It’s really not difficult to have bad Japanese food here. In fact, it’s not even that hard to have bad Japanese food in Japan. Sometimes it boggles the mind how you have a nation that prizes itself on the freshness of its ingredients so much which also has the biggest thriving industry of processed and instant food.

But anyway, on to the restaurant at hand: Wahiro at Katong Mall, a wonderful little place too large to be called a hole in the wall, but too small to be one of those horrible chain restaurants that churn out those unmistakable and equally unpalatable rectangular shaped slices of dubious raw fish plonked on boxed sushi rice. You get the idea of where I’m coming from.

We step into the restaurant, almost missing it because of its unassuming exterior. The decor is mostly dark wood with soothing deep sea green walls and the neat square of the space is divided up by a curving sushi bar that also holds a small rustic kitchen replete with good things to eat. There are 4 men in neat white aprons and hats behind the counter, and a Japanese chef who had left the reputable but expensive Suntory restaurant at the Intercontinental.

Service is efficient but unobtrusive and the menu is not extensive, with about 15 items offered, including a difficult to beat 15 dollar sushi or sashimi menu which also comes with fruit, a hot dish, a fried dish and a salad. G and I go with the bento box because we’re such suckers when it comes to not being able to make up our minds at Japanese resturants. In any case, Wahiro does not disappoint. First in the wonderful, loving presentation of food in our bento, from the fresh raw fish, to the mackerel basted in a fragrant miso sauce. There is also a teacup filled with salmon roe, a generous helping of unagi and the most delicately fried salmon fishcakes. And if that’s not enough, we are given the house special don mushi soup, which comes in a little teapot (!) topped with a wedge of lemon. The soup is a clear broth flavoured with japanese shitake mushrooms, a tender piece of chicken and cilantro. Wonderful, simple and very fulfilling. Even the pickles here aren’t the lurid purple and yellow ones you see everywhere, but gently brined cabbage, which is piquant but not overwhelming.  And to round off the meal, very cold slices of watermelon.

Pretty close to my ideal Japanese restaurant experience – which should be as if a person who really loves to cook brings you into her house and prepares a simple but skilful culinary experience. Each item just as it should be. The occasions that this happens in a restaurant are rare, but surely this is why Wahiro continues to pack them in.