At sushi express, everything is $1.50++ per plate. And from what I know, it used to be $1.80++ (already cheap). $1.50++ is quite unbelievable and of course I was sceptical of the quality initially, but was soon proven otherwise! The shocking part was that some of the items uses premium ingredients like salmon belly or sea urchin. Who needs substandard sushi conveyor belt buffets when you can have cheap and good sushi for $1.50++ per plate? I used to think it’s impossible to find cheap and good sushi in Singapore but apparently it’s not true!
Obviously, do not expect Shinji standard sushi and sashimi here, but everything was much better than expectations! It’s much better than the sloppy kind you get from Umi Sushi, where the rice is not even sushi rice and the fish are just cut and placed on top without proper pressing.
Even on a weekday, there was a long queue during dinner time. However, we queued for roughly 30minutes and I guess it’s a reasonable waiting time. We had time to decide what we wanted, looking at the huge menu placed outside. They do not have menus inside, so it’s best to know what you want, in order not to miss something out!
Luckily or unluckily (depends how you view it), the conveyor belt we were seated next to had broken down today so we had to order from the chef/ waiters. It was fine by me, as I wasn’t after the novelty of the conveyor belt anyway. The chef in front of us was very helpful and friendly and I’d say his service was excellent! I don’t think it’s even in his job scope to take our orders but he did so without any bad attitude.
Tea is free flow and you may use as many tea bags as you like.
I had 9 plates myself and 8 of them were salmon dishes. The salmon today was very fresh and fatty! Come to think of it, my review may be a little unreliable since I only tried the salmon personally. I can assure you that the salmon is good but I am in no position to comment about the other ingredients.
So just based on the salmon, the standard wasn’t inferior to the Japanese restaurants I usually visit, but at a fraction of the price. For example, salmon nigiri sushi at the normal restaurants I visit cost $6.00++ or $8.00++ per pair but at Sushi Express, the price is only a quarter of it! The best part is: they used salmon belly.
My favourite type of nigiri sushi is the aburi salmon and over here it was really good, I had 4 servings of it.
I do not recommend the Grilled Salmon Belly though. It wasn’t as good as the aburi salmon sushi or raw salmon belly.
The sashimi here is shockingly $1.50++ too! This includes salmon belly. From the looks of it, they cut all salmon belly for the sushi, but upon request the chef prepared plates of salmon belly sashimi for us. He gave us 4 slices of sushi cut salmon belly as 1 portion, which was great value as you only get 2 of those if you order it as sushi.
They have sea urchin too (unbelievable for $1.50++) but it was kind of bitter. Not the best around but what do you expect for $1.50++?
The current promotion now is that everyone gets a slice of blueberry cheesecake! It was not bad. It was served on the pink plate and is not chargeable.
And here are the final results: 35 plates for 3 people!
The 9 plates which stuffed me to the brim cost me $13.50++! Possibly the best deal in town!
Tip #1: some items, not in the menu, can be ordered if you ask.
Tip #2: sit at the side of the conveyor belt, facing the preparation area of the chef. You get to see what’s freshly made and you can even order through the friendly chef, which is much speedier than through the waiters.
*****
Ambience: 6/10
Food: 7.5/10
Value: 9/10
Overall: brings the meaning of cheap and good to a new level!
*****
Citylink Mall
1 Raffles Link
#B1-23
Tel: 62389811
*****
Daily: 11am – 11pm
Hungry Bird 