Meidi-ya at Liang Court...
Well, we like Japanese styled food. I think most of us do.
But Japanese food has always been freaking expensive. Somehow I never really noticed it until I moved to my own place.
Probably cos at my own place, I now have the option of preparing them on my own.
Cos last time at my parent's place, I never thought of doing it on my own so I just went out to eat at restaurants without really thinking too much of it.
But now... at my own place. Things are different. We think, HEY, we can eat Jappy food at around half the price.
So I went to Meidi-ya recently and decided to get pack of unagi... eel.
I highly doubt Sushi Tei is going to prepare their own eel. They probably just buy the prepacked ones and just serve it in a nice box.
So I thought, heck, if Sushi Tei gets the prepacked stuff, then might as well I do that myself.
So a pack of unagi at Meidi-ya costs $16.80. I forgot to take a picture of it.
Anyway it looks like this...
Well, we like Japanese styled food. I think most of us do.
But Japanese food has always been freaking expensive. Somehow I never really noticed it until I moved to my own place.
Probably cos at my own place, I now have the option of preparing them on my own.
Cos last time at my parent's place, I never thought of doing it on my own so I just went out to eat at restaurants without really thinking too much of it.
But now... at my own place. Things are different. We think, HEY, we can eat Jappy food at around half the price.
So I went to Meidi-ya recently and decided to get pack of unagi... eel.
I highly doubt Sushi Tei is going to prepare their own eel. They probably just buy the prepacked ones and just serve it in a nice box.
So I thought, heck, if Sushi Tei gets the prepacked stuff, then might as well I do that myself.
So a pack of unagi at Meidi-ya costs $16.80. I forgot to take a picture of it.
Anyway it looks like this...
 |  |
Pictures are taken from Sushi Tei menu.
Ok... so I bought a pack at $16.80 and put it on my own plate and cooked my own rice.
Woah just by doing that I save $10++.
(I use short grain rice at home. So it's pretty much the same.)
Then I even topped this up with Salmon Sashimi.
Ok... so I bought a pack at $16.80 and put it on my own plate and cooked my own rice.
Woah just by doing that I save $10++.
(I use short grain rice at home. So it's pretty much the same.)
Then I even topped this up with Salmon Sashimi.
Picture is taken from Sushi Tei menu again.
5 pieces at $8.80++
I bought 10 slices at $11.50 in a pack at Meidi-ya.
(This is cheaper than NTUC or Cold Storage. Better quality too.)
So if we calculate it...
If I dined at Sushi Tei
($27.80 +$8.80 +$8.80) x 1.1 x 1.07
= $53.44
Price after I bought it and prepared it at home.
$16.80 +$11.50
= $28.30
Savings of around $25.
Pretty good savings. I should pat myself on the back.
Ok but my wife doesn't really like unagi, so she tells me not to do this too often. She's ok with eating it, just won't order it if she had the choice. I knew about that, but I wanted to try just buying a pack and to determine how different it is from buying it from the restaurant.
Conclusion, no real difference, I enjoyed myself more as well, cos I didn't feel like I was a "carrot head".
So unless you want to pay $25 more for someone to serve you and wash dishes, just buy it and prep it at home.
One minus point. Unagi comes mainly from China or Japan. Japan unagi costs $40+, I found that hard to swallow, so... bought the China ones. Anyway the restaurants probably are serving the China ones as well so no real difference. I asked the guys behind the counter in charge of the raw food. They said mainly Singapore gets unagi from China or Japan, I might be able to find Taiwan ones, but those are rare. If it's going to cost $30 and below, it's likely China ones. Japanese ones will cost $40. That's just how it is.
We also tend to get our sashimi from Meidi-ya as well. We get the mixed sashimi on weekends.
Around $39.90. It's pretty ex.
The plus point is that I get
- Ootoro (bluefin tuna belly)
- Scallop
- Uni (sea urchin)
- Salmon belly
- Hamachi (yellow tail)
- One more sashimi (usually a not so valuable fish)
(Sorry didn't take pictures, maybe I'll edit this post if I remember to take a pic the next time.)
If we got all these in a restaurant, it would definitely be more that $50. So there's really nothing to talk about. It also requires a bit of luck cos it depends on what the guys behind the counter pack into the pack. Cos they assort the packs differently. So some have octopus, squid, salmon roe, swordfish, etc. so different people like different types of sashimi, so gotta select the box with the most stuff you like.
They have cheaper boxes as well, but I find that those usually contain just the basic stuff. Salmon, tuna, hamachi, etc.
So if you love your sashimi, you may want to drop by Meidi-ya to take a look. Best time is on weekends around 10:30am. Cos that's when they have packed most of the boxes. At 10am, they just open so not all the boxes are packed, so some of the premium stuff aren't out yet.
Another good point about this is... my wife says she has been spoilt by this sashimi.
She complains that other restaurants are serving her not so fresh sea urchin, or the salmon roe at some other place smells fishy, or that the scallops aren't as big...
So she doesn't order sashimi at other places anymore, and we save quite a bit by not going to Jappy restaurants. We end up spending at Meidi-ya instead. Still not cheap, but compared to restaurants, definitely cheaper.
The other stuff at Meidi-ya are definitely more expensive than at NTUC or Sheng Siong. Like vegetables, prepacked foods, processed foods, biscuits, etc. So I tend to just look around the raw fish section only. They have a wagyu beef counter as well, but I haven't tried anything there yet so can't comment on that.
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5 pieces at $8.80++
I bought 10 slices at $11.50 in a pack at Meidi-ya.
(This is cheaper than NTUC or Cold Storage. Better quality too.)
So if we calculate it...
If I dined at Sushi Tei
($27.80 +$8.80 +$8.80) x 1.1 x 1.07
= $53.44
Price after I bought it and prepared it at home.
$16.80 +$11.50
= $28.30
Savings of around $25.
Pretty good savings. I should pat myself on the back.
Ok but my wife doesn't really like unagi, so she tells me not to do this too often. She's ok with eating it, just won't order it if she had the choice. I knew about that, but I wanted to try just buying a pack and to determine how different it is from buying it from the restaurant.
Conclusion, no real difference, I enjoyed myself more as well, cos I didn't feel like I was a "carrot head".
So unless you want to pay $25 more for someone to serve you and wash dishes, just buy it and prep it at home.
One minus point. Unagi comes mainly from China or Japan. Japan unagi costs $40+, I found that hard to swallow, so... bought the China ones. Anyway the restaurants probably are serving the China ones as well so no real difference. I asked the guys behind the counter in charge of the raw food. They said mainly Singapore gets unagi from China or Japan, I might be able to find Taiwan ones, but those are rare. If it's going to cost $30 and below, it's likely China ones. Japanese ones will cost $40. That's just how it is.
We also tend to get our sashimi from Meidi-ya as well. We get the mixed sashimi on weekends.
Around $39.90. It's pretty ex.
The plus point is that I get
- Ootoro (bluefin tuna belly)
- Scallop
- Uni (sea urchin)
- Salmon belly
- Hamachi (yellow tail)
- One more sashimi (usually a not so valuable fish)
(Sorry didn't take pictures, maybe I'll edit this post if I remember to take a pic the next time.)
If we got all these in a restaurant, it would definitely be more that $50. So there's really nothing to talk about. It also requires a bit of luck cos it depends on what the guys behind the counter pack into the pack. Cos they assort the packs differently. So some have octopus, squid, salmon roe, swordfish, etc. so different people like different types of sashimi, so gotta select the box with the most stuff you like.
They have cheaper boxes as well, but I find that those usually contain just the basic stuff. Salmon, tuna, hamachi, etc.
So if you love your sashimi, you may want to drop by Meidi-ya to take a look. Best time is on weekends around 10:30am. Cos that's when they have packed most of the boxes. At 10am, they just open so not all the boxes are packed, so some of the premium stuff aren't out yet.
Another good point about this is... my wife says she has been spoilt by this sashimi.
She complains that other restaurants are serving her not so fresh sea urchin, or the salmon roe at some other place smells fishy, or that the scallops aren't as big...
So she doesn't order sashimi at other places anymore, and we save quite a bit by not going to Jappy restaurants. We end up spending at Meidi-ya instead. Still not cheap, but compared to restaurants, definitely cheaper.
The other stuff at Meidi-ya are definitely more expensive than at NTUC or Sheng Siong. Like vegetables, prepacked foods, processed foods, biscuits, etc. So I tend to just look around the raw fish section only. They have a wagyu beef counter as well, but I haven't tried anything there yet so can't comment on that.
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>
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