• Left Top: Maguro Carpaccio – Thinly sliced half tuna with special sauce.
• Left Bottom: Mushroom Kimuchi Tofu – Fried beancurd, assorted mushroom with kimuchi sauce
• Center: Ebi Arare – Prawn tempura coated with rice crackers.
• Right Top: Soft Shell Crab Salad – Soft shell crab, avocado, tomato with house dressing.
• Right Bottom: Sushi Platter – This is a range of new sushi introduced. Namely: Sakae Candle, Aburi Salmon Teriyaki, Unagi Shitake Gunkan, Salmon Mayo Mentai Inari, Hotate Mentai Maki, Unagi Cracker Mentai and Hotate Sushi.

My personal review is that most of the new dishes are nice! Sakae for the first time, introducing a few rice crackers sushi. Take for example the Ebi Arare. That is one dish that I will want to eat again! The only spicy dish was the Mushroom Kimuchi Tofu. If you like spicy, that would be nice. For me, I think my least favorite was the Soft Shell Crab Salad. And my favorite, “Ermmm”, must I pick just one? Haha! Then it shall be the Ebi Arare! Even though the Unagi Cracker Mentai and Hotate Sushi are just as good!

Food apart, I really enjoyed myself that evening, especially being able to meet up with so many new faces. Hope I did not talk too much to irritate the girls. A little special thanks for Candice to drop by too at the end of the event. She was the staff who offered me to be an e-Journalist months ago. I never got a chance to meet her and she is also no longer working for Sakae. Also like to thank Sakae’s Marketing Department for organizing this event. And finally to all who were there! I hope I did shake hands with everyone!

Before the event ended, Sakae gave us a nice little gift, a Sakae photo frame! And here is also the one and only photo I took with an individual girl, she is Amanda. She is quite poor thing. She traveled from her school at NTU (extreme West of Singapore) all the way to Pasir Ris (extreme East of Singapore). She thought the location was Escape but it was actually *Scape, which was down in town. So and basically travelled the whole island before reaching late.

Go and try out their new dishes soon!

And for Sakae Sushi – Sakae Signature, for the month of September currently is a spicy theme. I am not a spicy eater. So I was reluctant to order this. But since they wanted to try, we ordered the Fire Maki. Looking from the picture, it looks cool with flames. But when the dish was served, there was no flame at all. The picture was just decoration. Just that the maki was topped with spice flakes on top with Korean kimchi in the middle. But it was not too spicy though. Or Louis and Yun Ting would say that it is not spicy at all. For me, it was not too bad. This dish is in the photo below, bottom row, middle picture.

And finally, here are photos of Louis, Yun Ting and me!

So head on down to Sakae Sushi to give these new dishes a try! :)

Much to my surprise while queuing for a table, the supervisor and store manager will remember me by name! Did I really leave such an impression with them on my previous “unpleasant turned pleasant” visit? It must have been more than a month ago! As it was quite crowded, the supervisor could only offer me counter seats although I requested for a table. So we went ahead to sit at the counter seats. Not too long later, a table was cleared and we were offered to be seated there. That was a nice gesture by the supervisor that was very much appreciated by us!

I told Derrick not to worry about what he wants to eat. I just told him to enjoy whatever he wants. :) So at the end for our very-full dinner when I pop the question, “So how much you want to pay?” His facial expression changed to being so shocked. “Haha! I was just joking!” I told him. But he really does enjoy Japanese food. At least he could share to eat salmon sashimi with me because Louis does not like it.

Louis ate two servings of fried tofu while Derrick and I shared 3 plates of salmon sashimi! So just the 3 red plates cost us $20! Our total bill was just over $80. But a part of the cost of the dinner, I truly enjoyed myself having both my closer friends to share a dinner with me. :) Here is Derrick and me!

Looking forward to get a renewal of my Sakae Card now as it will expire end of September. :)

The egg you see in the above photo is Teppan Seafood Chawanmushi. Now, that is a must-try dish! Previously there were set lunch that included that dish. But now you can order that from the ala-carte menu for $3.99. The quality of the food is still superb! Therefore all my experiences with Sakae Teppanyaki have been good!

Craving to try this now? :)

Much to my surprised (and a bit of embarrassment), the supervisor Wai Lee, actually addressed me by my name. She apologised over what happened and offered Louis and I free desserts. I was quite reluctant to accept the free desserts after our meal. But Wai Lee came over again to ask what we would like to eat for dessert. Even brought us the menu. So we ordered what we wanted. I finally got a chance to eat what I have always wanted to try – Tai Yaki. Coating with a fish designed waffle; inside was ice-cream with red beans. It was deliciously!

Recently I attended this workshop called “Up Your Service” and learned about the stages of customers’ satisfaction. Of all the levels, I would rate my latest experience with Sakae Sushi as “Surprising”, a level below the top of “Unbelievable”. Although Louis said their service was just “Desired” stage because it was something Sakae should do to gain back customers happiness. But I still gave it a “Surprising” rating. As I mentioned above, because I was greeted by name and was even offered free dessert. Dessert not just for me but for my friend too. Sakae could have just apologised and close the case but they took the extra step to make their customers like myself, feel honoured. So, good job Sakae this time round!

But instead of visiting Sakae once a month, I now spent over $100 for two dines in just less than 7 days. Gosh!