When one thinks of Japan Rail, one will think of Shinkansen, which one may have seen in Japanese dramas or movies. Or just something everyone knows as a ‘Bullet Train.’
Now, if I were to tell you, you need not head all the way to Japan to buy the train tickets when you are having your holidays, not knowing which train or the Japanese language barrier to go to your holiday destination, and you can get them right in Singapore, will you be happier? If I were to tell you, you need not head to Japan or envy your friends travelling there to buy some nice yummy food, souvenirs, and get to savor ‘Western Japanese cuisine’ using the finest seasonal ingredients, will you be thrilled?
Enter Japan Rail Café, a one stop shop where you can get all JR Rail tickets to all JR lines (JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR West, JR Central, JR Shikoku and JR Kyushu), as well as Japan Sim card, retail (‘Eki Naka’ which means ‘in station shopping’, savor freshly baked pastries from Asanoya Bakery, and the main draw, the café.
This is the first overseas café opened by East Japan Railway Co., with an eye of setting up more of such cafes in Southeast Asia such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur in the near future.
It is very convenient to get to Japan Rail Café, which is located at the newly opened Tanjong Pagar Centre, right on top of the MRT station.
Sunday was the soft opening, but I went to find out more on Tuesday instead.
I was there at 11.30 a.m. Went to the entrance of the JR Rail pass and retail section to have a look. I was warmly greeted by the staff at the retail shop. It is not a very big shop, but you can find many interesting items such as seasonal foods, snacks, drinks, clothing, handkerchiefs, and handmade bags.
One of the staff, Ray (a kawaii Japanese lady) introduced some of the unique seasonal produce from Aomori. Apple pickle, apple stick snacks, interesting pasta such as ‘Jellyfish Dream Pasta’ (real jellyfish is the main ingredient), Snow Flake Pasta (snowflake shaped), pasta sauce and others.
Also, a special section on Noriyo Ozawa’s Basket Selection, where the baskets are all hand made with wild grape wine and bamboo. The baskets remind me of my grandparents time, the rattan style baskets. Pretty vintage stuff.
What attracts me most is the selection of Japanese handkerchiefs; a myriad of colors, shapes and designs which will make you want to by one for yourself or your loved ones. There are couple of gift set handkerchiefs for sale as well.
As Japan Rail Café is newly opened (soft opening on 4th Dec), the menu selection is limited for now, and the ingredients used are from Tohoku region, which is the north eastern part of Honshu. The six prefectures under Tohoku are Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata.
NOTE: For December 2016, the café is only opened from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., serving 30 diners max daily.
At 11.50 am., I was told to queue to get a seat for lunch at the café. I was the second customer, so I need not wait long before I was ushered to a table. I was given a hand phone strap souvenir with Tohoku Japan labelled on it. Quite an interesting souvenir.
The menu itself was designed like a newspaper, with information about Tohoku and the menu selection. For now, the main menu is limited to 3 types, Watashino Curry Rice + Drink, Kaisen Avocado Don + Drink and Beauty Salad + Drink.
I chose Watashino Curry Rice + Drink. For now, there is a choice of any drink that goes with the set lunch, I chose Uji-Maccha Latte.
Uji-Maccha Latte came first, and I took a sip. It was refreshing, without too much of the ‘thickness’ of the usual maccha drink. It taste a bit like the Thai styled milk green tea; only much better.
My main course arrived. I had chosen fried oysters and Aomori scallops. I was expecting the usual Japanese curry rice flavor, but how wrong I was! The curry sauce wasn’t that sweet as the normal Japanese sweet curry, with hints of fruit, in the curry. Also, there was minced meat, which I verified with the waiter as minced beef. 4 fried oysters and 4 Aomori scallops were placed on top of the rice, accompanied by salad.
The fried oysters were very well breaded. Fried on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside.
The stir-fried butter scallops were delightful, not too chewy, and very tender. By the way, Aomori is renowned for their great seafood, produce, especially scallops.
It was overall a very enjoyable experience at Japan Rail Café, and I will want to come back to savor their other dishes in time to come!
Japan Rail Café
5 Wallich Street, #01-20/21 Tanjong pagar Centre
Singapore 078883
Opening hours:
Mon to Sat (11 a.m. to 9 p.m.)
Sun (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
pumpuileo 