40cents sushi at Itacho Sushi (Changi T3 Outlet)

Itacho Sushi is one of the more recent international-sushi-chain-stores to set up shop in Singapore. What's interesting is that this chain doesn't originate from Japan, but instead has its' roots in Hong Kong where it has over a dozen stores. Itacho seems to try to propose to the value for money segment - they have a "daily specials" menu which changes regularly - when we went to eat at the Changi Airport Terminal 3 outlet the headline grabber was 40cents-per-piece Soy Sauce Salmon sushi. Which was sold out at 1.30pm. Ah well :)

Their menu is predominantly sushi based, and is traditional rather than creative. That's fine, though, as long as the fish is fresh and the riceball is good. We'll soon find out!


Starting off with the Oo Toro (fatty tuna at SGD7.50 per piece), which arrives pink and nicely marbled, sitting on a nicely-sized rice ball. And by nicely sized I mean relatively small, which I like. I'll never understand why many sushi places around like to serve huge two-and-a-half mouthful rice balls. If anything, from a business decision shouldn't the rice ball be small so that customers don't get full so quickly and order more?


The Salmon Lobster Salad Roll (SGD3.60 per plate) was nice as well, the cooked lobster imparting a nice crunchy texture to the sushi.


Spicy Sakura Inari (SGD1.90 each) and Salmon (SGD1.20 each) Sushi. The Inari sushi was interesting - came wrapped in a juicy Inari (fried beancurd skin) and topped with spicy tuna salad, Tobiko (flying fish roe) and deep fried baby shrimp. Interestingly enough, Inarizushi is also commonly known as おいなりさん (o inari san), which is apparently the name of a Japanese Shinto Deity.


Our final sushi dish, the Swordfish Sushi (SGD3.50 each) was not to our liking. The fish itself was very "wet" and somewhat tasteless when chewed. Sort of like a flavorless, tougher butter fish. Would not order Swordfish again.


Deep Fried Gyoza with Curry Salt (SGD2.40). Sprinkling of the curry salt gave it an interesting spin, and being deep fried, the gyoza skin was a lot crispier than regular gyoza's.


Whole Sea Eel Sushi (SGD6.50). If you've never eaten sea eel (Anago), it tastes very similar to freshwater eel (Unagi), but has a less firm texture - bordering on mushy. Itacho's version comes perched on a rice ball, and relatively lightly brushed with kabayaki sauce.


Overall, we found the sushi to be above average, and pricing to be pretty acceptable value for money. However, the restaurant's popularity does mean long, snaking queues at peak times. The Changi outlet we visited this round also had too few wait staff, and so it took pretty long to get anything and tables remained uncleared for way too long, much to the obvious discomfort of the poor people waiting in line for a seat.

Itacho Sushi has four outlets in Singapore - Ion Orchard, Plaza Singapura, Bugis Junction and Changi Airport Terminal 3. Non halal.