Hide Yamamoto

A pleasant surprise! Cheap (relative), fresh Japanese set lunches on weekdays. The $38 chirashi set lunch came with a small sashimi salad, a bowl of chirashi don and 2 scoops of ice-cream (well, 1 grapefruit sorbet and 1 coconut ice-cream). Note: the hot tea was not free. The chirashi was a good size and came with 9 fishes, ikura and 2 tamagoyaki. The fish slices were on the thin side but were definitely fresh. At this price it's a steal! And definitely replaces the niche of affordable lunch sets that was occupied by Tetsuya but which has been sadly left vacant since Tetsuya started deteriorating after the Tsunami disaster.

Updated (15 Sept 2012): Weekend set lunch is the Teppan set but only limited to 6 orders per day, so don't be late! (lunch starts at 12pm). For $48 you get appetiser, wafu salad, beef in shabu shabu style, nabeyaki udon with lobster (which was still twitching!), and dessert. The appetiser was a cold fried fish with a a sour vinaigrette sauce and the wafu salad was sesame based with lots of finely chopped daishi. The beef was well grilled, a bit too well such that the fats were all melted out the thin slices, and the sauce is beginning to taste similar. The lobster was really fresh and sweet. The accompanying sauce did nothing much to enhance the taste. Perhaps a bit more wok-hei (锅气）would be better. The udon had a good texture and is a good accompaniment to the lobster. Dessert was similar: grapefruit and rock melon sorbet. Portion wise is just right for a lunch. And at this price, hard to argue against.

Verdict: A definite winner for set lunches! Will come and try their dinner teppanyaki one day.