Manzoku Japanese Restaurant – Affordable, but is it Worth a Visit?

Tucked away in Purvis Street, Manzoku Japanese Restaurant offers a diverse range of Japanese delicacies at reasonable prices. They are famous for their chirashi don, but we decided to try out other dishes Manzoku had to offer.

As a huge salmon fan, I will (almost) always choose salmon over anything else. When I saw a picture of the Glazed Salmon Teriyaki ($12) on the menu, I knew I had to get it.

The salmon was gorgeous – it had a beautifully charred skin and the orange flesh glistened in the teriyaki glaze. It was mostly tender, with its flesh flaking off easily. Pretty as it is, the cook for that day probably did not keep a close eye on it for some parts of the salmon skin were, unfortunately, too burnt.

Similar to our Chinese kong bak bao, these Hirata Classic Pork Buns ($7) are savoury Japanese buns stuffed with sliced braised pork belly and cabbage. The buns were soft, and the braised pork, while flavourful, was tough and dry. 

This huge bowl of messy goodness is probably the crispiest and crunchiest tendon bowl in Singapore; the batter used to coat the tempura remained crisp even until the end of my meal.

There were so many contrasting textures in this Ten-Don ($12), making every bite a delight. It came with 3 big ebi tempura, seasonal vegetables (eggplant, a thin slice of pumpkin and sweet potato) and MORE of that crispy crunchy grits of the tempura batter. The set comes with a side of miso soup and two small cubes of watermelon.

Initially happy and excited about the huge ebi tempuras given, a bite into one revealed a distorted proportion of batter to the prawn, which was thin and small. To make things worse, the batter had a floury and rubbery aftertaste that made my tongue dry and uncomfortable. Thankfully, Manzoku provides shoyu sauce to every table, which was sine qua non to mask the floury aftertaste. The Japanese rice, on the other hand, was perhaps a little too moist for my liking.

However, for $12, I must say that this is a value-for-money and decent set meal. 

Manzoku Japanese Restaurant also offers affordable lunch set meals on weekdays. For just $9.80, you can choose from Kimchi Udon, Tsukune Don, Grilled Tori Chicken, Tempura Curry Don, Miso-Shoyu Sobro Don and Tori Curry Don. Each set meal also comes with a complimentary miso soup, fruits and a drink.

Manzoku is worth a try if you are on a budget and craving for Japanese donburi or udon noodles.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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