INAGIKU

30th April 2009

INAGIKU
80 Bra Basah Road
3F FAIRMONT HOTEL
Singapore
Tel: 64316156

INAGIKU, Singapore premier Japanese Restaurant has undergone a major face uplift to its interior transforming from woody settings to stark dark atmosphere. You'll get dim surroundings with its all black colour scheme for furnishings and redolent of theatrical lightings to bring spotlights to only where it needed to showcase the chefs feat at their worktables.

It's a luxury to dine here but well it's a special day for me to spend the evening at a classy place; occassionally nice to get pampered with such treats.

It was a far cry from before and immediately you sense great expectation for an evening of authentic, fresh Japanese cuisine in a dimly lit setting and savour the best Inagiku can bring forth to tittilate your palate.

The service was good and the waiter need no beckoning, coming over to you to attend to your orders with promptness and and at least the one we encountered was smilingly courteous most of the time, making sure we were served well.

The menu offers you a variety of sashimi, sushis, teppanyaki, shabu shabu and side dishes and prices are steep to begin with.

Of course they have degustation sets that are well into the hundreds per person or you can have simple sushi like SGD6.50 per plate or an otoro (tuna belly) plate at SGD50.00 which I can only ogle at the price and give it a miss, cos' it too expensive to swallow "smooth dollars" in just a gulp for I belonged to the the average income earner and must be prudent here.

This is no ship ahoy with strings and strings of thick ropes but just a decor to add to that rustic feeling of the new interior and at the far end you see some visual pics on a huge screen relating to Inagiku giving diners a feel of a cinema effect.

We ordered melon juice to quench our thirst before we start the meal. For starter, we ordered simple sushi and a plate of TEMPURA prawns. These are big prawns and comes in light batter of tempura which is tasty when dipped in the sauce with daikon.

For the main meals, we had wagyu shabu shabu and the very thin slices of wagyu has such nice visually stunning effects of marbling of fats served on a equally creative plate. The copper coloured hotpot was like the typical Chinese steamboat over the portable stove with gas canister.


The vegetables and accompaniments that comes with the shabu shabu set is no different but the premier beef lends to the aura of evening, dining at such a restaurant.

One thing lacking was the coordination of serving as our order for garlic rice arrived very late, almost towards the end of the meal when we are almost full.

It was a good meal but had I ordered the more authentic and expensive dishes to bring out that stark difference of the chef skill from the casual Japanese dining eateries , it would have been more satisfying but in contrast to the cost, I am satisfied with what we had and yet enjoy and savour the settings and meal at a classy, higher end range of Japanese dining experience.

The pot of goodness of vegetables, mushrooms and tofu for the shabu shabu

The complimentary green tea chocolate ganache was very nice ending to complete the nice meal.

CATCH SINGAPORE'S

PREMIER JAPANESE DINING @ INAGIKU