District Sushi – Affordable Bara Chirashi Don Increases Its Price…

District Sushi is famous for its affordable chirashi don, and the eatery has garnered a ton of attention in the last 2 months. I was a little dismayed to find that the popular $10 Bara Chirashi Don has observed a $3 increase in price. Well, but $13 is still pretty reasonable for a bara chirashi don. It is still too early to conclude if the price increase is justifiable, for the true test lies in the taste of the rice bowl.

The Bara Chirashi Don ($13) was chock full of seafood such as octopus, tuna, salmon, prawn and ikura. I enjoyed the chewy and thick chunks of salmon sashimi, which tasted fresh and clean. However, the tuna sashimi chunks did not warrant equally positive sentiments from both my friend and me. In terms of texture, the tuna chunks were chewy and slightly weird — not the usual smooth tuna texture. Furthermore, it was a tad fishy. As such, the salmon sashimi cubes were much favoured over the tuna ones. The other ingredients in the bowl tasted alright, and I especially loved the addition of the ikura, which was a fresh burst of salty ocean.

However, I did notice that several other reviews online mentioned that the ingredients used in the Bara Chirashi Don were very fresh. Thus I would not rule out the fact that maybe I visited on a rare bad day? I shall give District Sushi the benefit of doubt. Nonetheless, the Bara Chirashi Don’s colourful cubes of sashimi and artfully-placed prawn makes for a pretty picture.

We then decided to try the Mentaiyaki Tamago Sushi ($6). The egg was soft and jiggly, while the torched mentaiko sauce on top added a salty and creamy deliciousness. The different components of the Mentaiyaki Tamago Sushi taste good together, even though the strong and salty mentaiko sauce does overpower the more mellow egg taste at times. While this dish is very flavourful, $6 for 2 pieces of tamago sushi is a little too steep.

Lastly, we ordered the 5 kind Sushi ($12), which came with unagi, prawn, swordfish, tuna and salmon. While I found the unagi, prawn and salmon sushi delicious, I faced another problem with the tuna and swordfish sushi. In fact, I found both the tuna and swordfish a tad sour, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps my expectations were set too high after reading countless good reviews about the freshness of the sashimi at District Sushi, and thus was left disappointed.

While the sushi and sashimi at District Sushi is quite affordable as compared to the higher-end Japanese restaurants, I was left wondering if perhaps it is unfair to expect such fresh and premium ingredients for the price that I am paying. To conclude, I do feel that the price increase in the bara chirashi don (from $10 to $13) is not justifiable. I would not make another trip down specially for the food at District Sushi. Comparing solely between bara chirashi dons, I very much prefer the $12.80 one at Sushiro in Thomson plaza. In my opinion, the sashimi in the chirashi at Sushiro taste fresher.