Sushi worth a moment's wait

NEW RESTAURANT

Chotto Matte

54 Blair Road

Tel: 6222-8846

Open Mon to Sun from 5pm till late

SUSHI. Such an innocent, delicious word, but which in Singapore can generate the kind of debate usually reserved for partisan politics. Who do you stump for? The well-scrubbed Japanese born-and-trained chef who carries the authenticity card and probably factors the cost of his one-piece cypress wood counter into his omakase pricing? Or his free-wheeling local counterpart who is not averse to the virtues of plywood veneer, thinks everything tastes better grilled with mentaiko cream and knows that the path to the Singapore diner's heart is paved with the words "value for money"?

Whichever way you swing, the truth is this: You can't hope to eat the quality of Shinji for the price of an omakase at Teppei. It's not to say one is better than the other - you're talking Thai honey mango versus US$3,000 "egg of the sun" variants airlifted from Miyazaki in south Japan. …