Food Picks: Tokyo’s Nikuya Tanaka opens its first overseas outlet in S’pore with set menus from $350++

SINGAPORE – In a year when mostly casual concepts have dominated the market, Japanese beef specialist Nikuya Tanaka’s price tags definitely make me sit up. 

The menus are priced at $350++ for a nine-course lunch, $420++ for 10 courses (lunch and dinner) and $550++ for a 12-course dinner. At its Ginza flagship in Tokyo, its 12-course meal is priced at 49,500 yen (S$420). 

The eye-popping prices are for good reason. Ranked No. 27 on the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list, it is truly a wagyu lover’s dream feast.

In Tokyo, the restaurant is run by Japanese chef and third-generation meat master Satoru Tanaka, 58, whose father used to be a butcher and his grandfather a wagyu broker. 

Here, chefs Yosuke Sekiguchi and Masaya Yano run the team like a well-oiled machine in front of diners at the 10-seat counter. There is also a five-seat private room. This is the first overseas outlet for the restaurant and, like the original, has only set menus for lunch and dinner.

The dining experience focuses on pure-bred Tajima wagyu, specifically female cattle raised for more than 35 months in selected farms in Hyogo prefecture. The prized meat is known for its more refined quality, depth of flavour and higher marbling score. 

For the full creative showcase of the meat, splurge on the indulgent 12-course dinner. 

The sushi roll features the beef paired with hirame (flounder) for a surf and turf combo, if you will; while the beef tataki highlights the top rump cured in kelp, then briefly seared with binchotan. 

One of the memorable courses is the wagyu tempura – a first for me – where the delicately battered and fried meat is bursting with delicious oils. 

The more straightforward methods of cooking also come with unique touches. 

The beef sirloin shabu shabu – thin slices of meat gently swished in a dashi – is served with a freshly ground sesame sauce enriched with ankimo (monkfish liver). 

And for the grilled tenderloin, even the accompanying grated radish comes mixed with flower petals, making for a floral palate cleanser to cut through the richness of the meat.

To balance out all the meat, there are other highlights such as the Hokkaido hairy crab soup and kudzu (a type of vine) somen served in a hand-chiselled block of ice. 

Where: Nikuya Tanaka, 1 Teck Lim Road  
MRT: Outram Park/Maxwell  
Open: Noon to 3pm, 5.30 to 11pm (Mondays to Saturdays). Closed on Sundays and the second and fourth Mondays of each month  
Tel: 8280-8860
Info:

str.sg/aoFo