Where To Eat & Drink: Free-flow Argentinian Steak, A New Japanese Kaiseki Restaurant & More
Our round-up of great dining spots to check out, fab drinks and the latest in food news this week
By Michelle Lee SM -
Always on the hunt for new dining spots? We bring you sound bites on where to eat, including new restaurant and eatery openings, the best places for your after-work tipple, and what’s new in the food scene.
Where to check out this week: Chopsuey Cafe has updated its menu with delish new options, Bouef is serving up a free-flow of steak on weekends, Japanese kaiseki restaurant Ikkagoyo has opened at Amoy Street, and more.
Best known for its repertoire of East-meets-West Anglo-Chinese fare, Chopsuey Cafe (by PS Cafe) has refreshed its menu with a selection of new plates.
What's hot: The Honey Soy Crispy Eggplant, coated in an airy batter, chilli garlic crumb and a sweet and spicy honey sauce gets our thumbs up, as with the tender and flavour-packed Spicy Kimchi Kurobuta Belly that hits the spot. There's also a Young Coconut Seafood soup that boasts a light and subtly sweet soup laced with a coconut aroma. Dive in and you'll find fresh king prawns, scallops and snapper fillet.
Mains come in the form of a Fresh Crab & Chunky Prawn Omelette, a hearty option that's generously stuffed with chunks of crab meat and prawns. The sweet and spicy house-made chilli jam gives it the oomph that makes it shine. There's also Balsamic Sweet & Sour Chicken, with tender chicken doused in an addictive and comforting sauce - order a bowl of rice with this. The Massaman Curry Duck Leg, which comprises a confit duck leg sitting in red curry sauce, while decent, lacked a little punch.
Other new dishes include the likes of Crispy Atlantic Hake with Chilli Garlic Sauce, General Tso’s Pork Ribs, Crispy Crunchy Baby Squid, and Grilled Pork Bun Cha.
Chopsuey Cafe is at 10 Dempsey Road, #01-23, Singapore 247700. Visit its website for reservations or more information.
Behind an unassuming entrance along Amoy Street lies is new Japanese kaiseki restaurant Ikkagoyo. The intimate space houses an eight-seater counter, and a private dining space that also seats eight (min. spending applies). Here, chef-owner Mitsutaka Sakamoto serves up a refined Kaiseiki experience with beautifully presented dishes that deserve a spot on your Instagram grid.
The restaurant is now open for dinner only, with a 12-course prix fixe menu that showcases highlights of the season's harvest, including eel from Oigawa, skipjack tuna from Shizouka and abalone from Ishikawa. Each also showcases Sakamoto's artistry of traditional techniques and creative touches, from a refreshing chilled corn soup with dashi jelly, to grilled white bamboo from Shizuoka wrapped in tender Hokkaido A5 wagyu, and buttery suzuki (Japanese sea bass) with an egg yolk sauce.
Dashi is prized here, which gets it depth from skipjack and bluefin bonito flakes, as well as prized Rishiri kelp. It's showcased together with firm and tender seabream and leeks and seaweed from Yaizu.
One of the more inventive dishes on the menu — and one of my favourites — is a buckwheat crepe, topped with grilled Oigawa unagi, tare, cream cheese, truffle powder and freshly shaved black truffle for a moreish flavour bomb. There's also deep-fried Hokkaido scallop rolled in rice chips.
Diners can also look forward to a display of theatrics with the traditional Japanese hassun — a covering of washi paper is lit up and smoulders away to reveal a display of petite bites like ankimo (monkfish) liver in briny dashi, dried oyster coated in bonito, and sake kasu mixed with cream cheese.
For the last savoury course, you get to pick one out of three carbs: katsuobushi and raw egg don; maguro sashimi don with fresh wasabi, and gyusuji (beef tendon) and beef brisket in a soya-based broth with rice.
$338++ per person. Ikkagoyo is at 115 Amoy Street, Singapore. Visit its website for reservations or more information. Closed on Sundays.
If you're the in the mood for beef (and lots of it), make a beeline for modern bistro and bar Boeuf, which is serving up a free-flow of Argentinian ribeye for only $48++ on weekends. The ribeye's spot-on - it's a leaner cut but with tender meat, good beefy flavour and a smokey char.
If that's not enough to fill your belly, or if you'd like to change it up, the restaurant serves up classic sides done well. Dive into a decadent creamy Burratina Di Puglia ($28++) drizzled with a sweet truffle balsamic reduction and served with a salad, or the Carpaccio ($24++), which showcases meltingly tender slivers of Australian F1 Wagyu MB6 tenderloin sprinkled with truffle vinaigrette and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano.
Also worth ordering is the Potato Gratin ($12++), which is decadent and buttery, as well as the fat and fluffy Handcut Fries ($9++) cooked with their skins on. We'd skip the Rock & Roll salad ($9++), however, which was drenched in too much sauce.
The 2-Hour Free-Flow Argentinian Aberdeen Black Angus Ribeye promotion is available on weekends (Sat and Sun) for $48++ per person from 12pm to 10.30pm.
For the Mother's Day weekend (May 13 and 14), it's also rolling out a free-flow Surf & Turf promo. For $98++ per diner, you get a free flow of juicy and moreish Holland imperial mussels cooked in white wine paired with hand-cut fries alongside Argentinian ribeye steak and the Rock & Roll salad.
Mother's Day lunch seatings are from 11.30am to 1pm, and 1.30pm to 3pm. Dinner seatings are from 5.30pm to 7pm, and 7.30pm to 9pm.
Boeuf is at 159 Telok Ayer St, Singapore 068614. Click here for reservations.
With a flagship store at Wheelock Place, Japanese restaurant Uya, which specialises in eel-focused dishes, has opened a second outlet at Oasia Hotel Novena.
There are outlet-exclusive options, like the Smoky Unagi Ham ($16++). It's not quite ham, but much rather tightly-rolled unagi that's lightly seasoned with salt and grilled over sakura wood chips, lending to a smokey meaty flavour.
Also new are various skewers, like Grilled Unagi Head ($6++ per stick), and Yahata Maki ($9++ per stick), which has unagi wrapped around earthy burdock root. Our favourite of the lot is Grilled Unagi Fin ($6++ per stick).
Uya's all-time favourites are on the menu, like the expertly Grilled Eel with Salt (from $23). Soft and tender, it's seasoned only with salt to highlight its natural flavours. You can also enjoy the fish with the signature Histsumabushi (available in two sizes, from $35), a bowl of glistening unagi atop fluffy Niigata rice that can be savoured in different ways. It's served with spring onions, wasabi, crispy nori (seaweed), homemade umami dashi, pickled cucumbers and a comforting miso soup with yuzu zest.
For a luxurious meal, go for the popular Sea Urchin and Wagyu Rice Bowl ($55++) that's a luscious mix of thinly-sliced succulent rare beef, Hokkaido uni and briny ikura with freshly-grated wasabi. You can also accompany your mains with snacks like the lightly battered and plump Oyster Tenpura ($14++), crunchy fried eel bone ($6++), and the intensely savoury Mullet Roe with Radish ($19++).
Uya Charcoal Grill Live Eel Cuisine (Novena) is at #01-05 Oasia Hotel Novena, 8 Sinaran Drive, Singapore 307470. Click here for reservations or more information.