Seki Japanese Restaurant @ Rendezvous Hotel

Seki Japanese Restaurant is apparently a new addition to the Palate program, as I don't recall seeing it just one or two months ago. The Palate website erroneously stated its address as Chijmes, and we only realised it when we reached Chijmes and couldn't find it. Fortunately, Rendezvous Hotel was just 5 minutes walk away. 

In order to utilise the Palate discounts, the restaurant had certain criteria - each person must order something from their barbeque/grill section, and set meals are not included. They called the barbeque/grill section 'main courses', which was quite weird since dishes from this section do not come with rice, and noodles/rice are not considered as 'main courses'. Hmm.

Sapporo beer, $12

First, an icy cold beer to signal the end of a working day! They had a 1-for-1 promotion too, so effectively it's just $6 per bottle, which was pretty worth it. The beer was quite light and easy to drink too.

Assorted sashimi - uni ($28), mekajiki ($17), salmon ($12)

When this plate came, three thoughts came to my mind.

1) The amount of uni (sea urchin) given was pathetic,
2) The mekajiki's (sword fish) colour seemed a little off, and
3) The salmon sashimi didn't look very fresh, as it was a bit too dark in colour.

The salmon turned out to be better that it looked, though it was still not fantastic. The mekajiki was still quite all right, while the uni was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it's because I was comparing it to when I ate it at Taiwan. One plate of it cost me just S$18 there, and the portion was around five to six times more. Additionally, it was so fresh, briny, and had the melt-in-your-mouth feeling - none of which were present in Seki. 

Foie gras chawanmushi, $9

Normal chawanmushi costs $6, while their foie gras version cost an extra $3. I thought they would steam the chawanmushi with the foie gras inside, so that the taste of the liver would permeate throughout the dish. But I was obviously wrong. They simply placed the foie gras on top of the chawanmushi. And the foie gras wasn't good, either.

Shishamo, $6

Finally, a satisfactory starter! This was quite good. Fried just nicely such that it wasn't too oily and yet not too dry.

Ika Shioyaki, $20

A piece of squid grilled simply with salt. I found this to be quite delicious, albeit a bit too salty.

Saba Shioyaki, $12

Just like the former dish, this was too salty. It was a little too dry as well.

Nabeyaki Udon, $12

Ordered this as the proper main course. It tasted quite all right.

Cha Soba, $8

My gf ordered this. I didn't like the texture of the noodles - I found it a bit too coarse.

To sum up, Seki failed to impress. Our total bill, after a 50% discount, came up to $87, which was still a bit expensive. Of course, the uni sashimi played a big part in bumping up the total bill. If I had to come here again, I would just order two (proper) main courses, two more from the barbeque/grill section, and at most one other starter. The total bill should be around $30 for two pax, which is much more reasonable. 

Update as of 12th May 2012:

Checked Palate's website, and they have apparently updated the correct address.