New Orchard Road Unagi Restaurant Has XL-Sized Grilled Eel Rice
Here’s a new spot to check out if you like crispy Kansai-style unagi.
If the slew of unagi specialists finding their way to our shores tells us anything, it’s that Singaporeans can’t seem to get enough of the freshwater eels, glazed with a sweet-savoury tare sauce and grilled till smoky and delicious.
The latest unagi joint in town is Xi Man, which will open its doors circa end-November at the former Park Mall (now known as 9 Penang Road). It’s opened by the folks behind mod cha chaan teng Pi Food and sushi restaurant Ganko Sushi, both of which are also located in the same mall.
Xi Man serves pre-slaughtered unagi imported from Miyazaki, Japan. The eels are cooked Kansai-style, being dipped in tare sauce and immediately grilled for a light crunchiness (the more common Kanto-style unagi is steamed in between two rounds of grilling for a fluffier mouthfeel).
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The kitchen is helmed by Japanese head chef Ryosuke Deguchi, who was trained by the restaurant’s principal partner: Murasawa Hiroyoshi, who worked at three-Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant Hyotei in Kyoto. Aside from his tutelage under the chef, chef Ryosuke had also cooked at two-Michelin-starred Kyoto kaiseki restaurant Kyokaiseki Kichisen.
The wood-dominated dining room – which seats 20 pax, or half of that with safe distancing – is a tasteful marriage of blond furniture against charcoal-coloured walls. There’s a rather aspirational table for ten diners in the middle of the room – chairs will be left empty till we can dine in bigger groups again.
Don’t expect live eels to be freshly slaughtered at Xi Man. They’re air-flown chilled from Japan pre-slaughtered two to three times a week. As is expected from a chef who had spent much of his time in Kyoto (which is in the Kansai region), the eels are cooked over charcoal Kansai-style; they’re grilled briefly before a lashing of tare sauce, then grilled again till crispy and lightly charred.
Some local unagi specialists like Uya and Man Man also serve their eels this way. Others, like Chikuyotei (the first in Singapore to serve live eel) and Unaemon defer to the Kanto style of preparing eels, which entails par-grilling it, then steaming, basting and grilling the fish once more for a moister, oilier finish. Naturally, you should go for Kansai-style unagi if you find unctuous eels too jelak.
There’s eel in many iterations here. For big eaters, there’s the Grilled Eel and Rice. You can also get Roasted Eel with Sauce a la carte, or the Unseasoned Grilled Eel (cooked sans the sweet-savoury tare sauce). The restaurant is still working on its prices, which tentatively range from $6 for Eel Liver Soup (also known in Japanese as kimosui, a delicate clear soup with eel offal) to $158 for the XL-sized eel rice that feeds three to four.
Sides like Savoury Steamed Egg Custard with Grilled Eel and Roasted Eel Wrapped in a Rolled Omelette are also given an unagi-centric twist with roasted eel.
