Nom Nomzzz (Moved): Hill Top Japanese Restaurant at Jurong Bird Park

A friend of mine teaches in a secondary school. Every now and then, with whatever opportunity he has (teacher’s only get to travel during school holidays) he would go abroad and backpack in various countries. The most recent is one in which he would go to South-East Asia and make me a very happy man.. by lending his car to me!

Some places are really very hard to get to should you / any of your friends not drive. To get here you must be ready to organize your own transport. I decided to surprise my kaki by bringing her here for the first time; somewhere where she hadn’t been.

I then drove down… to Jurong Bird Park! When you reach Jurong Bird Park, drive further up towards a winding road leading upwards and start driving up and you will reach Hill Top Japanese Restaurant.

Hill Top Japanese Restaurant has been a favorite spot for many to celebrate either birthdays or festive occasions. Personally, when I was a kid, my parents used to bring me here each year as I would request to go there each year for my birthday. The atmosphere is relaxing, and the ambience is good with a marvelous view of the many skyscrapers and buildings in Singapore.

By the time we got here, it was already almost 9pm. A waitress greeted us in Chinese at the door and brought us to sit in front of the gigantic teppanyaki pan – which is very common in Teppanyaki restaurants (think towards Sakae Teppan as a spin-off) We were then brought a menu..

The menu is very unique here. It is very simple (not very detailed) and is presented in a wooden board. So what did we order? My partner wasn’t that hungry but I felt extremely greedy that night..

Before I talk about what we ordered, it is good to note that the starters and tea here is not free. The starters, which is served to you immediately upon your arrival, is chargeable at $2.50 per person. Green Tea is $2.00. Upon being seated, we were served 2 portions of Otoshi which was a good start to the meal but abit hefty for such a small portion.

Also, the portions here are not meant for just one.. The portions below we ordered – almost a family of four could share them! I would say the items we ordered below would be perfect for a family of three.

Upon ordering, a chef will come by to where you are seated and Here’s what we ordered.. Let the pictures justify for themselves..

King Prawn – $25

The King Prawn here is very fresh and pretty large. The chef fried this together with a whole chunk of garlic. Anybody who is here for the first time must try this. This is one of my favorites everytime I come here.

Unagi – $18

Comparing this to Sakae Teppan, the Unagi here is both fleshy and is very tasty. Sakae Teppan serves their unagi in some weird soup combination (which is a fail). The one here is different. They serve Unagi just the way Unagi should be served. The sweet sauce that the chef provided together with it was an excellent combination. The portion was pretty big as well and you can rarely feel the bones in your throat

Hill Top Specialty Steak – $28

This is the specialty here. The Hill Top Specialty Steak is the one I always come back for. Juicy and succulent – I requested for medium rare. Even my kaki, who eats beef once in a blue moon (what a missout!) felt that the beef did not have the usual “beefy-blood taste” and enjoyed this thoroughly. A must-have also for newcomers.

Teriyaki Chicken – $16

The teriyaki chicken was really sweet after the chef added a whole bunch of teriyaki sauce but it was pretty good as well. Nothing much to say, but the teriyaki chicken was one of my kaki’s favorites, especially since it was both tender and sweet.

Garlic Fried Rice – $3.50

I would advise anyone who come here to take the conventional Japanese white rice instead because the garlic rice has dropped in standards IMHO. There was zero taste of garlic and felt more like it was just a normal bowl of fried rice. Even Sakae Sushi’s garlic fried rice can beat this.

Ice Cream – Complimentary

After such an awesome meal, it is a must for everyone to enjoy some form of dessert. We then proceeded to the other side, where you can have a good view from the hilltop of Singapore’s buildings and have a wonderful time chatting away while enjoying your choice of complimentary dessert.

I ordered Green Tea (Matcha) Ice Cream (this is the place which sparked my interest in Matcha Ice Cream while my kaki ordered mango pudding. My only gripe about this place was that we arrived late, so we finished our teppanyaki at about 10pm. Unfortunately, the staff cleaning up the tables looked like they were in a rush to go back and didn’t seem very happy that we were still there so we decided to leave after eating our dessert..