Dinner at Koh Grill & Sushi Bar, Singapore
My cousins, brother and I wanted to catch up, so we met for dinner at Koh Grill & Sushi Bar. I'd never been here before, but my other cousin did and he had recommended it. It's known that you usually have to queue for about 20 min before being seated and all guests need to be present for you to be seated. My cousin first thought that we would need to queue but after some searching on the web I discovered that you could make a reservation. No reservations were possible at 7pm, but at 6:30 it was still alright, the person on the line did emphasize that they would only hold the table for 10 min and that all guests needed to be present to be seated. So at 6:30 we were all standing in front of the restaurant, minus my one cousin who was running late as she was still at work. Nevertheless we got seated and started ordering food. We decided to order things to share as well as the two boys got mains, we all ended up sharing anyways.
My brother ordered the Yaki Udon as his main. It looked interesting on the menu, and since it was one of the only mains that didn't contain any prawns (he really dislikes prawns and shrimp) he decided to order it. We were really happy with the dish. The udon noodles were fried with plenty of eggs, chicken, carrots and leeks and topped with bonito flakes. The sauce was the nice sticky black sauce you also find on okonomiyaki pancakes or the takoyaki balls. It was a good choice. My cousin ordered a Ramen, which I forgot to take a picture of. It was good, but not that special.
The grilled items started coming afterwards. The first was the Grilled Squid sprinkled with salt. You also had the option of teriyaki sauce, which we got on the side. I didn't realize that the teriyaki sauce wasn't on the squid and was separate, and since it was positioned on the other end of the table I didn't see it either. So at first I was somewhat wondering why it was lacking taste if it was supposed to have teriyaki. Only when it was nearly finished, did I get given the teriyaki sauce. So I quickly dipped some squid into it, and then it definitely tasted much better.
We also had the Grilled Saba Fish, which is a Norwegian Mackerel. It was a nice piece of fish and I enjoyed eating it, wasn't too interesting though.
Probably one of my favorites and one of my guilty pleasures is the ever-comforting Unagi, the charcoal grilled Eel in the sticky glaze. That glaze is so addicting. There was nothing to fault about this rendition of Unagi, although it was like it was almost anywhere else, good. I did find the eel a bit fatty though. I know it's a fatty fish, but I don't remember it always to be that fatty.
What the restaurant is known for is the Shiok Maki. We had the first generation, which is a maki of unagi and avocado rolled in slightly roasted aburi salmon, drenched in this mayo sauce and topped with salmon roe. So basically described in one word: shiok. We were impressed when it appeared on our table, it really was over the top, especially the amount of sauce. Considering I'm not really a fan of mayo, I only had one piece and scraped off all the sauce. I know it may be a waste, but I just don't really like the taste of mayo. The roll itself was nicely done though, I really liked the combination of all the ingredients.
Instead of getting the second generation Shiok Maki, which has prawns, we decided to go for the Crappy Maki. This is a maki of soft shell crab and seaweed salad wrapped in swordfish belly and topped with salmon roe. The only reason I would prefer this one over the Shiok Maki, is that it didn't have all the mayo. But I think the ingredients of the Shiok Maki, are much nicer and I found this one to be slightly lacking. I guess the fatty salmon is just a bit nicer when it's slightly roasted.
From the grill I wanted the Grilled Asparagus, when I saw it on the menu. My cousin joked that we only eat the white asparagus now (he recently visited the Netherlands and Belgium and tried the white aspargus for the first time, and now he's completely sold). I still wanted to order this one though, since I do like the green one as well. These little asparagus had a nice char on them and were tasty.
After my other cousin came we ordered far more skewers than the ones pictured here, but because a lot were the same, I didn't take any more pictures. The ones pictured above (from L-R): Chicken Yakitori, Oysters in Bacon, Swordfish, Chicken Hearts. The glaze on the chicken yakitori was nice, but I found the chicken to be a bit too fatty. The oysters also weren't really my taste. I discovered my cousins really enjoy innards (I don't) so they really liked the chicken hearts. Later they actually ordered more, as well as pork cheeks and I'm not sure if they actually ordered the chicken liver or tail in the end. I really loved the swordfish. The char was perfect and the swordfish was still moist, despite it being quite a firm fish.
Some of the other skewers: Asparagus wrapped in Pork Belly, Pork Belly and Tebasaki Chicken Wings. I only tried the asparagus wrapped in pork belly, but I found the pork belly a bit too fatty (I really don't like the texture of fatty meat), so I didn't dare to try the prok belly. I think the fat wasn't rendered off enough. We later also ordered the Enoki mushrooms wrapped in pork belly, which I did try and, which we all preferred to the asparagus version. I also didn't have the chicken wings, since I was quite full, but considering we ordered a few more sticks of these, I guess it was quite good.
After my cousin finally arrived from work, one of the things she still ordered was the Sliced Grilled Beef. The beef was tasty, but as you can see from the picture it had quite some fat. Luckily the piece I tried was just meat, and that was quite tasty. The sauce that accompanied it (no idea what it was) was also nice.
All in all, the food here is quite good. The Shiok Makis are definitely worth a try, as well as the grilled items, which are surprisingly reasonably priced. I guess for many of the skewers you must enjoy fattier meats or innards, since the majority of the skewers were catered to this. On the other hand if you don't like that you can opt for the grilled seafood items. Their menu is extensive and we struggled in the beginning to figure out what we wanted. In the end everything was finished however, which is quite a feat, considering how much we ordered.