Shokutsu Ten: Kabe no Ana

By Little Miss Bento, Shirley Wong Tuesday, November 25, 2014 0 Food Reviews, Lifestyle japanese, Japanese food street, Japanese pasta, jurong point, Kabe no Ana Permalink 27

Calling all Japan lovers~~ miss Japan? Check out the Japanese Food Street at Jurong Point!

The entire food street has been totally revamped and the hugely popular Shokutsu Ten is back!

Following a $7 million makeover led by RE&S, the 17,000 space has a total of 9 restaurants, 10 cultural kiosks and Japanese specialities.

Get ready to be immersed in the whole Japanese experience, from new restaurants to the entire architectural detailing and design specially imported from Japan. Just check this out, doesn’t it remind you of Osaka? Those large 3D billboards at Dotonbori?

Getting to Shokutsu Ten is easy. Located on the basement floor of Jurong Point, there are two entrances possible, it is either by the Shokutsu Ten side (the entrance with the crab – Osaka theme) which is on the ‘old’ Jurong Point block or the WAttention Plaza entrance (the entrance with the kabuki theatre design and Ichiban Boshi). Read more about WAttention Plaza here.

One of the new restaurant concept is Shabu Tontei, a Shabu Shabu and hotpot specialty restaurant with a focus on premium Kurobuta (black pork) and wagyu beef from Japan. oh my… sounds so yummmmm

Missing your old favourites? Don’t worry, returning to Shokutsu Ten are favourites such as Men-ichi Ramen which has doubled its floor space to accomodate its growing fan base.

We were ushered to Kabe no Ana – The Cafe, renowned Japanese pasta restaurant with a cafe menu. Aside from its signature and popular pasta offerings, there is now other options including all-day breakfast, desserts and specialty coffee.

Kabe no Ana means “hole in the wall” in Japanese.

When the first Kabe no Ana restaurant opened in Showa 28 (1953), spaghetti was an unfamiliar food in Japan. Driven by the desire to create a cuisine that was acceptable to the Japanese taste bud, founder Takayasu Narimatsu started to experiment and create spaghetti dishes using ingredients such as natto (fermented soybeans), tarako (cod roe) and uni (sea urchin). Over time, these dishes became popular, and widely known as wafu or Japanese style spaghetti today.

With over 50 years of history, Kabe no Ana invented the widely popular mentaiko spaghetti! And we were lucky to try it during the media tasting session.

Al-dente spaghetti with creamy mentaiko sauce, bacon bits and garnished with spring onions and my favourite part – a runny egg. let it flow~let it flow~ let it flow~ :P

Rich in taste, I do like how the bacon bits give a certain balance with the saltiness and meat texture. It might be a little heavy for some, but worth the calories if you enjoy cream style spaghetti!

We also tried the Piri Kara Natto Tomato, a spaghetti with a lovely spicy tomato base sauce which would please most ladies. And the healthy natto creamy sauce at the side. Those at the table who enjoy Natto were going for extra servings of the Natto!

And of course, we tried something from the cafe menu too. This was my favourite of the day – I am always a fan of all-day breakfast but it is not easy to find good eggs benedicts. I was really pleased with this dish.

The poached egg was cooked just right, with the right amount of firmness and a lovely poached egg with runny yolk. The hollandaise sauce was also perfectly flavoured, creamy with the right amount of sourness. I also love how they served with spinach and chicken ham which gives the needed balance to the rich sauce. Very yum!

The eggs benedicts comes in a pair, this was a media tasting portion.

The salad was very refreshing and comes with a Japanese wafu style sauce. Love the salad? You can also order the salad in large size by itself. Great for sharing~~

We ended our meal on a sweet note of course :) with a lovely coffee and green tea tiramisu with vanilla ice-cream.

It was light and nicely portion. I would have preferred the green tea to have a more pronounced matcha taste but overall it was a pretty decent dessert.

Being the crazy Japan-lover, my drink order was definitely the sakura tea~ so pretty!

Just look at that petal open up in the hot water. The Sakura tea comes in a small pot, quite value for money. I counted at least 5-6 pickled sakura in the tea pot.