Rikyu at Fairway Club

What's there in Fairway Club? Well, although I had been staying in Jurong vicinity all of my life (at least till now), I had only been there less than 5 times and can vaguely remember that there was a chinese restaurant (Yun Nan) when I attended a wedding. Besides that I can hardly remember there was a Japanese restaurant.

Fairway Club

Formerly known as Sobasei Japanese restaurant for over 20 years, Rikyu is just located opposite the Chinese restaurant in Fairway club, just beside the concierge.

Sobasei's entrance

Irrashaimasse, which means welcome in Japanese was heard when we stepped into the emptied restaurant. As this was our first time dining there, we were a little uncomfortable upon seeing such emptiness. However, the crowd starts coming in after a while.

Furnishing of the restaurant was entirely authentic Japanese culture with grids decors and some private rooms for events. The dining place was spacious and large, brightly lited with elegant decors. There are also two tatami rooms and two private dining rooms, ideal for family gatherings, business entertainment or private events catering up to 100 guests.

Interior Decors

 As the first customers for dinner, we were guided to the seat with a good view of the driving range through the window panels.

Window View with Driving Range

 To ensure the quality and freshness of food, Rikyu receives two air flown deliveries per week from Japan. Although the restaurant name was renamed, the extensive Sobasei menu was left unchanged. It comes in a clear booklet form with lots of items. After flipping the booklet for a few times, we were still quite at loss of what to eat. The server suggested that we could take up their promotional set item which was displayed near the entrance.

Menu

Here's the displayed set of bento near the entrance.

Each table has a set of condiments on them, just like most of the Japanese restaurant. 

Condiments

Ordered the Unagi set meal as well as sushi bento set. The unagi set meal comes with a good portion of Japanese rice with warm grilled unagi coated with sweet tasting sauce. Seaweed was added to enhance the taste too.

Part of Unagi Set - $25 ++

 The Unagi set also comes with a bowl of fresh salad, pickles and miso soup. Love the freshly prepared salad that was served chill with goma dressing.The dressing makes the bowl of salad "alive" added more nutritional value to it.

Salad and sweet sauce

Items of the set comes one by one and was prepared fresh from the kitchen. The croquette and fried ebi (prawn) was fried to golden brown, presented in a elegant dish. Doused them into the given dipping sauce, perfect!

Tempura & Croquette

My heavy dinner comes in 6 portions on the bento box. It was interesting to me as I had never had my meal in such form. Service was attentive with a cheerful lady helper topping up our cups of tea once in a while. She had also advised me to finish up my soba first when she saw me keep munching those sashimi instead.

The sashimi was fresh, surprisingly. Love the thick pieces of fresh meat accompanied but the soaring gush of spiciness that went up to the top of my head everytime when wasabi was added. Another surprise given was its saba fish. While I'm expecting the strong fishy smell from most saba fish even after squeezing the lemon juice onto them,theirs saba fish wasn't as bad.

Their handmade buckwheat soba noodle was specially done by the team of supporting a skilled force of chef.

Sushi Bento - $32 ++

The chilled noodles together with the garnishing and soba sauce is a good alternative to replace the Japanese rice if you want to go for a lighter meal.

Spring Onions for Soba, Wasabi for sushi and dipping sauce for tempura!

These cute little bowl of chawanmushi came towards the end of the meal, scalding hot on the ceramic. It's texture was extremely smooth and flawless. Though it was plain with just a slice of mushroom, it was already good. These bowls of steamed egg was pure, tasted like there was no MSG added.

Chawanmushi that comes with the set

Attended by a friendly lady who manned the cashier counter, for those who are driving, you need not have to worry about parking fees. There will be a complimentary ticket given when you to go out of the carpark gantry. During payment, I had forgotten to take back my credit card and the lady rushed out and returned the card to me.

Fortune Cat

Overall, I had a very good impression on their service and I would recommend for decent Japanese Food, if you want to avoid the noisy shopping malls, this is definitely a good place to dine in but do take note that they are not operating on Sunday.

Rating: 4 / 5

Rikyu Japanese Restaurant
Location: Fairway Club, 11, Japanese Garden Road, Singapore 619229 Tel: 6261 1211
Operation Hours: 11.30am – 2.30pm & 6.00pm – 9.30pm (Mon to Sat)
Call 6266 1102 for more information/reservations.