Thanks to a new dining card my partner got recently, we would be able to eat at fine restaurants within the Fairmont and Swissôtel hotels in Singapore for an impressive 50% discount, on any day of the week for both lunch and dinner. There was one Japanese restaurant I had been eyeing for the longest time, but would probably not pay full price for; from personal experience most fine Japanese restaurants in Singapore are overpriced, due to the necessity of importing fresh fish and other produce from Japan - you would be better off buying a plane ticket there for an intense fix instead, like we usually do twice a year. Also, it is close to impossible to match Japanese-style hospitality in Japanese restaurants overseas, even expensive ones; that level of pride in ingredients and their execution, as well as in service as a fully worthy profession, is largely lost upon non-Japanese people. However, for half the price and a tasting menu with all sorts of promising imported seasonal produce from Japan, there was very little reason to hesitate, so here we were at Mikuni restaurant in Fairmont Hotel this evening.
Like many other fine Japanese restaurants in Singapore, Mikuni offers a diverse range of cuisines from the usual raw dishes such as sushi and sashimi to cooked food such as teppanyaki (hot plate dishes) and robatayaki (charcoal-grilled dishes). (Specialisation in one type of cuisine is not a common occurence here as it is in Japan, except for ramen places.) Fresh seafood and produce are regularly imported from various parts of Japan. Customers may choose to sit at separate live stations for each of these cuisines, or at a generic seating area if they are having a tasting menu or a mixture of items from the à la carte menu.
There are two tasting menus at dinner, a more elaborate 7-course Grand Tasting Tour menu or a smaller 5-course Seasonal Menu with simpler ingredients. We opted for the former, with dishes designed by Executive Chef Moon Kyung-Soo, who happens to be Korean, not Japanese, but we were not too bothered by that as long as the quality of ingredients and standard of cooking would be more or less commensurate with the prices charged.
We were seated in the front dining room of the restaurant with blue lighting; not sure what was with the bizzare choice of colour (presumably to create a modernised 'chic' atmosphere?) but it did seem somewhat incongruent with the understated aesthetics and natural colour schemes of typical fine Japanese restaurant settings. Thankfully, this was not too disruptive to the overall atmosphere. As expected, the restaurant was quite full on a Friday evening, and the environment was actually quite convivial and informal. The plush leather seats were also a joy in which to sink and relax whilst enjoying the food.
While waiting for the first course, we were offered some savoury crackers with sprinklings of nori (dried seaweed) and other spices and seasonings. These were very light, crisp and tasty, perfect for awakening the tastebuds to all the fine food ahead of us.
お通し： 北海道毛蟹、 キャビア、 胡瓜、 しめじ、 柚子ゼリー ・ 京都産カブ豆腐、 北海道産雲丹、 胡麻ソース
Starter (in 2 parts): Hokkaido hairy crab, caviar, cucumber, shimeji mushroom and yuzu jelly; Kyoto turnip tofu and Hokkaido sea urchin with sesame sauce.
What a revelation from the beginning. The mesmerising fresh aroma of yuzu wafted to our noses as the plates were set in front of us. This course was a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. It was very exquisitely plated in a real hairy crab shell, and I almost couldn't bear to eat it... then I started and it was gone all too soon! The sweet and succulent mound of shredded crab meat was very effectively accentuated by delicate lumps of yuzu jelly, and enhanced subtly with a savoury and earthy edge by small amounts of plump caviar and shimeiji. Paper-thin slices of cucumber in the mix further highlighted the crispness of this dish, with their juicy crunch. An absolutely delightful way to start.
This was the second part of our starter, tofu topped with fresh lumps of sea urchin, dried seaweed and dressed with sesame sauce. The dressing happens to be a popular Japanese condiment (it's one of my favourites too), and one usually can't go very wrong with it - but unfortunately in this case, its creaminess and intense roasted nutty flavour overwhelmed everything else in this dish. I'm really not sure that this dressing was the best choice, given the dish's general tone of refinement and subtlety. The sea urchin was a particular shame as it was quite clear that this was of very high quality - extremely sweet and plump to the palate when savoured in isolation. There would have been no need to mask it with such a strong dressing for any reason. I was certainly expecting a little more precision and balance in the combination of flavours and ingredients.
季節の刺身：大トロ、金目鯛、カンパチと塩昆布
Sashimi: tuna belly, red snapper, yellowtail with salted kelp.
Very elegantly presented atop a small bucket of ice, this tasted every bit as good as it looked. The tuna belly had a lovely melt-in-the-mouth texture and rich fatty flavour, the bream was lean, firm and mildly sweet, while the yellowtail topped with finely chopped pieces of salted kelp had an unusually deep umami. The wasabi was disappointing; I would have expected it to be fresh and subtle at a restaurant of such pricing and ambience, but despite its natural fibrous look and light green colour it was piercingly spicy (probably with cheaper horseradish substitutes in the mix). The lily bulb and shiso buds and shoots were a very pleasant touch though, with their fresh and delicate sweet taste.
焼物：甘鯛塩焼き、畳鰯、京都産南瓜、茗荷、梅干し
Grilled dish: sweet sea bream shioyaki, tatami-iwashi (baby sardines laid out and dried while entwined in a single layer to form a large and crisp mat-like sheet), grilled Kyoto pumpkin, pickled ginger flower and umeboshi.
The fillet of sea bream grilled with salt didn't disappoint with its tender, moist, and tasty flesh, and it was my first time eating fish with the scales still on (!) - these numerous lightly caramelised bits had however been done to crisp perfection, and made for a lovely textural contrast with the flesh. For the accompaniments, the Kyoto pumpkin really stood out with its sweetness and rich texture, while the juicy cured plum provided a refreshing finish with its delicate balance of sweetness and astringency. A truly stellar dish!
揚げ物：タラバ蟹のおかき粉揚げ、銀杏、沢蟹
Deep-fried dish: crispy snow crab legs in glutinous rice flour batter, ginkgo nuts, whole Sawagani crab, with sea salt and lime.
This was comfort food pure and simple. The batter, like in all good and authentic Japanese deep-frying, was wonderfully light and crisp, allowing the nature of the ingredients beneath to fully shine through. We hardly needed the sea salt and lime. The crab legs were extremely succulent and sweet, while the ginkgo nuts (a common winter produce in Japan and China, well loved for its antioxidant and medicinal properties) combined a rich fleshy texture with a fruity bitterness akin to that of top-grade olive oil. The small Sawagani crab to be eaten whole, shell and all, was somewhat more challenging; it was still very tasty of course, but very sharp and prickly in the mouth - we had to chew with caution.
肉料理：鹿児島産和牛のすき焼き、フォアグラ、九州産トマト、茄子
Meat dish: Kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki, with foie gras, tofu, Kyushu tomato and eggplant.
Possibly the most luxurious hotpot one could ever imagine! The combination of tender and succulent slices of beef with smooth and creamy chunks of foie gras and eggplant, all within an intense beef broth, could have been too rich for some, but I certainly wasn't complaining. This dish arrived at the table already boiling, so we had to start to eat it quickly, or risk the beef slices becoming too tough, and the foie gras disintegrating into an oily mess in the broth. Anyway, I think this would have been even more satisfying and warming if we had been eating it in the midst of a real winter!
御飯：天然鯛とイクラの炊き込み御飯、木の芽、味噌汁
Rice: sea bream cooked with rice, topped with fresh salmon roe and kinome (Japanese pricklyash), and served with miso soup.
Traditionally, rice and miso soup signify the end of the savoury courses in a Japanese tasting menu. Here, no expense and effort were spared in preparing an apparently simple dish; the rice had been cooked with slices of sea bream and its stock, resulting in something unexpectedly fragrant and tasty. Topping the rice was the most generous amount of salmon roe I had ever seen (such a vibrant colour!), and twigs of kinome for additional peppery aromas. I could hardly find fault with this premium combination per se, but I couldn't help but feel that this rice dish had been overcooked on the whole, which was disappointing for a restaurant at this level and price point. The slices of bream in the middle were most obviously dry and tough - presumably really drained of all their juices whilst cooking with the rice, which itself also felt a little dry, though hardly as bad as the fish. Thankfully, the smooth and briny salmon roe was there to moisten and lubricate, being added only after, and not during, cooking the rice. This could and should have been the perfect rice dish, but wasn't - a real shame indeed.
デザート：静岡産マスクメロン、紫蘇シャーベット、ぜんざい
Dessert: Shizuoka musk melon, shiso sherbet with popping candy, and hot Japanese red bean soup with a rice cake.
We were advised to eat this platter of treats in an anticlockwise order, starting from the fruit in front. The juxtaposition of the traditional with the foreign/contemporary was a lovely idea indeed. First up, the musk melon from a famed agricultural region, which was every bit as sweet and juicy as one would expect. Then, an icy mixture of finely crushed shiso leaves and bits of popping candy (more a granité than a sherbert, really) refreshed and stimulated the palate like no other - my partner described his first experience with popping candy as 'ticklish' in the mouth, not entirely comfortable but highly amusing (and prior to this I deliberately didn't want to reveal how it would feel like!). Finally, and perhaps most disappointingly, a lukewarm and somewhat watery red bean soup with a piece of rice cake that was again so dry, tough and tasteless that it was pretty obvious the latter had been taken out of a freezer and unsuccessfully reheated. I mean, how could such a high-end Japanese restaurant have gotten the most traditional and basic of desserts wrong? Not the best way to finish this tasting menu, I must say.
Fortunately, the petit fours that our lovely waitress offered after the meal redeemed the previous portion of the dessert. They came from this impressive jewellery box-like mini chest of drawers, each drawer with a different morsel - of course I had to ask for at least two of everything..! On the plate below: raspberry cookie, chocolate cookie, sesame biscotti, yuzu marshmallow, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, candied orange zest and chocolate-coated orange zest - yum!
The staff here seem mainly Korean and Filipino, with a only a few locals and Japanese as far as I could tell. I did find the Filipina who came by to refill our teacups every now and then easier to understand than the Korean waitress who was our main server for the evening, but I must say that the service was always polite and friendly all-round.
I definitely felt that that the progression of courses could have been better paced on the kitchen's part; some dishes arrived immediately after we had finished (or even while we were still finishing!) the preceding course. The last thing you want in a fine meal is to feel rushed through it; we had started at a very reasonable hour, well far from the restaurant's closing time, I should add.
All in all this dinner still hasn't quite changed my mind about paying full price for premium Japanese food in Singapore, but for half the cost it is as good a deal as any lover of fine Japanese cuisine, not based in Japan, could hope for - despite the few misses in execution this evening, I definitely see us returning for the occasional indulgence from now on.
