At Table Tatsuya

Tatsuya
270 Orchard Road
#01-05 Park Hotel Orchard
Tel: 6737-1160

Last night was a night of focused eating. Sushi was the main thing on our minds, so with Akane closed we decided to head to the other well established sushi mecca in Singapore, Tatsuya.

The sushi counter only sits a dozen and the chefs put on quite a show with their sharp knifes, bamboo brushes and blow torches. With such a small sitting and the personal attention you are given with the one to three ratio of sushi chef per customer these seats are coveted and needless to say, costly.

We ordered ‘omakase’ with a qualifier that we were only interested in eating sushi and sashimi. And with that we were later assigned Chef Kan who took care of us for the rest of the night.

The problem with going to a new sushi bar or for any new restaurant is getting the chef to understand your palate and your likes. We started off with a super fresh sashimi platter that consisted of the usual suspects – salmon, tuna, giant shrimp, clams, swordfish – very good, but seemingly conservative for my raw appetite. I sat back and wondered if this was going to be a good meal. The sashimi plate was certain fresh and faultless, but was I going to be taken on that magic-carpet-ride-delectable-adventure that some sushi chefs are capable of?


Aburi toro and salmon


Aburi botan ebi

After popping the first piece of oily-punchy-pepper-seasoned aburi salmon, my fears of being disappointed were dispelled. Following in quick succession was a string of aburi creations, toro, scallop topped with foie gras, botan ebi with mentaiko and matsuzaka beef, all fabulous popping flavour morsels. The most incredible flavour combination was this ‘special unagi sushi’ as Chef Kan puts terms it which was a grilled piece of unagi rolled with a paper thin cucumber slice, topped with salmon skin followed by tobikko and then sprinkled with sesame seeds and a swift brush of yuzu zest and sauce … a mouthful to describe and a mouthful delight.

From the raw department, Chef Kan hand crafted nigiris that included tai with rock salt and squeeze of lime, uni, Hokkaido surf clam, hamachi, arkagai, abalone and chutoro. After which Chef Kan look a little lost since our appetites seemed insatiable as we still peered hungrily into the glass boxes in front of us scouring for more. He then pulled out some squid and sent it to the kitchen to deep-fry as a ‘snack’ or a crispy intermission whilst he thought about what he was going to feed us next. For a treat, he reached below and pulled out the hirame fin then we finally call it a night with the stronger tasting sama and saba.


Hokkaido surf clam


Abalone

Tatsuya is a great table to be at. Bring you sense of adventure and let the chef lead, then either set your budget and boundaries on what you would or would not eat or eat with reckless abandonment and fork over your plastic.

*See the whole set of photos here.