Tatsuya

Hate to give restaurants low reviews but comparatively to sushi/​Japanese spots of similar high price tier (and expectation), Tatsuya is a restaurant that feels like it cuts one too many corners in all its sushi quality, service and ambiance. Even though it has been around for a number of years, I have visited twice and would not at all recommend visiting here for any kind of sushi craving.
I made a last minute Monday night reservation for my girlfriend and I where the waitress sat us down at the sushi counter in front of what I was assuming to be our chef for the night and we are given a few menus to look through. I was in the mood for a sushi omakase so we both requested the 10 piece order and awaited our meal.
So many things wrong with this restaurant…
1) As a starter, we were given salmon roe (ikura) in a mini bowl with a spoon to nibble through after which we began noticing the chef in front of us wasn’t actually preparing our meals, rather the chef at the other end of the sushi counter was doing our food preparation (minus 1 star already — part of the fun of sitting at the sushi counter is seeing YOUR FOOD being prepared).
2) Then comes the part that irked me the most… they literally TORCHED 8 out of 10 PIECES OF SUSHI WE RECEIVED!!! This was highly unusual and we soon understood why, when we ordered some raw piece of sweet shrimp, we gagged at how fishy it was. There was even a part of the chu-​toro that was left untouched and given to us, that even tasted awfully fishy.
3) On top of charring all these fishy pieces of fish, they use a bunch of garnishes. Mind you, this isn’t like Sushi of Gari in NYC that is creative with their garnishes (but use high quality fish). They use garnishes that take a giant part of the flavor away from the fish (tons of mayonnaise for instance).
4) This place will continuously serve your sushi on the same plate without wiping it off beforehand each time. So you essentially have this messy plate full of soy sauce. Any respectable sushi establishment will wipe your serving plate as this is the respectable way of serving sushi.
5) Unce unce club music was playing as background music. Yet they attempt to present themselves as a top grade sushi establishment. There seems to be an identity issue here, this isn’t a Ku De Ta (Ce La Vie) where they are actually meant to be a hip loungey type Asian fusion place.
6) Service was awful and waitresses (and chefs) are Singaporean and not Japanese. Even when presenting us the sushi, the chefs simply said «this is another part of Yellowtail» and went back to serving someone else. Lots of arrogance. We stopped caring since everything was torched to know the difference. If you take a minute and look across the 3 chefs at the bar, they seem to really enjoy just kicking it and torching everything.
If there is anything to recommend here, it would be the charashi don. Surprisingly this was done very well and it comes in a small size that you can accompany with most dishes. Given that they still torch some of the fish on it, if I had this by itself then maybe I would be more forgiving.
They do have your more Westernized rolls and such so this can be a good visit for those who aren’t familiar with real raw sushi and maybe that’s why they torch everything as well — to make more appealing to non sushi lovers. This would be the only reason to visit.
Unfortunately the price here is very high and comparable to Ashino, Hashida, or even Shinji so if you are willing to shell out $ 600-​$ 700 for 2 people sushi dinner (without drinks), I hope you do not choose here hoping you will get what you are paying for.
I would not at all put this in the top 10 sushi spots in Singapore but if you really wanted to come here, just make sure you know what to expect.

Despite Tatsuya’s excellent reputation, I had never tried it till yesterday. I went for the grilled beef and specifically requested that it should be cooked medium well… when it was served I looked at the pieces and discovered they were still pink and rare and raw in some parts.
How can a kitchen accustomed to cooking grilled meat not be able to tell the done-​ness of meat. There is a BIG difference between medium well and rare. At this stage I didn’t want them to prepare a new one, I just wanted an answer… why were they not able to tell the meat was not cooked properly? And if they did know, why did they still decide it was fit to be served at all? This was a little surprising.
Moreoever, as the head chef himself pointed out, the beef was sliced before being served… which means the kitchen could see the meat was undercooked. Again, what happened? Why wasn’t anyone checking?
Having a word with one of the Singaporean chefs, I found him to be insincerely apologetic. I requested the Japanese head chef to answer this question. They couldn’t of course but the Japanese head chef was far more sincere. And that made all the difference. The Manageress too tried her best to pacify a disgruntled diner.
I was a little surprised that even after cooking the meat and slicing it, they could not tell it was rare and pink and still served it.

My family’s favorite sushi place! I love sitting at the counter and watching them work their magic, pairing different ingredients together into one unique, delicious nigiri bite after another. We always end with uni and wagyu beef before having one of their sweet, juicy Japanese fruits for dessert.

If you have the budget or a special occasion; Tatsuya is a great place for Japanese. I won’t be able to do the food or this review justice but I sat at the Sushi bar and let the sushi chef decide what to serve us. He started with some beautiful sashimi and then slowly fed us sushi and rolls until we had finished our sake and were satiated. The sushi chefs are great and they do a really nice job of pacing the food and service.

Expect fresh and good ol’ sashimi plater! I didn’t order too many stuff this time as I felt full really fast all of a sudden.
So I ordered the $ 120 sashimi platter that includes sea urchin, ootoro, salmon, prawns, cuttlefish and yellow tail fish. It was good but still can’t beat Shinji away! Haha.
Despite its freshness I could not appreciate the cuttlefish sashimi though.
As a person who dislikes wasabi, I fell in love with the fresh grated wasabi here; to my surprise it was sweet and no unappealing pungent smell at all!
However, I’m still gonna give this place 5 stars!

Just had Kaiseki lunch for my anniversary.
I can say it was way too much overpriced!!!
I paid $ 665 including tax & svc charge for 2 pax.
I have been served :
–Small appetizer
–3 different kinds of SOUP!!!
(Clear, corn and miso– to make a full belly?!?)
−7−8 pcs of sashimi
–chawan mushi with ikura
–1 corn tempura
–Small fried fish
–5 pcs of aburi sushi
–1 scoop of sorbet for dessert
Aburi sushi is not special at all. Tasted like a regular California roll because of lots of mayonnaise. Greasy.
Do you think these are worthy enough to pay $ 280 before tax and service charge for 1 person?
I don’t think so.
It was very noisy. Felt like I was at the busy food court. Not from customers.
All chefs and waitress didn’t care when they put the bento box on the table. Bump! Hit! Knock!
One more unpleasant moment. ANT!!!
I spotted couple of ant on the dining table!
I had to ask them to clean away.
Most people ordered bento or sushi platter.
Bento looked good with reasonable price.
I think Shinji is much better to enjoy omakase. At the Shinji, I felt like they treated me very carefully. Better atmosphere, better quality of food and traditional but exceptionally creative food styling.
I cannot help thinking about my wasting money. It was just $ 100 value but I’ve paid more than $ 300.

The aburi sushi here is excellent and worthy of 4 stars, especially if you order the wagyu beef sushi that in itself will bank ¼ of your bill. We had a business lunch and as a result, couldn’t sit at the counter, which I think is essential for aburi sushi because you want to eat it straight after it’s torched. Unfortunately all of my sushi was cold due to the logistics of preparing sushi for a table of people all at once, so it’s no fault of the restaurant. Even with my less than ideal sushi, I enjoyed the sweet shrimp and not-​sure-​what-​meat with a strip of foie gras sushi. I couldn’t get too curious with my food because the conversation was focused on the economics of corporate culture change in Japan.
Food aside however, the service at Tatsuya was terrible. I think this is an important component of the dining experience, especially if the restaurant is targeting people who will pay for good food. I would say upfront that even as a guest, I felt embarrassed for my Japanese hosts. We were greeted by a waitress with a harried face (crossed eyebrows and a frown), who basically yelled at us for our reservation details. This isn’t the loud and cheerful traditional welcome I’m talking about. More like spit your names out and stop wasting my time kind of welcome. Throughout our meal, I had the unfortunate opportunity to be served by this same waitress, who for goodness knows why, repeatedly shoved her hand past my face as she put drinks or food in front of me. To save you from agony, let’s just say I was this ’ ’ close to losing my temper and that almost never happens when I consume excellent food.
For that experience, I think Tatsuya deserves a three.

Possibly the best sushi that I have had ever. It wasn’t cheap either. You pay a premium for their fish which comes directly from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo 2 times a week. The service was a bit disappointing and we waited quite a long time for our food. Rather than serve the miso soup first, it arrived sometime after our first platter of sashimi arrived. What’s more, the non sushi eating person in our party had to wait for his hot meal while the rest of us devoured the sashimi and sushi that was delivered. We had to ask many times for them to deliver the hot meal. Midway through our meal, a party of nine arrived and was seated next to us. It didn’t help that they were French either. After that, the service got a bit worse as the staff could not handle the increase in volume. We had to wait 20 minutes to get our check and when it arrived, we were overcharged.
Despite this, the sushi and sashimi were of high quality and probably superior to what you can get here in Singapore, we will probably go back. After we pay off the loan that we took out to pay the dinner tab.

I really wish I didn’t like this place. Correction: my wallet really wishes that I didn’t like this place. At $ 200−300pp each trip, it’s certainly not an every day excursion.
But this place is magical. Where fresh sparkling morsels of raw fish melt in your mouth. Where beautifully crafted seared aburi sushi burst with flavor. Where chawanmushi is awakened with a spritz of yuzu.
If only magic could make the bill disappear.

Fresh & tasty sashimi, accompanied by delicious jap rice and a very yuzu-​ish chawanmushi are a delight on a rainy Sunday afternoon. The only downside is it isn’t very friendly to your pocket should you have an appetite of a shark. ‘Nuff said!

The omakase is brilliant, but oh so expensive (you can easily cough out $ 300 and up per pax)
Their platter of aburi sushi is a perfect crowd pleaser. Whether you like raw fish or not, it is hard to fault this, especially when it is done with amazing seafood.
And depending on the season, you get a dessert of impossibly sweet fruit. When I eat the honeydew slice here, I sometimes wonder if this is the melon that can cost up to US$ 200 each.

Helmed by Chef Ronnie Chia, 2 time Award winner for the World Gourmet Summit’s Asian Ethnic Chef of the year in 2007 and 2008, Tatsuya serves one of the most exquisite sushi meals in Singapore. Is it any wonder that they fly in fresh and exotic offerings direct from the renown Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo? No worries people, the fish is safe. Though I honestly don’t care if radiation kills me as long as i get the yummiest sashimi!
We decided to go with the Lunch Bento sets which were reasonably priced at $ 26 to 30++. Actually i would say that it’s darn cheap. Somehow i had this idea that a meal at Tatsuya would cost a bomb (though we have paid a lot more for Japanese before).
Fresh sashimi, great and thoughtful service. Would definitely be back.

We managed to get a lunch reservation on a very indulgent Thanksgiving afternoon, which I can safely say, I’m thankful for. I’d read and heard glowing reviews about the famed Tatsuya since its days at Crown Prince Hotel and had been meaning to try it out one day. So it was high expectations and spirits that I stepped into the honey colored wood paneled sushi bar.
Food: Our party of six ordered a bento set each plus a few other ala carte items. I had the sashimi unajyu which was essentially an assortment of salmon, tuna and yellowtail sashimi coupled with unagi slices on rice and silky plain chawanmushi with yuzu zest. Not entirely impressive and I was getting a teensy bit disillusioned. And then our ala carte order of assorted aburi nigiri sushi came. Oh. My. God. Mindblowingly delicious! I especially LOVED the sake toro, hotate with foie gras, ebi and the otoro with tobiko. Amazing. This alone is worth coming to Tatsuya.
Ambience: Fairly chic sushi bar. Good for a spot of lunch.
Service: Not particularly outstanding.
I’m coming back for the aburi nigiri sushi alone.