Orchard Road has recently welcomed new Japanese restaurants serving delicacies like refined tempura and unagi to fresh Hokkaido dishes.
Text by: Eris Choo
Mare Hachikyo
Hokkaido may be famed for its snowy vistas but there’s a lesser-known side to the region that begs discovery: its cuisine and fresh, seasonal produce. Mare Hachikyo — the acclaimed Sapporo restaurant that serves Hokkaido specialties — brings this to the world stage with its first international outpost at Palais Renaissance, Orchard Road.
This kappo-style restaurant spotlights Hokkaido’s incredible natural bounty, from briny seafood to fragrant rice and pasture-raised meats, all of which are sourced with care and reverence. An impressive 90 percent of the produce is flown in directly from Hokkaido, and the menu refreshes every six weeks to reflect the best of each season.
Signature dishes include the Tsukko Meshi, which sees glistening ikura (salmon roe) piled atop warm rice to energetic chants of “Oisa!” ( a term used for encouragement, which means to go faster). Another star is the Signature Hokkaido Temaki, an original dish from the Sapporo restaurant featuring hairy crab, ikura, and creamy uni wrapped in crisp, lightly toasted Japanese seaweed. Complete the meal with fine Japanese alcohols, including sake, premium whisky, beer, and shochu.
Tempura Ensei
Frying is often seen as simple but at Tempura Ensei, it’s treated as a delicate, precise art form. This new Edo-style tempura spot in Orchard Road is led by Executive Chef Naruki Takeshima, who trained at the historic 120-year-old Tenkane in Tokyo, one of Japan’s most respected tempura institutions. Together with Executive Sous Chef Masashi Watanabe, they bring in top-grade produce from Japan several times a week.
Menus are fully omakase, so the chefs can highlight ingredients at the peak of their flavour. Every piece of tempura is lightly battered with premium Tomizawa Super Violet flour with chilled water and eggs, then fried in high quality sesame oil for an airy crisp. Highlights include the Kuruma Ebi Tempura featuring juicy shelled prawns and the sea urchin tempura, with precious melt-in-the-mouth uni enveloped in nori seaweed. Tempura isn’t the only thing on the menu: for the Spring season, diners can look forward to seasonal seafood such as Hamaguri owan (hardshell clam), kisu (whiting), abalone, uni, and more. There’s also an exclusive sake list including a house-label Junmai Daiginjo from Niigata.
Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa
Good news for unagi lovers. Japan’s famed Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa has landed in Singapore, bringing nearly a century of grilled eel expertise to Shaw Centre. With roots going back to 1932 and a MICHELIN Selected spot in Nagoya, this beloved brand is known for drawing long queues across Japan (and beyond), thanks to its signature whole grilled unagi and legendary tare sauce.Their must-try is the Kabayaki Ippon Unagi Set, which features a whole eel grilled over binchotan charcoal till the skin is crispy and the meat is buttery-soft, served with fluffy Japanese rice served in handcrafted Japanese tableware. Accompanying this is ‘kimosui’, a traditional eel liver soup infused with refreshing yuzu, meant to cleanse the palate while also offering a nutritious boost. For a minimalist take, the Shirayaki Ippon Unagi Set features eel grilled without sauce and lightly seasoned with salt to highlight the eel’s natural flavours. There’s an ala carte menu too for those who prefer sampling smaller plates, with delicacies like Umaki Eel Rolled in Egg, Grilled Eel Liver, and Eel Bone Cracker. Everything is prepared to order using live eels flown in from Japan