly with Berries and a Matcha dessert with Azuki Beans. I find the ume shu jelly exceedingly sour while…

the matcha dessert has a nice finish. The sweet azuki beans, the milk pudding and the fragrant matcha come together quite beautifully at the end.

The food was served in a buffet style at the launch party. It probably might not reflect the real quality when it was prepared a la minute in a normal setting. The place looked great for an after-work get together especially at those comfortable booth seats. The Suntory Premium Malt seemed rather popular here too.

Nonetheless, Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar left me feeling concerned as to where the restaurant is really heading. There seemed to be a bit of identity crisis going on from the music to the food, but I guess it’s the kind of challenges a new restaurant faces before they found out what is best for the patrons around the area.

As part of the Clarke Quay family, Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar also joins the other restaurants in offering a valuable and affordable Shokado Set Lunch at 15 SGD nett from Monday to Friday, 12 – 3 pm, diners could look forward to the unique Hiyashi Ramen, a cold ramen, Slow Roasted Skirt Steak or Breaded Iberian Pork for lunch.

Thank You Tori-Tama and Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar for the invite.

Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar
3B River Valley Road #01-06
The Foundry Clarke Quay
Singapore 179021

Operating Hours
Sun to Tue: 12nn - 11pm
Wed & Thu: 12nn - 1am
Fri & Sat: 12nn - 3am

Tel: 63367737