What happens at Atrina: It's finally my turn to turn 28

It was supposed to be a special day.
My 28th birthday and our ROM 1st anniversary.
But my husband does not do romantic.
He prides himself to be a practical man *hmph*.
I spent the whole time sulking on the way out.
Hubs had asked me where I wanted to go.
He always lets me choose the place.
Why can't he make the decision once in a while?
So I wanted to go to HV for a walk THEN Rochester Park for dinner.
But this lazy bum lazy to drive over once he settled the parking.
He chose convenience over ambience!
See what I meant by practical?

We had an impromptu buffet dinner at a small little Japanese place at HV.
I've been here once almost 2 yrs ago with R and D.
At first not really keen to dine here again as I didn't think they were any outstanding but well... Hubs chose it.

Since it's the first day of my 28th year, I will do blog something a little different.
I will do a mini food review on the dinner we had.

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Location: Raku @ Holland Village
Setting: Modern Japanese

We opt for the ala carte buffet so we could try more things.
I think we were the only ppl taking the buffet dinner.
The rest of the diners either opt for set dinner or ala carte.

The buffet menu

Appetiser highly recommended by our server.

Cold tofu with century egg sauce topped with fish roe.
This is very good. Very refreshing and just nice to up our appetite.
So good that we decided to go for seconds later on.
It's also available in deep fried version (reviewed below).

Salmon sashimi was served next.

Hubs only requested 2pcs and a big plate came.
Well, I don't eat anything raw so he had the whole plate to himself.
He's not a good judge of the freshness but I guess it must be good by looking at the grains of the cut.
Hubs so wanted me to have a try at it but I'm too chicken for that.

Soft-shell crab

I love the sour-spicy sauce it came with.
Portion just nice. Anymore of it will be too oily to swallow.

California and Fried Ebi reverse roll

The portion is huge but our server said 4pcs is the smallest serving.
The filling is like downing a big bowl of rice at 1 shot.
I still prefer the one they serve at Akashi.

Gindara with fish roe sauce (top) and Teriyaki sauce (bottom)

We both like the Teriyaki sauce one lots.
Can really say it's "Divine".
The fish roe tastes a bit strange. I just eat the fish without the roe.
Clever me took a little of the maki roll rice to eat with the fish.
I can't stand eating yummy dishes like this without rice.
We ordered a second serving of Gindara Teriyaki. Totally worth it.

Deep fried oysters

Again, Hubs had this all to himself.

Raku Special Chawanmushi

I can't figure out what's so special except that it came with prawn roes and something which I forgot it what.
Texture very smooth and very tasty though.
We also ordered 1 "ordinary" Chawanmushi. Texture not as good.
Not sure why this is the case since the only difference is supposed to be the prawn roe and that little thing.

Some strange Nabe with veggies and tofu

Why I said it's strange? It tasted bitter!
Not the bittergourd bitter but a strange bitter.

Can't eat much of it. I can only manage some enoki and Hubs polished off the tofu.

Yasai sticks with dip. I requested for all cucumber

Call me silly but I always order Yasai stick salad in a Japanese buffet.
This dip is a little sweet/sour. I could taste some miso flavour there.
Mind you. Raku charges a good $6 per plate of Yasai sticks.
The first visit I was with R & D, we thought it was free flow and ate 2 plates of that.
Paying $12++ for 2 small plates of veggies is crazy if you ask me.
Hubs and me loved it so much we second-ed this order.

My silly husband

Deep fried tofu with century egg sauce

We still much preferred the cold version.

Grilled Saba

A tad too dry. Reminded me of Sun Dining's set lunch which I used to eat with Jeanne during Plaza By The Park times.
Sun's version is more oily and tastier.

Raku Agedashi tofu

Yet another tofu dish! Nothing special at all.
Just a normal agedashi tofu. Don't understand why the special name for it?

Deep fried ebi with wasabi-mayo

Just normal fried ebi. We also ordered Tori Karaage which was quite good but I forgot to take picture.

I tried to place order for a cold spinach dish but was later told that they ran out of the veggie.
Our server came back with a "Chef Special" for us.

Which I realised later it was just a rock melon and cucumber salad.
Definitely nothing to shout about.
In fact I didn't even wanted a second bite.
Hubs polished it off as he's scared it might reflect rudeness if we don't finish it.

My last order. Garlic Fried Rice

Very fragrant. Again, I paired rice with Teriyaki Gindara.
Great combi. The auntie lady beside us was very funny.
She asked for belachan chilli to go with her GFR.
Her hubby was teasing her about it.
This lady enjoyed all the dishes so much that each time the waiter came over to clear her plate, she would tell him "Very nice leh. See I eat so fast."
We were very amused. Think the waiter also amused.

We finished off our dinner with "Fruit Platter" which turned out to be a measly 3 tiny slices of 1 each: papaya, dragonfruit and rock melon.
By tiny, I mean you could down it in a single bite without looking greedy.
I was happy with the quality of the fruits. Very sweet.
But disappointed that they only serve that once.
WTH? I thought only something precious like Shark's Fins or Peking Duck served once in a buffet.
Who'd had heard of 3 measly pcs of fruits served once?

On a side note, my hot green tea, although refillable costs a good $4.
Hubs can of Coke costs $6. I got a shock when he told me that later.
It's such a rip-off to pay $10++ for 2 drinks. As rip-off as what they charge for the Yasai sticks.
I don't even wanna mention how much it costs per head for the dinner.
The chef must be laughing his head off. 2 silly diners clearly not a fan of sashimi eating this buffet.
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Stuffed, we went for a walk nearby.
We found a nice swing place right outside Ariston's cooking school.
Don't I look happy (pardon the *um* ugly armpit part)?