Cuisine: Japanese

Address: 76 Telok Ayer St, Singapore 048464

Nearest MRT: Telok Ayer (Downtown Line) / Chinatown (Downtown/ North-east Line)

A colleague recommended me to go to this Japanese restaurant using the Eatigo discount. They used to have 50% off main food items during dinner but now it has been reduced to 40%. It is still quite substantial savings, considering that the chirashi don are at least $30 and above.

Jin Fine Dining offers some of the best Japanese cuisine in Singapore, serving a tantalising collection of dishes that are suitable for casual business meeting and group gatherings. The menu features a wide selection of Chirashi, Sashimi, Sushi, Maki, Temaki, Yakimono, and more. We didn’t know we had walked past the restaurant without realising it until we double checked with Google maps again. Walking along Telok Ayer Street, when you walk past Fu Tak Chi museum, you need to go inside by crossing over the relatively high doorstep. It leads to the reception counter of the boutique Amoy hotel on the left and also the Japanese restaurant on the right.

The entrance of the restaurant is marked by a Japanese-style noren (a Japanese fabric divider). We were the first patrons of the restaurant for dinner when we arrived at 6pm. Afterwards, there were 3-4 groups of other diners who streamed in during that hour.

The interior of the restaurant is quite simple, with a sushi bar for the individual diners and about 20 tables for bigger groups. There is a huge cabinet for Japanese alcohol such as whiskey, beer, sake and other beverages.

For starters, we had the avocado soft shell maki. It consisted of soft shell crab which was lightly fried, wrapped with thinly sliced buttery avocado wrapped on the outside. It was enjoyable and the crispy crab paired well with the avocado. Some other places had their roll served cold, but for this we could still feel the warmth of the freshly fried soft shell crab which did not give off an overly oily taste.

My friend ordered the chicken katsu don as he was not a fan of sashimi. The verdict was that it was an average dish, nothing special about it. There was nothing much to prepare except to pan fried the breaded chicken with eggs and onions. This is a typical dish that you can also find it at the Japanese stalls in food courts.

I had the Jin Chirashi because I was drawn to the one with sea urchin. Besides that, there was also salmon, tuna, scallop, sweet prawn, white tuna and salmon roe. The key to having a good chirashi is the freshness of the ingredients, in this case it exceeded my expectations. I saw the chef slice the thick slices of raw fish and place them neatly on the top of the Japanese sticky rice. The rice is also special because it contains some flavour from the bonito flakes. The serving of this dish is generous and there was definitely more fish to go around than the rice. Miso soup was also served on the side.

Would I come back to Jin fine dining again? Yes, if there is discount again. I would not be willing to pay the full price for the food as this is one of the more premium Japanese restaurants. The chirashi don is definitely worth a try if you can stomach raw fish. For the lunchtime crowd, Jin also offers a lunch set menu starting from $18.80. It includes a main course, rice, miso soup and salad. All prices quoted are excluding GST and service charge. We paid $52 for two people after discount, including a drink of iced water ($1) and hot green tea ($2.50).