Address: 200 Victoria Street, Bugis Junction #01-53/53A Singapore 188021
Date of visit: 14 August 2008

Japanese things are just so cute and in a way “cool”. Products and services seem to take on a different positive shine when they are branded as Japanese or Japan Inspired. You have a local electronic product maker calling themselves Akira - somehow the brand reminds me of the anime of the same name. And also various other establishments trying to brand themselves as from the land of the rising sun (hmm…our country should also get a similar tag…the land of the 81 members of parliament…or the land of ever rising costs…land of many ministers….land of inconsequential land mass).

This form of branding could have been adopted by Shokudo Japanese Coffee House. They have (1) a Japanese name and yes (2) they have included the word “Japanese” just in case you did not catch their drift.

The place was done up rather nicely. Bright, airy and chic furniture. It was located along the air conditioned indoor alley way of the Bugis Junction shopping centre - this afforded plenty of opportunities to people watch.

We started off with the Iced Yuzu Soda (S$4.80). Yuzu is apparently a type of ..yes..Japanese.. Citrus fruit. It was refreshing and quite unique compared to the normal calamari or lime based drinks.

Our starter came in the form of the Ebi Puri Puri Age (or fried batter prawn with wasabi sauce, S$7.80). This starter unfortunately came after our main course. So it could be said to be a non-starter…hahahah. It was quite tasty. I liked the wasabi sauce.

The wife had the Kinoko Wafu Aglio Olio Spaghetti (S$12.80). Sad to say it was decidedly normal.

We were unanimous in our preference for the Waraku Pasta version.

I had the Grilled Chicken Curry Omu (S$14.80). This dish I think is for the patrons who are unsure of what they want. To me, it felt too much like a hotch potch of stuff mashed together. It also felt like something I (with my rather limited culinary skills) would put together to try to impress a girl. In fact, I found commonalities between my neighbourhood coffeeshops mixed rice dish (S$2.50 - S$3.00 for 3 items) and Shokudo’s version.

Our day at the eatery took a turn for the worse when a shadow loomed over me and one of the waiters barked out the following in a rather aggressive tone:

“Hello”

“HELLO*”
* trust me, there was nothing friendly in his greeting…it is amazing how someone could turn hello into a pseudo swear world. It felt almost like being greeted in the army by a staff sergeant who had a vendetta against life in general.
“erm…yah,” my surprised answer at being greeted with such aggression.

“IS THIS YOUR DISH??” He evil eyed me while thrusting some food item towards my direction.

“NO,” I returned his evil eye and continued to stare at him while he marched off without apologizing.

Thus, this eatery’s attempt to disguise itself as a Japanese one was wrecked by the serious bad attitude of that one waiter. Sigh.