For decades, Inagiku has been my family’s go-to restaurant for premium teppanyaki. Over the years, I’ve had teppanyaki at a several Japanese restaurants, but Inagiku has always remained the undisputed shogun of my heart.
Several years go, the Fairmount Singapore decided against renewing the rights to the Inagiku franchise and took back control of its Japanese restaurant. The result is Mikuni, a Japanese restaurant that, “offers a culinary tour through exquisite creations from its three stunning Teppanyaki, Sushi and Robatayaki live stations, each helmed by a master chef, that highlight the most premium of seasonal Japanese produce.”
Having forged many happy memories at Inagiku, I felt slightly tepid about visiting its successor. Alas, my wallet found the Far Card’s 50% discount for Monday lunch irresistible, and I succumbed to temptation.
Even though I got a taste for the restaurant’s interior decoration via its website, nothing could have prepared me for the darkness that overwhelmed me. Mikuni’s interior motif is blacker than a witch’s heart. It gives the restaurant a cold and business-like appearance. Not exactly my first choice for a hot date – unless I’m dating the Wicked Witch of the West, or a goth chick. Or a Sith Lord.
It even features one of the darkest prosperity cats (发财猫) I have ever seen.
The upside is that the clean and minimalistic use of colour makes the art pieces and China pop.
What Mikuni lacks in colour, it more than makes up for in comfort. The leather seats are some of the most comfortable dining chairs I have ever used. I found it to be even more comfortably than Lawry’s, which is quite an accomplishment.
Inagiku’s prawns with golden sauce is one of the main reasons I dined at Mikuni. This dish has always been a favourite amongst my family, and I was pleased to see it was still available on the menu. I spoke to the staff at Mikuni and asked them if there were any differences in the menu compared to Inagiku.
I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that Mikuni retained several dishes from Inagiku, including the prawns with golden sauce.
So I ordered the “Australian Beef & Ebi Ougon” set, which comes with Chawanmushi egg custard, teppanyaki prawn with golden sauce, choice of Australian beef tenderloin or sirloin, vegetables, rice, pickles, miso soup and dessert. I opted to pay extra for fried rice.
I’ve always found teppanyaki fine dining to be a strange experience in premium minimalism – you expect the best and freshest ingredients, cooked to perfection, sans any complicated frills and culinary ornaments. To this end, I have not found a better restaurant than Mikuni. The only exception to this minimalistic take on fine dining, was the prawns with golden sauce, which featured fresh, succulent prawns cooked with a generous helping of Mikuni’s trademark “golden sauce”, making it literally a teppanyaki dish with secret sauce. It is a fantastic dish, and I have never eaten anything like it. In my opinion, it is definitely a ‘must-try’ dish, but the mayonnaise-like ‘golden sauce’ may not be to everyone’s taste.
It should be mentioned I prefer the golden sauce to be slightly seared, creating a smokey skin covering its rich and gooey cream centre. Unfortunately, this was not the case during my visit. It was slightly seared, but I would have preferred it to be more heavily charred.
But there’s more to this set than the prawns. The chawanmushi and steak are equally deserving of mention.
Typically I hate chawanmushi, but Mikuni’s take on this traditional Japanese dish is simply exquisite, as is their sirloin steak, which was cooked to a perfect medium.
The meal ended with pudding served in a small jar. I’ve eaten desserts in jars before but Mikuni’s implementation contains more frustration than whimsy. Eating from this ridiculously-shaped jar is a painful experience. Honestly, the jar doesn’t even add much to the presentation. Mikuni seriously needs to rethink how this dessert is served.
The Far Card’s 50% discount may have made this $80 (++) set more palatable to my wallet. But is Mikuni’s teppenyaki worth the premium, especially if you are paying full price? Yes. When it comes to premium teppenyaki, Mikuni is hard to beat. The ingredients are superb and the cooking, precise – making Mikuni an ideal choice for the teppanyaki connoisseur who is willing to pay the price.
