District Sushi Review: Bara Chirashi Don And Salmon Mentaiyaki At $10 Each At Sunshine Plaza

I was bone-tired from just travelling there once, towards the end of my final semester, but I dragged myself through the tedium of comparing shop rates and quality. For such a quiet neighbourhood, I passed a good number of eateries I felt eager to explore but the hot afternoon walk from the train station left me absolutely drained. District Sushi is one of the new additions to the neighbourhood that comes with a perpetual line outside.

Bara Chirashi Don At $10 Nett | District Sushi Food at District Sushi A typical bara chirashi don in most eateries easily burns close to 20 bucks so their Bara Chirashi Don , which goes at $10 , was understandably one of the crowd-favourites. Spring onions and white sesame seeds garnished it with a dollop of wasabi on the side, and a poached prawn decorated it like a star on a Christmas tree. It was lunch that looked modestly priced for the amount of sashimi and the careful plating that went into it.

The medium-sized prawn was deshelled, leaving just its head and tail, so its meat was easy to devour. The raw fish cubes were soft and fresh without fishiness and the small pieces of octopus lent some chewiness to the dish.

My only gripe was that the Japanese rice was unevenly cooked, especially as it was a recurring problem for the rest of our dishes. Some grains were hard and undercooked while the centre of the bowl was clumpy and mushy.

It seems like the restaurant still needs more time to stabilise and cater to the crowd. Unagi Kabayaki ($12) glistened with a thick glaze of sauce and was freckled with white sesame seeds. The unagi slab was sizeable enough to satisfy a heavy craving with enough savouriness to savour most of the bowl.

What would make me crave this enough to travel just for it is if its top side in addition carried slight crisp and some char. Salmon sashimi and unagi might make up my usual cravings for Japanese food but Salmon Mentaiyaki ($10) is what I’d repeat at District Sushi.

Like the Unagi Kabayaki, the rice had sauce and seaweed with a salmon fillet resting upon it. A bite into their salmon fillet smeared my lips with mentaiko sauce as they were so generous with it that it was like gooey thick cream mixing with the meat in my mouth.

The fish wasn’t overcooked so it was soft and moist, rather than company and meaty, which was just how I wanted it. Beside the cashier was a basic sashimi counter behind which, the chef was doling out a line of bara chirashi don.

The walls inside were bare but table decorations helped warm the place and the food was the main draw anyway. It’s a place to swing by, for sure, as there’s as well a range of sashimi, nigiri sushi, and more donburi to taste.