Japanese Buffet @ Nihon Mura Restaurant

As my friend, Gin and I were surveying places at Orchard Road for some good eating places, we chanced upon Nihon Mura Restaurant at The Cathay. We haven't been there before and so we thought, it would be a good place for us to dine. Soon after, another of our friend, Ellie joined us in this new food eatery endeavor.

We realised that there is a high tea buffet from 2.30pm to 5.30pm and since we were early, we decided to wait for the arrival of 2.30pm, instead of eating food from the ala carte menu. At the stroke of 2.30pm, we studied the menu of the high tea buffet. As we were a trio of hungry people, we ordered as many dishes as possible in order to maximise our dollars.

Here are some of the dishes which we ordered:

Chawanmushi


Ellie ordered this steamed egg custard which had Japanese fishcake, mushrooms, crabmeat and etc.

Udon


I decided to have a noodle dish to accompany the other deep fried food. This dish tasted ordinary but it was not too bad for my liking as well.

The Sotong and Ebi Platter


Sotong


Ebi


All of us enjoyed eating this platter despite the fact that the wait staff might have mixed up with our Sotong order. The platter was really huge and we ended trying to finish off everything. As much as we tried, we couldn't.

Straw Mushrooms wrapped with Bacon Yakitori


Gin ordered this particular dish and surprisingly it was good. The combination between the salty bacon and bland straw mushrooms worked well.

Deep Fried Squid Balls


We had no idea who ordered this dish (no kidding!). In the end, we surmised that the wait staff may have mistook our other dish for this.

Raw Salmon


Gin's favourite dish. No comments on this as I don't really like anything raw.

Squid Yakitori with Fish Roe


When this arrived up on our table, we looked at it with curiosity. But Gin took the plunge and ate it. She managed to eat two sticks of it. Ellie commented that it looked like a lizard.

Agedashi Tofu


It's actually a deep fried tofu and it's drizzled with soya sauce and seaweed. The taste is neither bland nor bitter. It tastes just right.

Potato Korokke


Also termed as Japanese Potato Croqutte, this dish was so good. I really like it! There was a karaage by the side of this side. The chicken was nice too.

Unagi Sushi


The only dampener is this sushi in our meal. There wasn't any meat found in the unagi and I felt like I was eating the skin only. Subsequently, I ate the rice. In fact, the sushi dishes were kinda disappointing.

Sesame Mochi


This dish was the last item for me as by this time, my stomach was pretty filled. Ellie told me she saw this strange mochi and its strangeness prompted me to try. Once I bit into the soft mochi, red bean filling was revealed. It was wholesome! Most of the mochi were really good.

We paid about S$14.90++ (exclusive of GST & Service charge) and we found the whole experience acceptable.

Nihon Mura Restaurant is located at The Cathay, 2 Handy Road #B2-04. There are other outlets as well. The high tea buffet starts from 2.30pm - 5.30pm and with free flow of tea and soft drink.