DOSUKOI X DONPACHI SAKE BAR

Incredibly tucked away and difficult to find. It is located in Cuppage Plaza where a few Japanese restaurants hide away from the busy orchard street. But don’t be fooled to think they are not busy, you should not come without a reservation. We were lucky to have stumbled there early in the evening and they were able to just accommodate us before the reservation arrive. The service and food were both great. The kind of place with a real mom and pop feel with the patrons are all repeat customers. We had the usual Japanese classics like hamachi Kama, salmon belly, udon, and sashimi. But the simple wagyu beef don served over plain Japanese rice was the highlight of the meal. Not a fancy meal, but a place that was comfortable and familiar even for a first time visitor.

19 Dec 2021 One of the rare occasions where nearly every dish that came was a pleasant surprise. Raw shirako in ponzu beats the tempura version! Scallops were the highlight of the sashimi. They also have my fav ankimo in ponzu. Wagyu came unexpectedly as a hotplate dish that would have been better on a bowl of rice but still delicious nonetheless. Keep space for their kakigori as it's a must have especially the strawberry one. Love their house brewed umeshu, brought a small bottle home to savour. Started off with the tempura version of shirako to be safe, then ordered the raw version which ended being so much better than the prior. Love this! So creamy amd rich with a nice after taste. Huge fresh oyster, crisp on the edge and full of creamy umami at the end. Pity don't serve this with a wedge of lemon. Think of all dishes, the oden fell flat. The broth was quite mild and I really didn't like the texture/consistency of the round finger roll thing. It's like badly cooked flour. It was a pleasure to watch the kakigori being made and the thought that went into assembling it. Made in two layers, the inner layer has cream, sauce and fruits before being topped off another round at the end. They even give you additional sauce so your whole kakigori will never be just ice. Taste is really fragrant with sweet strawberries, their cream is so darn good. (Unfortunately, my second visit for this was not as enjoyable). I made a special order of hojicha kakigori without the banana and opted to swap for chocolate drizzle. The lady said it's the first time she has heard of this combination, it's nice! The light roasted flavour blends well with the chocolate. Good for those who don't like fruit sweetness sort of flavours.

Wide variety of food and drinks. Authentic and good atmosphere. Get the XL oysters and the shaved ice. However, the other food and drinks we got weren’t memorable. Great experience but value of the dishes isn’t there.

Very authentic Japanese restaurant, the staffs was very friendly and helpful. Good place for drink and a lot of home made plum wine.

A very pricey place. Their food such as Oden, Tempura, sashimi and 5 tapas are pretty good. We also tried their Sakes and it was pretty decent as well. However, I find their pricing too high as compared to similar joints. I will go ahead only if ny friends want to go there else I believe I can find similar food at better prices.

Authentic Japanese izakaya managed by Japanese. Good range of sake. Highly impressed with their aged sake. Friendly service and value for money. Will be back.

Experience: the staff was very helpful and friendly. The electronic mobile menu can be improved, as it took us 15 minutes just to scroll through the entire list. Food: we tried the kamameshi salmon which is yummy!! It took about an hour for the kamameshi to be cooked and ready in front of us. The Sakura prawns were so crispy and addictive and it was good to go along with sake. We tried Ume Sake and this is amazing. The udon tempura and ebi ten are so good. The chef cooks it with care and we can see him cook while sitting in front of him. We ordered the shiratama (mochi balls) and we saw the they are made from frozen mochi balls- it doesn’t taste good at all for $16! Even Donki also serves better shiratama. We learned that Izakaya is not a place to have dessert. The beer foods are good. Please take note that there is the traditional otoshi charge which is like a service charge. Price: the only reason why this is a three star. $16 for the frozen mochi was quite a turn off.

Tucked in a relatively quiet part of the mall. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Not a lot of seats. Service was fast. Tempura uncle was good, all the tempura items were fried to almost perfection. Washed it down before some beer or sake would be great. Shiitake mushrooms were moist on the inside and outer coats were very crispy. Grilled squid looked plain but packed some “smokiness” that made it taste good. Miso with cucumber was very refreshing. Other dishes were good too.