Mitsu Sushi Bar

My group of friends will always go for a Japanese cuisine selection when it comes to birthday celebrations since it is hard to go wrong with the food. This is especially true when you select popular restaurants with good reviews. We had initially planned to visit The Sushi Bar but could not get a table on the dates we wanted so I found another place with decent reviews

Located along a cluster of gourmet restaurants at Duxton Road, Mitsu Sushi Bar is at the cross junction between Duxton Road and Duxton Hill, occupying the corner shop

Mitsu Sushi Bar is nestled in a cosy shophouse setting with 12 counter bar seats on the first floor, regular tables, and private rooms with Tatami sitting on level 2. The overall decor style of the restaurant is typically Japanese with wooden tables and chairs, bamboo screens door for the private rooms and hanging screen separators between tables for privacy. As the shophouse layout is longish, it gets slightly tough to get the attention of the service staff so you have to rely on the call bell at each table

The restaurant is famous for its Fish or Crab Omakase where you order 1 whole fish or crab and it is done in 3 different ways in the Omakase meal. We decided to go with the a la carte menu since we wanted to try a variety of different dishes. To ensure the freshness of their ingredients, the restaurant brings in their seafood from famous Japanese markets; Tsukiji, Kyushu and Hokkaido 5 times a week so the sashimi you are eating is almost as fresh as the day itself. We ordered mixed sashimi which had sweet shrimp, salmon, tuna and yellowtail. The fish was naturally sweet and extremely fresh which is why we made 2nd orders for the botan shrimp, hotate and swordfish which were of the same great quality

Other appetisers we ordered included chawanmushi, tako wasabi and fried salmon skin which came with a miso dip. The dishes were decent and nice with no major faults in both flavour and textures. At the same time, I feel there is nothing extraordinary and can be found in other Japanese restaurants

Some other hot dishes we ordered included the mixed tempura, unagi panko which is fried eel with bread crumbs and the sauteed foie gras. The tempura had a light batter and was crispy and not greasy. The unagi was very delicious with a crispy bread crumbs crust and melt-in-your-mouth texture inside. The unagi was flavoured lightly with grilled sauce and is perfect with the crust. The foie gras was a little too overcooked for my preference missing out on the melt texture but the sauteed crust of the foie gras was delicious with umami flavour. The avocado slice served with the foie gras was not really a good match in my opinion

The last batch of mains we had was California maki, soft-shell crab maki and Sanshoku don which contains sea urchins, salmon roe and chopped fatty tuna. The makis were beautifully presented and generously topped with ebi roe. The rice was slightly warm and the ingredients were perfectly harmonised so you can taste the creaminess of the avocado and crab stick of the California maki. The soft shell crab maki was also crunchy with the fried crab and crisp layered on the plate and the sauce was also quite unique to the maki with a creamy and light spice flavour

The don itself was quite expensive at SGD 68 but the quality of the toppings was very good. The uni was creamy and most importantly without the metallic taste and the roe was crunchy and bursting with the flavour of the sea. The chopped tuna was perfect as with the quality of all their seafood and the 3 items were a mouthful of flavours. It would have been perfect if the serving was larger for this price range

Overall, the seafood was definitely the star of the restaurant with freshness almost straight from the market and served with the perfect thickness and cuts. In terms of price, it is relative to the quality of the ingredients. The hot food was ok and nice but nothing too different from other Japanese restaurants. I do not mind returning just for their seafood

Address: 21 Duxton Rd, Singapore 089487

Operating hours: 12 pm to 3 pm and 6 pm to 10.30 pm