Doco Donburi

Large portions for the price paid. Don’t let the image below fool you. There is a ton of rice and this will definitely fill anyone who is looking for a cheap and tasty meal. The beef was marinated well and the fish skins and onsen egg were a great addition. There are limited seats available but the staff were kind to let us sit at the adjacent Korean store (also under the same owner). Great customer service. :)

We got 2 donburis with 2 drinks and 2 miso soups for about $16.90 on the Chope app. Overall it was worth it. Being someone who lived in Japan for years, I'd say the taste brings me back to Japan (except for the fried salted egg fish skin haha). The onsen tamago is legit. The taste of the beef tastes like Yoshinoya Japan's beef don. They use Japanese rice. Miso soup was the usual, tastes like the ones I had in Japan (where I buy from supermarkets and where they serve in restaurants) It might be just me but I think the fish skin kinda throws the beef umami-egg-rice flavor off balance and I would prefer not to have it on the bento. The mushroom seems like shitake with truffle sauce and cheese.

I was quite baffled to read some of the more flattering reviews on Doco Donburi’s food, and it was only after looking at some photos uploaded by those reviewers that I then realised how my experience, one which made use of a voucher purchased online, vastly differed in a few aspects with theirs, namely in portion size and food quality. The business runs itself on a dearth of ethics, and has demonstrated, in my personal experience, a propensity for fraudulent practices which are arguably designed to fleece off amenable patrons. If you are reading this review to make an informed decision on whether or not to purchase Doco Donburi’s online deals, do yourself a favour and spend that money elsewhere. I will not, however, comment as a regular customer paying the full price of their donburi products as that scenario differs from the circumstances leading to my visit to the place. I first visited Doco Donburi sometime in early December to redeem a $12.90 voucher purchased from Chope’s Birthday sale. The voucher entitles its user two bowls of any of the following Donburi options – chicken, beef, curry or shroom. Having purchased the voucher just to try the stall’s shroom donburi, I was disappointed, upon arriving at the shop around 7pm and at least an hour well in advance of their closing time, to be told that they have run out of cooked shrooms and will not prepare another batch between one to two hours before their closing time. I left for another place to have dinner instead. On the expiration date of the voucher, I took the hassle of returning to the shop for second time to redeem its worth. The same service attendant behaved unwelcoming or disapproving of people like me who make use of food vouchers. He also scowled instead of politely asking me to repeat myself when he could not hear a part of my order. When I showed my Chope voucher to him, he questioned me on how much I had paid for the voucher. I was mildly shocked at an irrelevant question like that as never before in my extensive experience redeeming vouchers from Chope, Shopback, Shopee, Klook or Lazada, have I had a service attendant done so. Following my response, he dropped the question to then tell me that for a second time, notwithstanding that I had reached the establishment at 4pm - a time that is much earlier than my last visit, that they have run out of fresh mushrooms again. Coincidence? I think not. Nowhere on their signboard did I notice the shroom donburi being labelled “sold out” or “unavailable”. He then said that he will check with his superior, who happens to run the casual Korean food stall to right next to Doco Donburi, whether he can “loan” some button mushrooms. Thereon, I saw him having a somewhat lengthy discussion with another man running the Korean stall, and he returned with a few cut mushrooms placed in a paper bag. At that point, everything just played out in such a suspicious and contrived fashion. The most puzzling development of this incident then turned out to be him telling me that I will only get a small portion, i.e. about less than half of the amount of mushrooms in that petite bag of mushrooms, so I will have to choose another protein to make up for the other half of the protein sides. I asked him whether I could top up a dollar to have the otah as my choice of protein, and he agreed to do so without the surcharge. Food-wise, the food handler does not practice the habit of ascertaining the freshness of its ingredients before processing and serving them to his patrons. I was appalled to find that the muar otah which I was served was sour. I had initially thought that their otah was probably sourced from a supplier which uses more lime juice, but after swallowing half of the otah, it got to a point where the remaining portion of otah started tasting plain foul. I shared my findings with the male service attendant to find him confirming my observations. My stomach grew mildly upset later on the day.

Love the beef donburi mixed with their fish sprinkles gives more oooomph! Just the space is small! Overall good food!

Finally tried it after passing by it many times. Followed the recommendation of Beef and Shrimp. Beef: Nice, well-marinated Shrimp: Nice, well-seasoned to add flavour

Original review: Look at the photo and tell me you'll pay $13 for this. Terrible presentation, all brown, no veggies. Fish skin is tasteless and doesn't add anything to the dish. Had a spoon of soup before stopping. The main point, there is no Don/bowl for a Donburi, scam much? You're better off spending your money anywhere but here. Edit for clarification: We paid $13.90 on Chope, 1 for 1 Donburi and it still isn't worth it. Save your calories, any food court Japanese food or Yoshinoya would be better and they would actually come in a rice bowl aka Donburi.

Finally tried the food here. Kinda disappointing. Flavour was okay for the beef and otah but the whole dish was just kinda one-dimensional. Only savoury, salty flavour. Fish skin chips only made the dish even more salty. Perhaps could add some fresh or pickled veges to add some acidity/freshness to balance out the flavours? Miso soup was bad too. There are better ricebowls/donburi out there at this price point.

Food is good and tasty. Female service staff was friendly and offered recommendations as it was our first time dining here. Portions won't leave you hungry at the end of the meal. Will return again.