Fish Mart Sakuraya

Absolutely love this place. As funny as it sounds, but this place is like Japanese Restaurant speakeasy! Wait, what!!! You walk into what looks like a typical Japanese grocery store and little do you realize there is sushi/​sashimi fish mart restaurant in the back.
The fish is absolutely fresh, close to mouthwatering levels. Prices are reasonable between $ 15 – 25 for a traditional Chirashi /​Sushi spread. There doesn’t seem to be a premium between both types of dishes. Nevertheless, both are wonderful. The ambience of the place is nothing classy. In fact, it almost feels like you are eating in Tsukiji fish market.
A huge fan of the place. It is now may favourite Japanese restaurant in Katong /​Marine Parade (even better than Wahiro!)

Seafood and sashimi is fresh and value for money. Get the sake harasu mentai (grilled salmon belly)
But the other prepared food isn’t great — for example the sushi and chirashi rice wasn’t seasoned well. I’d avoid the spicy salmon maki.
A decent meal will set you back at least $ 30 per person.

I live close by so I come here often. A little too often…
For such high quality fresh fish, the prices are very reasonable. Don’t get me wrong though — if you want to spend a lot, that’s easily accomplished here too.
The general concept of the restaurant is omakase style — the chef’s recommendations are presented in this glorious case in front of the restaurant tucked in the back of a Japanese mart. I get so excited walking in and picking out exactly what I want to eat. The selection varies day to day (as it should) and they will have all sorts of things on display: uni, ankimo, tai, miso marinated salmon, fresh horseradish, yellowtail jaw, tako, etc. If you like your fish sliced on the thinner side, like me, be sure to let your server know. Like it thicker? Tell your server. It’s your call. You can of course order any sort of regular Japanese fare a la carte.
Highly Recommend:
–Anything from the case (totally obvious, I know)
–Salmon — one of the best salmon sashimi I’ve ever had and is consistently excellent
–Grilled yellowtail fin — gets a little messy getting the tender fish meat out but totally worth the work
–Any whole grilled fish
–Ankimo (monkfish liver) — appropriately served with a zippy ponzu sauce, thinly sliced scallions, and grated radish. I ask for smaller cut pieces because it’s so rich
Kaiso seaweed salad — awesome side to be nibbling throughout the meal. love the different crunch each seaweed has to offer.
–Cold sesame tofu — I usually get the organic one (it’s only 1.50 more, you end up paying 4.50). Lusciously creamy and soft. The nutty sesame dressing is divine. Yes, I know it’s the bottled stuff that they sell in the store, but who cares?
–Grilled squid — so crispy as if it was fried, but it’s charred perfectly on the grill with a touch of salt, so simple and yummy
–Kaisen Futomaki — I don’t tend to order rolls, but honestly the ones we’ve tried are all quite good. Ratio of rice is just right, rice is not overcooked and mushy, and are neatly and tightly rolled.
I am not a big fan of their fried items, sorry! The chicken karage was not as good as expected. I love that they use chicken thighs and it is indeed crispy and tender, but I felt it lacked seasoning. A while back we ordered the Wakasagi Karage (fried shishamo/​smelt) and another fried seafood item which I don’t recall right now because I was successful in removing it from my memory. Both items tasted like it had been fried in rancid oil. They handled it promptly when we complained and removed it from our bill. Mad props for that :)
Service is above average. Generally very quick and straightforward service unless it’s super busy; which is totally understandable. I think it’s always funny when the servers look surprised when I politely ask for more tea (it’s 1.50 for free flow). Their ears perk up and their eyebrows raise like it’s the first time they’ve been asked that question! It doesn’t bother me at all, it just makes me chuckle a bit. Or perhaps it’s an indication that I’ve been spending way too much time here…

Japanese grocery store with a restaurant at the back.
No frills and definitely fresh seafood. It is not exactly cheap if you end up picking a lot of expensive seafood like uni, toro, etc. Two of us ended up spending $ 100, so about $ 50 per head. I guess if you stick to the standard bento/​soba fare, it can be much cheaper.
Apart from the sashimi/​sushi, the grilled items are great too. You can pick the fish from the supermarket and they will grill it for you. yumz.
The line gets quite long at dinner time. So get there early.

It has been a long time since I’ve been to Parkway Parade and boy, the place has changed so much. After shopping for a while, we got hungry and decided to pop into Fish Mart Sakuraya, which seems to have gotten some fairly good reviews online.
The service here was pretty standard. We had reasonably prompt service which is really all I could ask for. Our food arrived quickly which was good because I was already getting hungry by the time I got here.
The place has a good variety of sashimi including the usual salmon, maguro, tai, squid, yellowtail, octopus and so on and so forth. The sashimi here was fresh enough and is probably some of the fresher ones you can find in restaurants in Singapore.
My friend has the chiraishi set which was also nice, but unfortunately the portion of fish served with the rice was a little too small. But other than that, I really have no complaints about the food and freshness here.

This is a tiny spot that closes late, which is great when one has sashimi cravings post dinner. Pick what you will at the counter, and you will be ensured of freshly sliced fish. Chirashi don was not bad, as was the cold tofu salad. Washing everything down with sake, it’s a great place to while some time away after a spot of shopping before heading home. Prices are quite friendly, and wait staff are attentive. While the restaurant is quite minimalist in affording a narrow selection, they manage to do these well.

I’m a big fan of japanese super markets, authentic ones at least. Its great to see jap chefs slicing fresh sashimi inside a supermarket. The sell a whole range of dried, packed and fresh japanese food supplies. Great if you wanna tap into the inner japanese chef at home.
What’s great is that they also have a seating area at the back for customers to dine in and the food is pretty good too.

While it seems to be just a fish market and Japanese food store upfront, you can actually find a Japanese restaurant hidden in the back of Fish Mart Sakuraya. The great thing is that you can pick out your own fresh fish for sashimi upfront, or if not they do have a pretty extensive food menu.
I tried a bunch of things — the Karaage Chicken was juicy and tender while the Ebi Tempura was decent. My table mates enjoyed the swordfish sashimi and the chirashi don, which were delicious and served up very prettily as well.
It’s not a big place so it can require a little queuing if it’s busy, but overall the food is quite good and I would definitely go back there again.