Chikuwa Tei

10 days gone without blogging. It doesn’t look very long but it sure feels like it. While I am still sitting on a pile of work, I think I deserve a break after battling through Edbert’s quantum mechanics homework.

Fans of the old Wasabi Tei in Far East Plaza ought to know that Chef Peter Teo has moved to a swanky location in Mohamed Sultan. This new place, Chikuwa Tei (nothing to do with chikus, mind you), couldn’t be more different from the old restaurant. For the uninitiated, Wasabi Tei is (the restaurant still exists but with a different owner) this dumpy little store which sits barely 20 in a U-shaped counter. The chef ran the kitchen singlehandedly with his wife doing the cleaning. This system obviously produces a lot frayed nerves and rarely a meal goes by without Chef Peter making a sharp rebuke to his wife or an indecisive customer. Once, he even had a policy to take order from each person only once! Things have improved in the new place obviously.

Chikuwa Tei still excels in all things raw. We had the Sashimi Platter which had generous slices of salmon, salmon belly, yellowtail, tuna, swordfish, sakura shrimp and a scallop. All were great, especially the swordfish which was firm, springy and bursting with intramuscular fats. On the day we went, the restaurant happened to receive a shipment of deep sea scallops and botan ebi. How could we miss that? The freshly shucked scallops were on a totally different plane in sweetness and texture from the regular ones. To describe it, the fibres of the flesh are still well defined and when you bite into it, it breaks apart almost like the scallop has been blanched ever so rapidly. By the way, did you know that even most sashimi-grade scallops were blast frozen? I cannot vouch for the botan ebi though. It tasted fine but the slimy texture is not to my liking.



The grilled fish (eel, cod and salmon) are all still as good as they used to be. They are boldy grilled to the point where the skin almost burns while not overcooking the flesh. The sweet and intense teriyaki goes well with rice. The thinly sliced raw cabbage salad may be overlooked by some, but to me it remains an enigma how he gets rid of the bitterness and ‘greeness’ of vegetable.

Unfortunately, that’s about as far as the strength of Chikuwa Tei goes. I thought the cod nabe was ho-hum. Worse still was the assorted tempura which came soggy and oily. Obviously, the quality control in the back kitchen still has some way to go.


If I were to return to Chikuwa Teo, I will stick with either of these strategies: stick with sashimi and rice or order one of the grilled fish sets.