Setsuri Ishinomaki at Guoco Midtown serves up the best of Japanese grilling traditions – genshiyaki, warayaki, robatayaki, and rogama – along with possibly the most diverse selection of shochus in a Japanese restaurant.
Singapore doesn’t lack for good Japanese food. But Setsuri Ishinomaki made us sit up when we heard about it. Launched about a month back at newly-opened Guoco Midtown along Beach Road, Ishinomaki Group’s newest concept – the hospitality group behind Ishinomaki Grill & Sake, sake bar Table 33, and Ki Teppan & Rogama at Palais Renaissance – prides itself on some of the more uncommon grilling techniques in the Japanese culinary repertoire.
And it’s not just binchotan here. Instead chef owner Chi Pin Han somehow manages to convince the landlords of this standalone heritage conservation building – which once were police quarters – to let him make 50-seater Setsuri Inshinomaki a showcase of the many different ways the Japanese use fire to cook in all its blazing glory.
The food is all the better for it.
Some of these cooking methods we’ve only seen on Japan Hour. Like genshiyaki, an ancient grilling art form where skewers of food are stuck around a fire in a shallow pit filled with wood ash. The Iwashi Genshiyaki (grilled sardine), in particular excels under the low and slow cooking and turning out absolutely delicious.
Or warayaki, another primitive technique where straw – collected after the autumn rice harvest – is burnt in or over the grill to imbue a heady aromatic smokiness into the food. Our Hon Maguro Toro Wara Tataki, executed with this method, was polished off in seconds.
And of course, the more common robatakayi and rogama methods where bincho is used. This is your classic yakitori fare, and the Tsukune here is on point, complete with minced nonkotsu (chicken cartilage) for the requisite crunch.
But Setsuri Ishinomaki is not purely a Japanese grill house. Like most good Japanese restaurants it runs almost the gamut of that illustrious cuisine, from sashimi and sushi to hearty donabes as well. It also offers an extensive selection of drinks-friendly appetisers to kickstart a meal or accompany your drinks.
Which brings us to shochu. Regulars to Ishinomaki Grill & Sake will know of co-owner and certified sake expert Janice Chi’s love for all things sake, particularly the hot and aged varieties. At Setsuri Ishinomaki Chi gets to indulge in her newest love – shochu.
If you don’t hear much about that distilled alcoholic beverage, it’s not that Japanese shochu has a bad reputation in Singapore. It simply doesn’t have one. Chi intends to help change that by offering up a stunning 60 different shochus at Setsuri to help change perceptions.
While shochu can be distilled from almost any agricultural product, it is most commonly made from rice, barley, sweet potato, and brown sugar. You’ll be able to explore many of these shochu here neat, on the rocks, hot, or with water, the way the Japanese – particularly those who hail from Kyushu – enjoy them.
“Japanese shochus are an integral part of Japanese drinking culture. While sake is gaining popularity in Singapore, we see the potential to introduce and share more about Japanese shochu,” Chi tells us.
Setsuri Ishinomaki
Address 120 Beach Road #01-03 Guoco Midtown House, Singapore 189769 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 11am to 3pm and 5.30pm to 10pm daily
Tel (65) 6530 3657
Web ishinomaki.com.sg/#setsuri
Facebook setsuri.ishinomaki
Instagram @setsurisg
Reservations book here
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