How To Snag A Seat At Teppei’s Omakase Restaurant At The Last Minute
Do this ASAP and skip the wait list.
For a restaurant, staying afloat is a tough enough task in Singapore’s competitive F&B scene. But to draw queues and fill every seat over the years? Virtually unheard of… unless you’re Teppei. The cosy 22-seater, run by affable chef-towkay Teppei Yamashita, may just be one of the country’s most popular restaurants judging by how hard it still is to get a table at this hole-in-the-wall joint in Orchid Hotel — a remarkable eight years after its opening.
Over time, the restaurant has developed a unique personality that meshes Japanese culinary precision with Singaporean ‘chin chye-ness’. Think aunties unpretentiously asking you to “xuan” (‘choose’ in Mandarin) deftly formed sushi or perfectly cooked beef fried rice from the menu, and meticulously portioned bites being fed to you on melamine and metal spoons that wouldn’t look out of place at a cai png stall.
It also helps that chiselled head chef Jinta Yano from Nagasaki (Teppei himself only cooks when he’s in town, he currently oversees an empire of 15 eateries in the Teppei group) looks like a strapping J-drama hero, even while he’s gently waving sheets of seaweed over the stove to crisp them up for the restaurant’s famed “man-sized” negitoro hand roll. The 25-year-old has worked at the restaurant for over two years.
Food-wise, Teppei-san keeps things interesting with regular trips to Japan to seek out fresh and novel produce. Case in point: His October menu, on which he collaborated with the Kyoto government to showcase goodies from the prefecture that he says no one else is bringing in.
“We visited a lot of farmers, fishermen and factories. Then we thought of how we wanted to use the ingredients from them, and now we’re ordering from them direct,” he says.
The Kyoto menu features goodies like this A5-grade, melt-in-the-mouth Kyoto wagyu beef (chilled not frozen) that’s grilled and served with a type of Kyoto wheat that looks like mushroom and tastes a bit like turnip, and surprisingly floral-tasting wild yam from a seaside town in the north of Kyoto.
The chefs showed off these heaped shells of Kyoto seko kani (female snow crab) first, before scooping out the meat and roe into spoons and topping each one off with a piquant shio ponzu jelly.
October’s menu also includes ikura from Hokkaido that’s marinated in Kyoto, which has a lovely refined, briny flavour encased in a taut, supple film that’s not goopy at all.
There’s also a delicious spoonful of bafun uni perched on silky ribbons of Kyoto yuba (tofu skin), and mouth-puckeringly addictive pickled turnip from a farm with a “long-time history”. But ask Teppei the specifics of where each ingredient is from and he just gives a cheeky grin. “Secret, secret!”
Near the end of your meal, you get to pick a main course from a selection of four. Our server recommended this seasonal sushi assortment made with koshihikari rice.
For dessert, there’s a fabulous, chewy matcha ice cream that the counter crew slices into chubby chunks and doles out at the end of your meal.
One thing that’s not a secret? The penultimate course that’s already an Instagram hit: A crunchy roasted Kyoto grasshopper daubed in sweet sauce which the chef says is a common breakfast item in some parts of Japan, where it’s usually had with porridge. It’s only available on this month’s menu. “After you eat this, you will hop very well!” Teppei tells our petrified-looking neighbour with glee as he hands her the glistening insect on a satay skewer. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t taste as terrifying as it looks — a lot like sweet chilli sauce-covered ikan bilis actually, but without the heat.
But back to the secret of getting those seats at the last minute. We hear there’s a better chance of snagging a space now if you go in a small group of two to three pax and your booking is for the second seating at 8.30pm on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, when there are sometimes a couple of places available. As history proves though, they’re likely to go fast — so you better, well, hop to it.
$80 for a 17-course Kyoto omakase dinner, available through October at Teppei Japanese Restaurant. #01-18 Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Link. Tel: 6222-7363. Open daily except Sun, 11.45am-2.30pm (lunch) & 6.30pm-10.30pm (dinner). www.facebook.com/teppeigroup/
Photos: Alvin Teo
