Japanese Cuisine In Singapore

Pictured is their signature Hassun for the Autumn season. When they reopen after all this is over, would it be Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter?

Can't wait to share with you my dinner last Saturday at Keyaki, Pan Pacific Singapore, which has just started serving their Spring Kaiseki Menu. There's a Haru Kaiseki at $180++ and a Sakura Kaiseki at $200++.
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Exclusive to the Sakura Menu is the Hassun, which represents the current season in a kaiseki meal. All these little but exquisite dishes were Keyaki's Executive Chef Shin's elaborate expression of spring, including:
* Takenoko (bamboo shoot) with Japanese pepper leaf;
* Deep-fried minced crab (those little colorful balls);
* Boiled broad beans;
* Grilled hamaguri clam with sour plum jelly fish;
* Soy sauce hotaru-ika; and
* Grilled mebaru (rockfish).
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I think this dish alone is the reason why I prefer the Sakura Kaiseki ($200++) over the Haru Kaiseki ($180++). But there were some really good dishes in the Haru Kaiseki as well. I'll share that soon.

Back at Gyu Bar with their owner @thetravellingcow, and we had wagyu with yolk in a stone pot. That's lots of premium well-marbled A4 wagyu grilled over binchotan, served with rice that was cooked in the stone pot. It's like comfort food, but done the best way possible.

You'll spot me here on many Friday evenings, as this is my regular go-to place when I need casual fuss-free food that's also yummy. It's a causal joint that serves very good yakitori, and prices are good for its quality as well. Excluding drinks, a Friday night dinner here would be around $100 to $150 for two persons.
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I heard that Bincho at Dempsey is better, and this got me interested. I should visit soon.

Five and seven courses at $80++ and $120++ also available). Maybe we are creatures of habit, or maybe we just feel very comfortable at Fukusen when we are already so familiar with the staff and chefs here. This is in fact @siewyan49 choice location for her actual day birthday.
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We are regulars at Fukusen for their quality but affordable uni bowl and hotate bowl, and we are equally happy with the affordable omakase we had there.
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The actual items would vary, but the 8 course omakase comes with:
1. Starter
2. Sashimi (pictured)
3. Soup
4. Grilled dish
5. Teppanyaki (usually lobster)
6. Wagyu (usually A5)
7. Rice dish (donburi and/or sushi)
8. Dessert
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I also had a large table with sofa, so it was a very enjoyable meal at a relaxed pacing.

I recently posted about the sushi at chef's counter omakase at Standing Sushi Bar, but they've more than sushi. For a complete omakase experience, they have appetizers and cooked dishes as well.
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The omakase dishes pictured here were taken at Odeon Towers, compliments from their boss @nantheless. The dishes are:
- Sashimi platter, with shima aji belly, hamachi belly, hotate, otoro, salmon belly, aburied tai, and shiro maguro
- Ika "Somen", where ika was sliced into strips and served with egg yolk and uni
- Otoro sushi, buttery, with touch of housemade wafu sauce - Tai sushi with shiso sauce that's also a bit spicy
- Maguro Shoyu Zuke sushi, also marinated with ginger for aroma
- Wagyu sushi, with smoky garlic.
- Mini uni chirashi don, where uni with some pickles are served atop sushi rice
- Miso soup
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You can trust the experienced chef who had held key positions in other Japanese fine dining restaurants, and pay a price that's much cheaper than what you would pay elsewhere.

The premium tendon on @tenjinsg by the @lesamisgroupsg is affordably priced, and considering this bowl consists of anago, crab leg, prawn, fish, vegetables, and tempura molten free-range egg. You have a choice between regular tare, or spicy tare. Go for the spicy one if you, it gives you a taste of local with the use of chilli padi.

I always get asked where to go good and affordable omakase. Surely, not many can do the fine dining Japanese omakase often, yet the cheap omakase are usually below average Japanese food.
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One place that I'll always recommend is this Japanese restaurant along Tanjong Pagar helmed by chef Kenji Okumura, who's trained in the art of Kaiseki by master chefs in Japan. His menu pays homage to the artistic tradition with sophisticated nuances of fine Japanese multi-course meal, while presenting them in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere.
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Omakase dinner starts at $150. While the modest, kappou-style cuisine is offered in three fixed menus for dinner ranging from $60 to $120, the Omakase set lunch treat starts from a digestible S$50.
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[Tasting]

Chef Akane Eno conducts a kaiseki dinner at Sushi Kimura every Monday evening, where every dish would be her creation. There'll be no sushi, but there'll be a complete kaiseki experience. But it won't be around for long.. Only till end October.
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Pictured is Chef Akane's rendtion of sukiyaki, which sees slow cooked wagyu with her secret sauce. It is then topped with Bafun Uni from Hokkaido. So good, glad I had the chance to try it once..

Sea urchin and foie gras on fluffy Hokkaido milk toast.
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I had this foie gras toast paired with TOYO BIJIN Tokubetsu Junmai (東洋美人 特別純米) with rice polishing ratio of 55%. This sake is light-dry with rice sweetness and umami, very well-balanced with clean aroma.
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The head brewer learnt sake making during his times at a brewery that makes the premium Juyondai sake. His aim is to make sake with transparency – natural, simple, and pure rice flavours, with special emphasis on the water as well - only water that trickles out of rocks from the mountain are used.
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[Tasting]

If you love uni, and everything foodgasmic, then Uni Gallery's latest 6 course or 8 course menu would give you much better value compared to if you were to order each dishes separately. The price of every dish in the 6 course menu adds up to around $180++.
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In my 6 course menu, I had:
1. Le Tetsuya ($38) - with uni on a bed of amaebi with white miso sauce, topped with Siberian caviar;
2. Uni Oyster Shot ($24) - uni with ikura on freshly shucked oyster;
3. Five types of Sashimi ($30, est) - we had otoro, botan ebi, kinmedai, hotate and uni;
4. Tempura Truffle Chawanmushi ($20) - uni tempura with shaved winter truffle on chawanmushi;
5. Caviar Bone Marrow ($32) - oscietra caviar on grilled bone marrow with grilled beef bits;
6. Toro Squid Ink Sushi ($44 for two pieces) - uni, ikura, otoro on squid ink sushi.
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Considering the ingredients included in each of the 6 courses, the menu is affordable, although most of the uni served were Australian uni. There's also an 8 course option available at $188++.
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[Tasting]

And if at times you're looking for good sushi at an affordable price, you can look to this shophouse at Joo Chiat where Jimoto Dining is dishing out an omakase menu with Tokyo-born Chef Takahiro Sato at the helm. He's formerly from Sushi Hashida and Melbourne’s Kakizaki.
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While the omakase I had didn't start well, the main segment comprising of a series of sushi was good. It then ended strong with this uni ikura don.
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[Tasting]