Jou Jou Sushiya

If you did not do some detective work, you may never find this place. This shop is at Toa Payoh's HDB Hub area. It is a local Japanese food joint and it is a no-frills kind of place. It's location is not the best: behind a row of other shops (i.e. cannot be seen immediately) and riddled with poor ventilation despite very recent renovation.

It is nestled among well known roasted meat eateries like Hiang Ji and Choo Chiang and at first glance, I would not really try it. One day though, my mum packed a Japanese Bento back for me and upon asking, it was from Jou Jou. It was surprisingly good and value-for-money.

I decided to go there and try it for myself. Environment wise, one cannot be too picky. You would have to bear with the heat as mentioned, ventilation is poor. The same goes for other stores in that same row. I could get a decent bento for $6.80 and if I added a dollar or so, I could get a chawanmushi and hot/cold green tea. The portions are substantial and food tasted like restaurant standard. Delicious! When I mean substantial, it means I actually felt full and unlike those food court Japanese bentos that give you thinly sliced salmon or pork katsus. These are really thick slices. My personal favourite so far is the unagi bento.

I do not think they sell pork but to ensure that you are ordering the right thing, they have got a symbol of the animal at the side of the food pictures. Other than bentos, they also have udon, ramen and sushi. All sushi will be discounted at 8.30

Service was up to standard too. I suppose there is a lot of competition as well and so they need to establish good customer relationship. Whatever the reason, one could feel that they were genuinely friendly. Well, just this week alone, I have eaten there twice, so...I will keep going back!

Follow this link to get the address. Or, if you are well oriented with HDB Hub, walk towards the row of shops where there is Watsons.  Look out for Sin Ma and Singtel phone shop. There will be an inning to get to the back row shops. Enter there to find mini food haven :)