Tsubohachi (Ebisboshi Shotengai) @ Illuma

Last Friday, I wanted to "bring" my hubby to "Food For Thought" at Queen Street after reading Alvinology's post on this restaurant.  I even looked through their menu online and decided what to order.  We had a bit of problem finding this place as we had not been to 8Q SAM before.  After we had had finally found the place, parked our car and reached the restaurant, we were greatly disappointed that the whole restaurant was hosting a private function.  Hiaz... got to come another time.

In the end, we just walked to the nearby Illuma to have our dinner.

"Inverted Christmas Trees" X'mas Decoration at Illuma

We went to the Japanese food street at the 4th level.  Initially, I thought that the concept is like Manpuku at Tampines One ie when you enter the restaurant, you can order from any of the food stalls inside but I was wrong.  Thus, without giving much thought, we went straight to the first Jap restaurant (Tsubohachi) on the left.  After we entered Tsubohachi, then we realized that the restaurants of "Ebisboshi Shotengai" operate independently.  We can only our food from Tsubohachi.  Tsubohachi also does not have the electronic ordering system that other restaurants along this food street have.

We were greeted warmly by the staff and were brought to the side seats where we need to take off our shoes.  I see no purpose in this as we were not sitting on the floor and it is just normal table setting.  So people, if you are bring your date out and you got hong kong feet or torn socks, make sure you don't choose those seats at the side.

They offer a wide varieties of food and hubby asked a super friendly obasan staff for her recommendation.  Friendly might be too mild a word to describe this obasan.... Haha... when she gave us her recommendations, she was so expressive and can see her love for the food she was recommending.  In the end, we just ordered whatever she recommended to us, even the drinks.  Haha....

Hubby ordered Sake (L) for himself.

 Sake ($16)

Obasan insisted I should try this:
 Plum on the Rock ($8)

She also recommended my hubby to take some kimchi as appetizer which supposedly will go well with his sake.  Kimchi?  Japanese?? 

 Kimchi  ($5)

I love mushroom and thus, I ordered Mushroom Hot Pot for myself.  Not everything inside is mushroom.  I picked up a big chunk of meat and at first I thought it was the monkey head mushroom and was delighted.  However, after I put it in my mouth then I realized it was just chicken meat. 

 Mushroom Hot Pot ($9.80)

 Seafood Ramen ($12.90)
Hubby said for this one, the more he ate, the more it tasted like prawn noodle.

As there was no rice, we also ordered some sushi.

 Sushi Platter for 1 ($9.80)

Total damage for this meal was around $70.
We realized that we were still not full after walking out of the restaurant and I told hubby that I would treat him to tako balls downstairs next to Koi.  Haha... we went to the first level and walked out of the shopping mall, hoping to get some hot delicioius tako balls from Japanese Boat Takoyaki but luck was really not on our side.  The stall was under renovation.

We shopped around Illuma for a while and after that, hubby actually drove to beach road to buy "Tulangs"!!!  He got a sudden strong cravings for that and he just bought a bag of Tulangs home for supper.

Eating Tulangs is really a messy affair.  Eeeek.... Both my hands were "bloody red" from eating the tulangs.