Marugoto Shokudo - Unexpected good find in the heartlands

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My general impression of food in Singapore stereotypically goes like this; for good hawker, look for it in the heartlands' hawker centres or coffeeshops; for good restaurants, look for it in the city area or places nested among the landed properties. So I was quite surprised to find a decent restaurant situated in a secular, regularly overlooked area of Ang Mo Kio, and that is Marugoto Shokudo. Of course, the food is not stellar or exceptional (so far, I can only use these descriptions for Shinji only when it comes to Japanese food), but considering the price range of ten dollars plus to thirty plus for a set of premium sushi moriawase, the dishes are considered as very value for money since the quality is way better than the ones in those common chain restaurants.

For twenty dollars plus only, I got a bowl of chirashi of premium sashimi consisting of hotate, salmon, otoro, ama ebi, mekaiji (I do not like this though), tako, ika and ikura. Wow, this dish looks particular impressive; the hotate and salmon are  yummy. Ika and Ikura are pretty good while otoro is melt in the mouth quality (though so-so in quality). My main disappointment is with ama ebi that is ridiculously not ama (sweet); the prawns look good but the taste is incredibly bland, like the prawns were washed mutiple times or soaked in water. Aside from that, this dish is generally considered as thumbs up. 

The fried chicken pieces in the curry rice are extremely fresh, having none of the smell of stale meat or overused oil, it helps that the chicken pieces are also very flavourful. The complimentary dessert and miso soup that come with all set meals, are very good also. I like it that creamy custard pudding is served instead of the generic watermelon slice.

The other dishes are delicious also; definitely way better than the likes of Sushi Tei, Ichiban and Sakae (but the price is comparable). The grilled cuttlefish is very fresh, sublimely tender and easy to chew, the makimono are all of decent standard, the gyoza paired with the fragrant spicy oil is tasty (yet not salty). The scallops with cheese are creamy and tasty without going crazy on the amount of salt used and there is no sand inside (yes, I had bit into bits of sand or some gritty stuff in such scallops in few dining establishments), though this dish must be eaten hot; leave it there for a while and the cheese will harden.

Generally speaking, I think that the cooked food is way better than the raw ones since there are times where I found the raw fishes to be quite stale.

The ambience is very conducive for casual dining in a comfortable setting. The service is very good and friendly for a mid-range restaurant, prompt in refilling of tea, due to a group of young, energetic and dedicated staff (another lady staff is very friendly also).

Definitely near the top of my list of restaurants to go to, for a quick, decent quality meal, especially for cooked food, at a wallet friendly price.

My Thoughts: Nice!

Note: This restaurant is no longer in operation.