Food Picks: Omakase from $98 at hidden izakaya Shako-Ba
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Shima aji with sesame oil and smoked soya sauce from Shako-Ba.
ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – With izakaya bar Shako-Ba, the games begin before you even step through the door. Your first task is to locate its entrance. (Hint: Head down an alley off North Canal Road and up two flights of stairs.)
The quest is only partially complete when you walk into a neon-hued room. This is the main dining area, where guests banter with chefs along a high counter, and order bites like pitan crab tofu ($12) and lobster crispy rice sushi ($12) from the a la carte menu.
For a quieter, more elevated experience, head through one final door, which will take you into a wood-panelled dining room that evokes the tranquillity of a regular Japanese omakase joint. At least, that is what you think, until your sashimi is served on a plate of dancing lights and the chef comes over midway through your meal to challenge you to a game of dice.
That is not to say the kitchen does not take its food seriously. There are four omakase menus here: seven courses for $98, eight courses for $128 or $188, and a mysterious $258 “gastronomical adventure” that has to be booked a week in advance and is built around seasonal premium ingredients like hairy crab.
Uni truffle somen from Shako-Ba.
ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK
However, if you are looking for a line-up of the usual luxurious ingredients, the $128 menu gets you enough bang for your buck. Uni is paired with beancurd skin in a silky appetiser, then joins forces with truffle to crown a bowl of umami-flecked somen.
Truffle shavings make another appearance later in the meal, cloaking marbled slivers of A4 Miyazaki wagyu in a donburi that rounds off the main courses in style.
The appetisers, sashimi – served with a mild shoyu foam that cannot quite replace soya sauce – and cooked dish change seasonally, while certain other dishes are constants on the menu. Among them is the toothsome shima aji, seared in sesame oil and smoked with soya sauce for added depth.
Throughout the night, diners stand a chance to win extra ingredients. Beating the chef at dice scores me a chunk of crab. Drawing the six of spades means six free shots.
It is all in the spirit of injecting some buzzy fun into fine dining. Gimmicky? Oh, for sure, but a free drink never hurt anybody.
Where: 02-01 The Offshore Building, 12 North Canal Road
MRT: Raffles Place
Open: 5pm to midnight, Mondays to Saturdays
Info: www.shakoba.com.sg
