Japanese Food Review: Kamoshita at 5 Neil Rd, Singapore 088806

Oden izakaya, anyone? That might sound strange, but Kamoshita's not the first Japanese gastro-bar in Singapore apparently to specialise in oden and sake, with hole-in-the-wall MoboMoga at Clarke Quay another notable one (watch my TikTok of our experience there). So I went with somewhat high expectations, also seeing how it was one of my first meals of 2022 (Drunken Farmer at Stanley St. being numero uno).

The restaurant itself is pretty minimal and echo-y and cold because of the concrete walls and wooden floors/furniture. I think the heavy cooking is done off-site because there isn't much of a smell. To be honest the ambiance didn't exactly feel that welcoming or comfortable for staying long and chatting over some warm oden and sake. I wish it was, but it wasn't. Service was also very perfunctory, sigh.

Here's their very traditional paper menu.  They split it into cold and warm tapas, and then there's cold and warm oden dishes followed by a page of their ala carte dishes, including the signature clay pot rice which was not available by the time we got to it. We saw some people having it so I guess we just didn't reserve or know the right people! There were also quite a lot of sake to choose from. 

We were slightly tempted by the Omakase Oden with 5 types of oden ($25) but being with picky eaters means not leaving any dish choice to the hands of the chef.

This negi crabmeat mixed with crab butter dish (S$16) was the first to be served. Interesting, to say the least, with the raw egg york (their spelling, not mine) on top of some minced crab meat and a bed of spring onions. A bit heavy on the palate to start, but quite tasty in small portions. I really felt like having some rice to go with it, too! 3/5

We then proceeded with a series of warm oden dishes - the fish cake (S$6), tofu (S$5), radish (S$5, not pictured) and lotus (S$4). The fish cake was the most interesting with the spongy texture. All of them came in some variation of room temperature or lukewarm soup made with kombu, bonito and yuzu.

The tofu one was ok. The soup was nice, but the tofu itself was just.. very plain. I'm missing the deep smokiness I know oden can have!

The lotus oden was probably my favourite amongst the 4 (the radish was rather plain as well). So far it felt like we were on some strange diet plan with these super healthy and mild dishes.

Got another carafe of sake to go with the unexciting line-up of dishes. It didn't really help that much. 

This did, though! The fried chicken thigh with marinated egg sauce (S$15) of course. Finally, crunch and oil! And the egg mayo "sauce" was so good I had second and third helpings. 4/5

We then had the highly recommended grilled radish with sea urchin (S$15). This radish definitely had a much more intense flavour but was still not impressive to me. I guess uni fans would like it, and the price is decent too. 3/5

Our last dish came pretty late, and we were also pretty sure this should have been served first instead of last. We also got it because it had udon, the carb.. It was the cold inaniwa udon and cold oden with chicken miso and egg york (S$18). The dish overall was cold and sweet - a little too sweet for any of our liking. The only good thing about it was the silky smooth udon noodles, which was very good, but a little too little too late. 3/5

Overall I wouldn't recommend Kamoshita unless you are specifically looking to try some healthy tasting oden paired with sake. The service, ambiance, and food were just too chilly to bring any comfort.

🙅 Thank you, next ✔️

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Kamoshita

5 Neil Road, Singapore 088806

Daily 5pm-10.30pm 

Reserve on Toreta (cancellation fees apply)