The National Day weekend is upon us, and with this year’s festivities kicking off a long weekend, securing a dinner reservation at a peaceful spot is sure to be a difficult quest. For those seeking an escape from the roaring crowds, diving into an omakase restaurant might just provide the answer.
Omakase might not be the first thing that comes to mind when celebrating Singapore, but the concept has certainly established itself as a mainstay in the local food lexicon. A number of such restaurants have opened here in recent years, each offering unique ingredients and meticulous preparations.
Expect the unexpected — omakase means “I leave it up to you” in Japanese, after all — as chefs curate menus that can evolve with each passing season, month or even week. Usually located in small spaces, omakase restaurants offer a sense of intimacy and privacy, something perhaps much needed with the streets set to fill with celebrating crowds.
Options rounds up the best omakase restaurants to visit this National Day weekend.
Omakase @ Stevens
French techniques meet Japanese ingredients at Omakase @ Stevens, led by executive chef Kazuki Arimoto. At just 30 years old, the young culinarian’s career has already taken him to Michelin-starred restaurants including Tateru Yoshino and Crown Restaurant in Tokyo; now, in Omakase @ Stevens, he applies a decade of experience to a menu that’s equal parts visual spectacle and culinary delight.
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This season, Arimoto has unveiled a summer menu, with six-course ($280++) and eight-course ($333++) options. The flavours are clean and refined, with an exceptional focus on getting everything just right; expect to see Arimoto and his team flitting about with tweezers and a miniature Lazy Susan as they plate each dish.
Both six-course and eight-course menus begin with minced shima-aji (striped jack), served with bean paste, Japanese ginger and a generous mound of Oscietra caviar. Around the rim of the caviar tin in which the dish is served, pearls of winter melon are topped with tiny discs of salted egg yolk. On the side we get a crispy monaka pastry made of mochi, taking the place of blini that one typically sees with caviar.
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We then get a hassun (Japanese for “a little bit of everything”) comprising three canapes, each with a unique play on texture. First comes a round of soft tuna, topped with shoyu jelly and shiso leaf on a seaweed cracker; then an egg filled with rich wagyu rillettes, burdock, egg yolk puree and airy whipped cream, and lastly a tart of corn puree with curry mayonnaise that pops, literally, thanks to a spherification process.
The protein-heavy courses come next, including the two eight-course-only dishes: udon with Hanasaki king crab and prawn; and charred scallop with uni and seasonal vegetables. A crispy shard of golden eye snapper is made extra smoky with binchotan, then served atop a trio of sauces: bouillabaisse, a breadcrumb-less rouille and fragrant basil oil. The wagyu katsu and unagi donabe that follow are equally successful at navigating the interplay of textures and flavours.
We end off — or so the menu says — with a dessert made of mangoes from Miyazaki, sudachi lime and finger lime. The tartness of the fruits is balanced with a creamy coconut mousse, and we prepare to lift ourselves off our seats when a surprise course of petit fours arrives, another sweet treat to close the meal.
A meal at Omakase @ Stevens is truly an elevated experience. There’s no shortage of innovation in Arimoto’s summer menu, with an array of techniques that bring the ingredients to a whole new level, both culinary and visually. Food that tastes good and looks good? Now that’s hard to beat.
Ichigo Ichie
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Ichigo Ichie, a fine-dining kappo restaurant, began a new era this April at its second home in Claymore Connect. Under the helm of chef Akane Eno, who co-owns the restaurant with the founders of The Gyu Bar and one-Michelin-starred Sushi Kimura, Ichigo Ichie offers a unique culinary experience that marries authentic Japanese flavours with artistic flair.
The restaurant’s philosophy, “one life, one moment”, is expressed in the intimate setting designed for deep personal connections. Eno, a former art history student with a passion for both visual and culinary arts, has incorporated pieces from her personal art collection into the restaurant, creating a space that feels intimate and welcoming.
The new venue features traditional Japanese aesthetics blended with modern elements, and includes a main dining counter, private dining room, and a newly introduced tea bar, which will host future tea appreciation events.
Eno’s expertise in art history enriches her culinary creations, making each dish an artful composition that remains grounded in Japanese tradition while introducing fresh, original elements. This approach is evident in her current tea-centric menu, which showcases her innovative use of tea in both her dishes and as a welcome drink.
Diners at Ichigo Ichie can look forward to exploring the nuances of various teas through dish pairings such as the lotus root with burdock, land seaweed, pen shell and roselle tea jelly; lapsang souchong soy-marinated tuna with grain mustard; and a genmaicha ice cream complemented by moritaya soy jelly, mango and a rice puff.
The chef’s signature dish varies depending on the availability of seasonal ingredients — during our visit, we were served a pan-Asian feeling miwa somen with a hearty prawn broth, boton ebi, bafun uni and tonburi. The dish represents Eno’s experience of savouring different renditions of prawn noodles across Asia, especially Singapore.
For this year only, Ichigo Ichie will serve smoked bouzu ginpo (a Japanese prow fish) and grilled eggplant with zha cai. The eggplant, we’re told, is grown in Kyoto by just one family of farmers, who have decided to stop production after 2024.
Continuing Eno’s appreciation for tea is the donabe, the final savoury dish on the menu. Here, unagi and rice is cooked with Dong Ding oolong tea-Koshihikari rice and served with premium maguro dashi to enjoy as ochazuke.
A five-course lunch will set you back $138++, while a seven-course version goes for $188++. For dinner, there is the nine-course “Kurenai” menu ($350++), and a specially curated menu available upon request ($428++).
Sushi Zen
Surprise is the name of the game at Sushi Zen, which opened this May with chef E Ran at the helm. If that doesn’t sound like a name you’d expect from a Japanese culinary master, it’s because E is Chinese. Don’t be too quick to dismiss him, though; he’s already proven his skills with successful restaurants in Beijing, where he relocated from in 2023 to focus on this new outpost.
The restaurant offers two lunch menus ($150++ and $258++) and three dinner menus ($258++, $388++ and $550++), with varying numbers of courses.
We begin with a bowl of junsai, a gelatinous vegetable that lands between chia seed and cucumber. It’s a strong way to start the meal; the crunchy, cool junsai pairs nicely with a sour, salty broth.
The sashimi courses then begin with marbled sole. Served with salt and sudachi lime, the white fish’s freshness and the delicate flesh are put on full display.
That focus on the fish continues throughout the meal, with generous cuts served speedily by E and his team. The brisk service, he explains, is to ensure we don’t fill up too quickly as food settles in our stomachs. Presentations are kept minimal; even the prettier garnishes, such as shiso flowers, add a punch of flavour.
In classic fashion, E presents to diners plaques with details of the day’s fish, sharing where everything is from and how it is sourced; during our visit, there’s akami and chutoro from Miyazaki, and otoro from Aomori. We get nigiri with each, and a maki roll with a mix of different tuna textures.
Served atop E’s signature rice, each piece of sushi comes with a zing, not just from freshly grated wasabi but also from a mixture of red and rice wine vinegar. A number of dishes are also served with grated lime zest, adding yet another layer of fragrance and acidity. The food treads the line between intensity and aggressiveness, with each bite keeping us excited for the next.
Standouts of the meal include hachi mackerel topped with spring onion, gunkan maki with a huge mound of uni, unagi with peppery sansho leaves, and eggs served two ways: one baked like a flourless cake, and another steamed with a crackling brulee top.
In true omakase fashion, each dish at Sushi Zen is an adventure into something new and unexpected; E shows off his chops with a quiet confidence honed over a career that has spanned more than two decades. We leave stuffed, satisfied and eager to return.
Sushi Hare
Opened in October 2022, the intimate 10-seater kappo-style dining Sushi Hare in the Central Business District is helmed by Taiwanese-born chef Angus Chang, who presents an exquisite omakase menu guided by the discipline of Japanese perfection known as shokunin, served with the famed friendliness and hospitality of his homeland.
Using meticulously sourced ingredients and specially developed techniques, classic flavours are given an innovative touch in a masterful, personal approach to sushi. With Sushi Hare’s unique blend of Japanese and Taiwanese values and its radiantly calm interior, Chang wants diners to feel “as if [they were] dining at a friend’s home”.
Chang uses Yamagata Tsuyahime “old” rice in his sushi for its lower water content. Two styles of vinegared sushi rice are prepared to complement the different toppings, with two types of white vinegar used for one, and three types of aged red vinegar for the other.
The Ao dinner menu ($380++) is a decadent 19-course meal. Favourites include the chutoro noodles, where medium fatty tuna is cut into strips and served with a side of dipping sauce of kombu-marinated soy sauce, Hokkaido Bafun uni, and roasted nori strips. Decadent and lush, the dish is unlike any other noodle we’ve had.
Another dish that showcases Chang’s kung fu in the kitchen is the shiro ika. This may sound like simple sushi, but that’s far from the truth — the white cuttlefish is meticulously and finely scored by Chang 30 times on each side to bring out its natural sweetness and tenderness, augmenting the taste and mouthfeel. Most would associate cuttlefish sashimi with a clean taste and a chewy mouthfeel, but this preparation flips our expectations on their head.
The hotaru ika (firefly squid), meanwhile, is reminiscent of the Taiwanese classic braised pork rice, giving diners a glimpse into Chang’s heritage. Here, he grills the squid and serves it with rice that has been stuffed in prawn heads then grilled over binchotan. Every bite invites us to take another, with waves of savoury and umami.
The tamagoyaki at the end of the meal is unassuming, yet pleasantly surprising. This is no ordinary Japanese-style pan-fried egg; Chang explains that this has been baked Castella-style. Japanese eggs and Hokkaido sweet shrimp are mixed together, and the mixture is baked at a low temperature for three hours till it rises. The result is a sweet and fluffy omelette with hints of shrimp and a melt-in-your-mouth feel.
