Tomo Izakaya @ Esplanade

This was an Invited Food Tasting Session.

Last week, Camemberu, The Hungry Cow and I attended a Food Tasting session. We met up with Casey, the PR person from Tomo Izakaya at their Esplanade Branch. Their main branch with award winning interior design is at Clarke Quay. The Esplanade branch is also quite chic and stylish.

We sat outdoors, not because it's far away from others (it's the H1N1 season you know!) but Food Bloggers need light to take photos! :-p It was shaded and quite windy, so it was comfortable.

What is Izakaya? It's a Japanese drinking place where food also plays a role too, not just the drinks. Tomo means friends in Japanese. In short, it's a place to meet up with friends over food and drinks.



If you want to know what drinks they have there, you can take a look of their drinks menu at their website. It's a long list.

Now to the food. Here are some selection of the food that we tried. There's only 3 of us, we can't eat a lot, so here's some of it.

The California Maki. Beautifully done. Pleasant to both the eye and mouth.



If you are having friends, you might want to order the fancier version with the prawn tails at both ends. The orangy flying fish roe makes this Makimono looks tempting doesn't it?



The next 3 dishes were my favourites for the day. Diced Cut Cubed Steak. The three of us concluded that anything beef and mushrooms goes very well. We also found out, 'the hungry cow' really likes cow! We like the sauce of this dish that we ate it with the cold udon we ordered.



Buta Kanuni - Stewed Pork Belly. We were told this is one of the best sellers. We tried and we knew why it was. It's so 'melt in your mouth'. The meat and sauce when I first put it in my mouth reminds me of vinegared chinese pig trotters (tee kar chor). Not really like tee kar chor, but have this little hint of it, of my mum's version.

This is definitely not for those who do not like fatty pork. Fatty pork lovers will definitely rejoice!



Buta Soki - Pork Ribs Stew. It might put off those who are afraid of fats. But this dish is also another 'melts in your mouth' dish. It's like eating pork ribs without the bones. (Bak Kut without the Kut)



We thought we would try one of their ramen and picked the Kimchee Ramen. When you are chit chatting and taking photos, you tend to forget about time. I think it took us 20 mins before we touched the ramen. So it might be our fault that we found it a tiny bit soggy.

So a suggestion for slow food eaters, stagger your food ordering. When you are almost done with the first few dishes, then order more. If you are super fast and hungry eaters, disregard what I just said.



There's also the usual assorted sashimi for sashimi lovers.



Here's one of the veggies that we ordered. This is the Vegetable Tempura.
(as an onion lover, I think the tempura onions are nice!)



Thanks to Tomo Izakaya and Casey for your kind hospitality. Casey's a great entertainer, a hilarious guy too. Entertained us with not only food, but lots of stories about Tomo Izakaya and himself.

Tomo Izakaya @ Esplanade Art Centre
8 Raffles Avenue,
#01-09, Esplanade Art Centre
Singapore 039802

Tel: 6333 0012


Their main branch:
Tomo Izakaya @ Clarke Quay
3A River Valley Road
#01-04 Clarke Quay
Singapore 179020

Tel: 6333-0100
Fax: 6336-0092
Email: info@tomoizakaya.com

Sun - Thur [11.30am – 1 am] Last order at midnight.
Fri & Sat [11.30am – 3 am] Last order at 2 am