Narisawa - Singapore Residency
- K
- May 18, 2023
- 4 min read
From 24th March till 30th April 2023, Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa and team transported the Narisawa Experience to The Mandala Club in Singapore.
Narisawa is a restaurant which I have always wanted to go. Various reasons - such as the minimum 2 pax requirement and schedules being too packed led to me saying 'next trip' over and over again and I still have not visited Narisawa in Tokyo.
I did visit them more than 10 years ago, just to look from the outside and to take a photo of their signboard.
Turns out, it takes longer for me to go to Narisawa than for them to come to SG hahah so without hesitation, I grabbed a table for 2.
Narisawa serves what they call 'Satoyama Scenery cuisine'. It is basically food, presented in a multi-course meal, that is made to resemble the scenery of villages (sato) and mountains (yama). Many restaurants claim to serve cuisines showing this and that but you honestly can't tell from what's put in front of you, but here at Narisawa it is evident that they are painting a scenery, the meal follows a progression which is intentional. That, in itself, is exceedingly rare.
When we stepped in, I first sat at the holding area. From there, I caught glimpses of Chef Narisawa working at the pass and boy the anticipation.
The table was set with a piece of washi covering the iconic 'NARISAWA' block, with a small, empty dish on it.
Sake would be poured in before the meal, as a welcome gesture. This is typical of kaiseki restaurants but while Narisawa is not a kaiseki restaurant they do adopt some traditions from there.
The first two dishes of the night were baby ayu and the signature 'Satoyama Scenery'.
Fish swimming in a pond, a village with a well and grasslands coexisting in the mountains. It is easy to picture such a scenario just by looking at the dishes in front of you.
When I saw this dish on Instagram, being served at the main restaurant, I couldn't help but wonder how people ate this. The dish is actually eggplant with various 'soil' being poured on it. Hence we use a spoon and just eat.
That 'well' contains water which had a refreshing minty flavour to it. Some call it toothpaste, but I love it.
We opted for the sake pairing to go with the meal and the sakes served were all from the same brewery, developed for Narisawa.
The next dish was tuna. This particular tuna was a 123kg one from Chiba. Pristine, flavourful, tender.
With the tuna dish came a bite of Kegani with caviar from Hangzhou on it. The best Chinese caviar can definitely hold its own against the established Iranian, Russian and French caviars.
It was at this point that the famed bread service at Narisawa finally made its appearance. It was brought out as a dough, still fermenting with natural yeast from a forest in Japan (sorry I couldn't catch exactly where).
After being left tableside for approximately 15 minutes a hot stone bowl, heated to 200 degrees Celsius, was brought out. The dough was scooped into the bowl and it was baked tableside.
How many places have you seen that bake the bread tableside?! While the bread was baking, some more dishes came out of the kitchen.
This Aori-ika tempura was spectacular.
Perfectly even batter, nicely crisp fry, perfect crunch on the outsides of the squid and a perfect medium-rare texture on the inside. This tempura rivals the best tempura places you can find in Japan.
After the aori-ika tempura was a mini bowl of nodoguro (blackthroat sea perch) on sushi rice.
Fatty nodoguro on that strongly-seasoned shari with seaweed for that extra umami punch. Perfect.
After these two dishes, the bread was ready!
The bread was also served with a 'moss butter'. Not actual moss but butter coated with chlorophyll and stuff to make it look like moss.
Next was a dish named 'tweed', created for Chanel by Chef Narisawa for an event. Immaculate pieces of radish on a scallop-prawn ball in an intensely deep dashi. Twist on the traditional owan done very right and very sensibly.
While having the soup, we glanced up and saw chef preparing the next dish of lobster.
The lobster was grilled over binchotan and served with a sweet vanilla sauce. How lobster goes with vanilla sauce I have no idea but this combination definitely worked. Unorthodox flavour pairings are a tricky thing and Chef Narisawa has them down pat.
After the lobster dish was the Narisawa signature 'Beef'. In the Tokyo restaurant it's usually served coated with charcoal powder but here in Singapore it was done abit differently.
It was baked in some sort of a bread and leaves, then cut open tableside by Chef Narisawa himself. He personally goes to every table to slice it open, which I felt was a very nice touch from a superstar chef.
It was then brought back to the kitchen to be plated.
Sublime. Tender, flavourful, beefy, saucy wagyu. Beef dishes are usually boring but not this one.
After the beef dish came desserts.
First up was a matcha warabimochi. The warabimochi was soft, matcha powder suitably bitter and that milky ice cream went so well with it.
Next up was a strawberry soufflé. Evenly raised with a very decent strawberry sorbet on the side. Technically perfect.
To end the meal was a bite of Sakura mochi served as a monaka. Wafer shell crisp, insides soft. Textbook textural contrast.
This was an excellent meal, and I am very glad it was. The dishes served weren't an exact replica of his Tokyo flagship's menu, and they were still executed well. This makes me want to visit the Tokyo restaurant someday.
Narisawa, Singapore Residency**
1st Visit, 15th April 2023
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