Chotto Matte

By Esther Rachel Lai. - 3/18/2015

For some reason, the foodie in Shane suddenly came over him last week and we literally braved the storm to find this quaint Japanese restaurant/cafe that Shane had planned to surprise me with. I'm usually the one who goes all out searching the net for a good place to dine at and when Shane kept telling me about how superb the reviews of this place was and how merely reading the reviews made his mouth water so much, he just HAD to bring me here hahaha.

& without further ado, let me introduce to you...
Chotto Matte
54 Blair Road #01-01
Singapore 089954

Chotto Matte is about a 10-15 minute walk away from the Outram Park Mrt station and can be quite hard to spot since it's tucked away in a corner but it's one of those gems you find in the most underrated, unexpected sort of places which makes it even better because you don't have to worry about not having a seat! Or maybe it's because by the time we got there, it was past dinner time and there weren't much customers so the place was quiet which made us feel pretty exclusive but it wasn't one bit awkward at all (you know how sometimes you step into a quiet restaurant and you feel like you should turn back immediately)! The staff were really warm and friendly and the place itself felt really cosy - perfect for our night because we were caught in a storm trying to get to this place and ended up half drenched. A* to the waitress who offered to serve me a warm glass of water when she saw me rubbing my shoulders.

The restaurant feels really warm from this picture doesn't it?! The orange wall and warm lightings, I give it's ambience a 10/10. They serve Japanese food but the interior kinda gives it a more European feel, pretty unique though!

& yes! They have a bar as well so you can have a few drinks along with your meal as well!

Chotto Matte's menu! They're kind of like a fine-dining restaurant as well so you can go for their 3 or 4 course meal but Shane and I opted to stick to the à la carte cause we wanted to try quite a few dishes that weren't included in the courses. Didn't try their cocktail, instead I chose hot green tea to warm me up since I was practically trembling but I did see some pretty intereting drinks I'd love to try, such as their Nutella Marshmallows cocktail. Sounds damn yummy right? Oh! their tea is at $5 a cup but it's refillable so thumbs up to that!

For our first dish, we had the Deep Fried Salmon Scale with Curry Mayo. Okay, I personally already love deep fried fish skin to death but the curry mayo was DA BOMB. It went so well with the fish skin and I almost wanted to order another serving of this. Frankly, the curry mayo didn't appeal to me at first when I read the menu but decided to order anyway since I had cravings for fish skin and boy, was I glad I did! Shane & I polished the plate and left not a single crumb behind! I think this was my favourite dish out of all, you can never go wrong with deep fried fish skin!

While still indulging in our plate of salmon skin, we were served the Chef's Selection of Sashimi.
Shane & I don't fancy squid or octopus sashimi so we requested for anything under than that and the chef gave us prawns, scallops and a good variety of fish sashimi! I really have to commend, the scallops were VERY succulent, possibly the best scallop sashimi I've had too! & for the record, I HATE tuna sashimi because of the strong bloody taste but this one had no bloody taste at all! It was really tasty and fresh, it really surprised me that I actually LOVED it! Really different from previous tuna sashimi I've tried, if everywhere were to serve tuna sashimi of this standard, I'd have it at every Japanese eatery I go!
I thought the Salmon and Swordfish Sashimi were normal though but still fresh and thickly cut unlike most places these days that stinge on the portion and give you a measely slice that's almost as thin as tissue paper. There was also one more kind of fish on the plate of sashimi, I think it's yellowtail? I'm not sure but that tasted good as well! & the prawns? BIG AND JUICY! I wish there were more than two so I could stuff myself silly. So so delicious!

Next we had the grilled scallop skewer. I thought that squiggle of yellow paste at the side was curry mayo and dipped a chunk of it onto my scallop only to find out that it's...i'm not even sure what it is, wasabi mustard? And because of that, I couldn't really taste the scallop proper after that but I think it was lacking in flavour, maybe a dash of salt and pepper would've done the trick.

We also ordered the Torched Salmon Roll (I think we ordered a lot that day. Hahaaha). When Shane first sent me the picture of this dish, I thought it was topped with mentai mayo and I was really looking forward to this but unfortunately, it wasn't so I guess this kind of disappointed me a little? After this, I searched the menu for Mentai dishes to satisfy my taste buds but sadly, they didn't have any that day :( 

Grilled lamb rack. I love my lamb and felt that this could be tastier. It was lacking that "lamb-ish" taste & I think maybe marinating it with herbs before grill would've enhanced the taste a lot more.

I did zero research prior to my visit to Chotto Matte because Shane wanted to surprise me and denied me of my rights to check up on the place. When Shane told me that this Wagyu Foagura Fried Rice (which is essentially, fried rice with wagyu beef and foie gras) was highly raved about, I didn't really buy it cause like, Japanese food & fried rice? Didn't quite appeal to me.

But when I put a slice of the Foie Gras in my mouth, OMG. So good?! & the wagyu beef was damn tasty as well! Shane &; I shared a bowl and we finished the very last grain of it! I totally understand what all the hype's about! You gotta try it to believe it!

Shane's favourite, grilled Unagi (Eel). Again, this is one of the few things I don't eat cause I find that Unagi are usually very fishy and most times, scaly. But Chotto Matte really ensured that there was not a single piece of scale on the Unagi and the sweetness teriyaki sauce eliminated any fishy taste as well!

So that was my surprise dinner date at Chotto Matte! It's a really nice quiet place to dine at or even just chill with friends over a few drinks and bites. For the quality of the food we had, I'd say the price is pretty reasonable too! 
Thought I'd share this place with you guys cause the ambience and food is really great! Should totally check it out if you can!






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