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Like many other Singaporeans, I am an avid lover of sushi and potato chips. Specifically, Calbee's Hot & Spicy chips.

So when Genki Sushi and Calbee announced that they had teamed up to create several new items for a seasonal menu, I was pretty stoked.

The new line of items will be available from Oct. 6 to Nov. 20, 2022, and here's what we think from the media preview.

Sides and sticks

The menu started off with three side dishes paired with various flavours of Jagabee potato sticks.

First on our plates was the Tori Nanban Jagabee Crunch (S$6.80).

The dish was plated with a bed of Honey & Butter Jagabee potato sticks, pieces of fried chicken and a dollop of tartare sauce.

The tartare sauce was tangy and creamy, providing a nice balance to the slight grease that accompanied the fried chicken and Jagabee sticks.

We also had the Ebi Mentai Jagabee Crunch (S$6.80).

If you're a fan of mentaiko fries, you'll probably like this.

Pieces of fried shrimp drizzled with Genki Sushi's signature Mentai Mayo were layered on Original Jagabee potato sticks.

It's practically a remake of their Mentai Mayo Fries, with the fries swapped out for the Jagabee and an add-on of fried shrimp.

Completing the range of sides was the Takoyaki Jagabee Crunch (S$5.50).

This dish is exactly as described -  four Takoyaki balls served with BBQ Jagabee potato sticks.

While both items tasted great separately, they each had a different and distinct sweet flavour of its own that I felt didn't quite go well together.

One thing we noticed was that all items in this category were deep fried, so you might want to order some less "heaty" items to balance it out.

Calbee Maki

This range features Genki's maki rolls topped with Hot & Spicy potato chips from Calbee.

There are three types of Maki to choose from:

• Ebi Fry Maki
• Teriyaki Chicken Maki
• Lobster Salad Maki

The chips did not significantly elevate the taste of the Crispy Ebi Fry Maki (S$4.80) and Crispy Teriyaki Chicken Maki (S$4.80), making it the two most underwhelming dishes of the line-up.

They're not bad, however, just lacking a "wow" factor.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprise by the Crispy Lobster Salad Maki (S$4.80). 

The maki had a light and refreshing lobster salad filling which paired well with the crisp and spicy potato chips.

If you are deciding between which Calbee Maki to try, I would recommend this one.

Dessert

Potato sticks dipped in soft serve make a lot of sense.

Three flavours of  Soft Cream Jagabee (S$5.90) are available:

• Hokkaido Milk
• Matcha
• Japanese Peach

Each serving is paired with Original Jagabee potato sticks.

We sampled the Japanese Peach and Matcha out of the these three options.

The Japanese Peach Soft Cream Jagabee was a delight with its light and authentic peach flavour.

The pairing with the Jagabee sticks was interesting, although I thought that the Jagabee sticks were too salty when eaten with the soft serve (Editor likes it though).

The winner of the meal had to be the Matcha Soft Cream Jagabee.

Compared to the Japanese Peach flavour, the pairing between the matcha soft serve and the Jagabee sticks was a lot more harmonious.

The subtle earthy fragrance from the matcha and the saltiness of the Jagabee complemented each other very well, and hitting that sweet spot to end your meal with.

Yea or Nay?

It's more of a fun and novel experience than a gastronomic one, but I still really enjoyed most of the items, with the Tori Nanban Jagabee Crunch, Crispy Lobster Salad Maki and Matcha Soft Cream Jagabee topping the list.

Now, you're probably thinking, "But I can just buy the items and put them together myself."

That's true.

But I'd say it's still worth a try.

Plus, there's no guarantee that it'll taste better if you make it at home.

Overall rating: 4/5. Because I know it wouldn't taste better at home.

Top images by Mandy How and Hayley Foong