Many PR agencies have put me on their “No Invite” list because–I quote–“Why is Nat so critical?” I just want to be honest to myself and my friends who follow me. At a particular tasting, I sat beside two instagrammers who criticised the food the entire night and then on their instagram, one wrote in her caption: “The food is so good!” and the other commented, “Yes! Can’t wait to go back!” That is not me, I never want to be them, compromising one’s integrity for what? a little bit of food? TBF, I don’t expect a lot, I only expect perfection and Tomidou along Orchard Road delivered. It was a perfect sushi restaurant from start to end.
Tomidou is a sushi omakase restaurant helmed by Chef Akira Horikawa, who worked at the 90 year-old Tokyo establishment Ginza Kyubey famed for presidential visits of Barack Obama and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Seafood is flown in from Toyosu fish market. Lunch is priced at $150 and $300; dinner at $400 and $500. We had the cheaper lunch set.
The $150 meal includes a chawamushi (steamed egg), 8 pieces of sushi, miso soup, and a fruit dessert – kinda costly but very good, each dish is perfect in its own. The chawamushi and miso soup have bits of crispy thingamabob—shredded scallop and water lily respectively–which break the monotony of the textures. The miso soup floated this crunchy vegetable-like thing covered in a gelatinous texture–I thought it was seaweed at first–but it was water lily and that was enlightening. Even their chawamushi and miso soup are a cut above the rest.
The flight of 8-piece sushi started boldly with chutoro, bold because omakase usually starts off piano before crescendoing, and Tomidou is so brave to start forte. The chutoro is pure bliss, umami, cool, contrasting with the warm shari. All shari should be warm but unfortunately not all sushi restaurants do that.
Then the sushi course proceeded to shima sushi (stripe jack), clam sushi–taking a break from sushi here with whole, deboned, grilled ayu sweetfish–and then maguro sushi, Murasaki (purple) uni (it’s just a breed, there are 3 breeds of uni), anago (sea eel) and unagi (freshwater eel), and finally a sweet tamago sushi (sweet tamago is sometimes used by Japanese restaurants to signal the end of the meal, like a dessert).
They are all beautiful, exquisite bundles of pillowy delights, even the normal maguro is elevated to the highest degree although it is very slightly sinewy. The chef ended with anago and unagi because they are really the highlight, its fat undercut by a little yuzu. Who ever thought eels and citrus go together?
A food writer told me that he didn’t like the whole ayu sweetfish (which can only survive in very clean water) because there are 2 or 3 tiny bones despite the chef’s effort to debone it. I just treated it as sardines and swallowed the bones, it’s really an insignificant detail to me. This is the second time I ate ayu and the quality at Tomidou is much better. You can taste the fruity, almost melony sweetness, balanced by the slight bitterness of the char and the squeeze of lime. I like it inordinately much.
Two more things: (1) the decor is amazing. A flourishing bonsai epergne displayed at the door, the futurist lighting over the traditional hinoki bar. (2) the excellent service. After the first piece of sushi, the chef asked us if we wanted more rice to fish proportion. There is a golden ratio, and he got it right; but he asked us nevertheless to accommodate our stomachs.
A service incident really stood up for me. As you know, the sushi bar can be wide so it is difficult for chefs to put plates right in front of customers. Many restaurants expect customers to reach over and receive the plate from the chef, but not Tomidou. The chef passed a plate to the waitress who in turn carefully placed it in front of my companion. All this while, the chef waited and did not pass me my plate. He waited until the waitress was done, then he passed the plate to the waitress who put it in front of me. That’s the correct service, a customer should never, never touch their plates, but many restaurants don’t practice that. This small gesture left a deep impression on me.
The dessert of fruit platter is also great – first time I ate Japanese cherry. Another food writer told me recently that he liked Japanese restaurants to put in effort and make/bake a dessert to round up the meal. But I always, always prefer fruits because a traditional Japanese meal only serves fruits.
I was still hungry and thought they could serve another 2 pieces of sushi. But not only is the food fantastic, the way this omakase meal is organised is surprising. It’s not a straightforward set of appetiser, sushi, miso soup, dessert. But a main fish dish and the miso soup are served in between the sushi course. This is creativity within the bounds of tradition. It’s these little details that matter. And that’s how you do a perfect restaurant.
Tomidou
1 Nassim Road #01-01 Singapore 258458
t: +65 9135 1010
12pm – 3pm, 6pm – 10pm
Food: 9/10
Price: 5/10
Service: 9/10
Decor/ambience: 9/10
You may be interested in…
– Shoukouwa 小康和, One Fullerton: The Little Known Two Michelin-Starred Restaurant
– Ashino @ CHIJMES: Confirm, Guarantee, Plus Chop Will Get At Least 2 Michelin Stars
– Sushi Dai VS Sushi Daiwa at Tsukiji Fish Market Tokyo: Which Is Better?
– Sushi Kanesaka 鮨かねさか, Ginza Tokyo: Two Michelin Stars, Flagship of Singapore’s Shinji by Kanesaka
This is a tasting. Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.
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