Amazing Hokkaido

When you think of fresh seafood from Japan, Hokkaido probably pops right up. While looking for a restaurant for a dinner gathering, Amazing Hokkaido caught my eye with visuals of their bursting salmon roe rice bowl and I knew this was the place for my gathering

Located at Robertson Quay, the restaurant upsells its fresh seafood from Hokkaido daily. The exterior of the restaurant reminds you of an authentic seafood restaurant in one of Tokyo’s alley

In a 100-seater space, you can see hanging fish nets and colourful flags and banners similar to a local seafood restaurant in Japan. Customers can also choose to sit at the sushi counter and interact with the chef

Like a typical izakaya, Amazing Hokkaido features more than seafood on their menu. You can find grilled skewers, hot pot, sashimi, sushi and a lot more items and an extensive menu of beverages as a companion to the food offerings

First up, we had the sashimi platter which was relatively small in serving. The fish itself was fresh but not of top quality. Compared to the ones I had in Japan or even other restaurants with daily flown-in fish, the ones here are mediocre. The fish does not have the natural sweetness, especially the tuna and the octopus was a bit rubbery

Next, we had the oyster topped with salmon roe. While the oyster was still fresh with no smell, the oyster was not as juicy as in other places. The roe was fresh and generously laid on top of the oysters which made the overall flavour more salty than pleasant

The sushi platter we had consisted of 8 pieces of sushi and a side serving of pickled ginger. The rice was quite dry and hard although the fish was fresh enough. The sea urchin had a metallic taste which I dislike so I did not finish the sushi

The grilled skewers were decent, especially the highly recommended Muroran Yakitori which is grilled skewered pork with onion in between. The pork was grilled with a nice charred flavour which melts in your mouth with the onion emitting a natural sweetness. The bacon skewer however was lacklustre

We ordered the crab cream croquette which was fried till crispy and with a decent creamy filling

The star of the show was the bursting salmon roe rice bowl which came with the serving ceremony of the staff beating the drums and chanting some Japanese words. The bowl was indeed overflowing with salmon roe and is perfect for pictures. However, other than being picture-perfect, it is impossible to finish unless you have a big group or this is the only dish you ordered. The rice is heaped high on the bowl as you can tell in the video before the roe is piled on top. We tried to finish the roe which was fresh and salty but left out most of the rice

As a lover of sea urchins, I order the mini Uni rice bowl which came with a very pathetic serving of uni. The bowl came with 4 slices of Tamago and 4 small teaspoons of uni

The uni in the rice bowl was nicer than the ones on the sushi with a creamy flavour but the serving was really too pathetic for the price of SGD 29.90

To wash it all down, we order the individual hotpot at SGD 16 which has a selection of soup base to choose from; prawn shio, shrimp miso and spicy miso. The individual serving came with Chinese cabbage, tofu, yellowtail, squid and salmon. You can choose to order extra ingredients to cook in the hotpot. The soup base is quite bland in flavour but the ingredients are fresh enough with no complaints

Overall, the atmosphere of the restaurant is nice but you can see not much crowd even during the busy dinner period. I decided to visit the restaurant due to the tantalising visuals I saw online but sadly the food served was not up to standards and some items were mediocre. The overall service was ok but most of the time difficult to get attention from the servers so it gets frustrating.

Address: 30 Robertson Quay, #01-16 Riverside View, Singapore 238251

Opening hours: 5.30 to 11 pm ( closed on Tues)