IKURA Japanese - Thomson Plaza

10/10 for ambience and cosiness. 9/10 for food, service and price. Good oysters available here.

Food is great, premium n fresh ingredients but service staff on both visits here was really lacking in basics. No welcome greeting, not asked to check bill when paying at the cashier and no thank you or goodbye at exit.

The ambience truly reminded one of a food stall located at a small area/quiet street in Japan. It created a homely feel. Although the sake is slightly pricey, it was sweet. They had a wide range of food, all in smaller portions, allowing diners to try different choices. What stood out were the sashimi, grilled chicken with miso, saba fish and tamago. You might not want to try the grilled black cod fish as is a little fishy and oily. Added more photos after repeated visits!! Highly recommended ? ***off menu item ** Ask for weekly special dessert prepared by chef.

Went to this place after got some recommendation from a friend. It's located at Thomson Plaza at the front row and easily spotted from Thomson MRT exit Thomson Plaza with other 7Eleven, Shi Li Fang & Rocky Master. It's typical small Japanese Izakaya, small and squeeze but safe distancing made it more spacious. The lady staff that working alone to serve the guests and cashier was friendly. Visited this week and needed to wait another 30-45 mins because it's pax around 6.15pm but it's okay since we can have a walk inside the Thomson Plaza while waiting. We thought that day was Monday because we've been eyeing for 1 for 1 Chirasi Don, but apparently we came on Tuesday for $2.5 oyster (min 6 pcs). We ordered 2 pax of oyster, smoked duck salad, yakisoba pork belly and grilled squid. Oyster on the first batch was taste fresher than our 2nd batch, duck salad just okay as it's a salad with some sesame sauce topped with sliced smoked duck, yakisoba pork belly was too oily, salty and tangy, abit too much in everything. Grilled squid was delicious and not hard at all, and it's big, chewy and with enough dark sauce, just nice, not too much! When I casually looked around the kitchen, I saw some bottle of not the Japanese brand but more on local dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, so I don't think it's authentic Japanese on their yakisoba. Maybe they tried to resemble Japz food with local ingredients if I'm not mistaken, but the pork belly part was pretty serious, it's nice piece with some cartilage in each slices not much fat. One of sake's price was double price compared to online then we decided just ordered the white wine house pouring and it's good. Total cost around $93.81 We'll try Chirasi 1 for 1 next time and explore other things too.

First visit her. Order 2 glasses of wine, 1 beer and 1 highball for drinks. Ordered the California sushi so so abit dry, garlic fried rice nice. The rest of the food all so so. Wine not bad.

My first visit. Small. Cozy. But with excellent food and service. I had the tonkatsu rice. My wife had the charashi. We shared a plate of 10 slices of salmon sashimi. All good. Will have to come back. But parking at Thomson Plaza can be extremely difficult to get during lunch hours even during the COVID pandemic. Once you get into the queue to enter the car park, wait patiently as you can't get out of the queue.

Unagi don, sashimi don and reddish salad are good. Pork cheek so so and took too long to serve. Maybe bcoz they need to unfreeze it on the spot. Grilled squid ok. In general a lovely small restaurant.

18 Dec Value for money. Decor has a nice old school Izakaya feel to it. A bit cramped but ok. Happy hour prices aren’t bad and esp on a Saturday is nice. $5.80 glass of wine. Pork Kimchi wasn’t bad. Had a nice teishoku taste to it. A tad bit sweet but nice. Tuna avocado salad was nice. A bit sweet and MSG flavored on the dressing but nice. Tuna and avocado tasted fresh. Tempura sampler was soso to be honest but good for the price. The oil felt a bit old. And the sauce a bit sweet also. Sushi roll could be a bit better. Sushi rice didn’t have a vinegar taste and was too moist but for value is ok. If u want a taste of sushi it’s ok. Bitter gourd pork egg thing was nice also. Garlic rice was nice. Must mix mix mix. Got ePay. Went at 8pm on a Saturday, by 8:30 place was pretty empty. Would go again.