Sushi Zanmai – Successful Sushi Chain with More Than 36 Outlets Serving Up Affordable Tasty Japanese Food & Yu Sheng in Holland Village

With 36 wildly successful outlets in our neighbouring country, Malaysia, Sushi Zanmai has made its first foray into Singapore. And they chose an excellent location may I add — Holland Village. The popular neighbourhood has seen quite a bit of changes recently, and a highly-rated Japanese restaurant is very much welcomed. Sushi Zanmai prides itself on having an amazingly-extensive menu that boasts more than 280 dishes. That’s an incredible number of items, and as you can imagine, you will certainly be spoilt for choice here. With a strong focus on well-made sushi and fresh sashimi, the restaurant also impresses with large varieties of cooked food such as Yakimono, Agemono, and Nabe.

Sitting on the third floor of Raffles Holland V Mall, the restaurant is easily accessible from the train station, and overlooks the busy streets of my hood. You see, I have been living in Holland Village for a while now, and I constantly lament the lack of great Japanese food. I am also one to avoid chain restaurants usually, but I’m so glad I gave Sushi Zanmai a try, because I will be coming back alot, and with my pals no less.

As I was browsing through the menu, I found it difficult to decide what to eat, given how indecisive I am. First world problems, indeed. What really caught my eye was the prices — a whole nabe pot for $14.80? A Dragon Roll for $10.80? Wait, what? We quizzically asked about the exceptionally affordable prices here, and the manager shared with us that Sushi Zanmai is able to provide high quality Japanese food at affordable prices because they procure their raw ingredients directly from suppliers. He went on to say that their ultimate goal is to have happy customers. Well, now that has intrigued us, and we went a little overboard with the ordering.

Even though it’s not CNY yet, we started off with the Prosperity Sushi Zanmai Yu Sheng ($23.80/2-4pax) which comes with 8 slices of salmon sashimi. We decided to load our platter with more huat-s in the form of nama hotate($9.80/8 slices), maguro akami($13.80/8 slices), kanpachi($13.80/8 slices) and otoro($23.80/8 slices) too. We want to ring in as much huat-ness as possible! We poured the accompanying honey sauce, olive oil and smattering of tempura crisps over, and tossed to a better year ahead. We liked that the sauces were not too strong in taste, and we could still very much taste the freshness and natural flavours of the sashimi slices. Delicious! The Prosperity Yu Sheng is now available for preorder at Sushi
Zanmai Raffles Holland V Mall, and every order comes with free red packets (while stocks last).

We were surprised to hear that Sushi Zanmai offers single piece sushi, priced from just $0.80 for a piece of Tamago Sushi. Popular options include Salmon Sushi($1.20), Toro Sushi($4.80) and Uni Sushi($9.80). You can build your own sushi platter with their wide assortment of nigiri. We liked that the sushi rice was adequately seasoned, and had the right texture.

We moved onto an assortment of appetizers next. The Karasu Karei Teriyaki($9.80) which sees Atlantic flounder carefully grilled, will please those who love soft white fish. The Gyuniku Enoki Roll($9.80), which features grilled angus striploin wrapped around golden mushroom, had a nice crunch and lovely bursts of juiciness and sweetness. We especially enjoyed the Salmon Carpaccio ($8.80) dressed in a savoury sauce! The plump salmon slices were incredibly addictive. You would think we would have had enough sashimi by now, but no! The sashimi slices were so fresh and good!

The Hanasaki Ika Tempura($9.80) was an instant winner in our books — it was crisp and light and tasted even better after a quick dip in the accompanying mayonnaise.

Another dish that we will highly recommend is the Hamaguri Butter Shoyu Yaki($12.80). Expect sweet clams lightly bathed in a delightful shoyu butter sauce that will have you reaching for seconds.

One of the key highlights and a 100% must-order is the Spicy Niku Nabe ($14.80) which comes with either angus striploin (100g) or Japanese pork belly(120g). Just look at that pot brimming with ingredients! I absolutely cannot believe that it’s priced so affordably!

Once the broth begins to boil, place the slices of beef or pork belly in it and wait a little while for them to be cooked through. As someone who does not take spicy food at all, I found the heat level of the broth to be just perfect. The broth packed a little punch, and was so delicious that I wolfed down two bowls of it. My dining companions all unanimously agreed that this was our favourite item of the lot! All you need is a bowl of steaming white rice, and you have yourself a really solid meal. And trust me, you will give this a thumbs up as well! Once again, it’s $14.80!! I might still be in shock.

Now, we all go a little nuts for pretty sushi rolls like this. Sushi Zanmai has got a great collection of these gorgeous bite-sized flavour bombs. We couldn’t quite decide between the Dragon Roll or Golden Roll($10.80) but finally landed on the latter as it’s a more interesting rendition with mango. As expected, the mango added a light kick of sweetness and a hint of tanginess which complemented the fried prawn exceedingly well. This also earned stamps of approval from all of us.

If you’re planning to come by for a quick lunch or dinner, the noodles or rice dishes will be right up your alley. We suggest going for the crowd-pleasing Bara Chirashi Don($14.80) topped with cubes of fresh fish, tamago, and tobiko. You won’t go wrong with this, and why not make your meal even better by ordering a serving of piping hot chawanmushi!

We certainly were very pleased with the prices and quality of the food at Sushi Zanmai, and I know I will be coming here again and again, especially when it serves the best value-for-money Japanese cuisine in my hood! Even though the restaurant is just 1.5 months old, it has already garnered quite a following, and proves to be fairly busy during peak hours. Do call in to make a reservation so you don’t have to wait in line.

For more information, please visit https://www.instagram.com/sushizanmaisingapore/

This post is brought to you in partnership with Sushi Zanmai.