Kaiseki at the penthouse

I recently came across a review of a new Japanese restaurant by the Kuriya group called Kuriya Penthouse, located in downtown Central mall. It was billed as the top end of the Kuriya group's chain of restaurants, with views of the city skyline and and strict dress code to match. Intrigued, and always craving a good kaiseki meal without good reason, I decided I had to give it a try.

Arriving at 7:30pm in the evening, the restaurant was almost empty except for two small tables.The decor wasn't typically Japanese restaurant style, but instead was a more of a mishmash of modern design elements thrown together. Anyway, I was more interested in the kaiseki meals and less on the decor. We were shown to a table by the window, which didn't quite live up to the spectacular skyline view I was expecting to see.

The windows were too far away from the edge of the building, and there was a walkway between the railing and the window, and our view was inevitably interrupted by people walking outside and gawking at our table. I think the window facing tables were a dumb idea. A bamboo screen would have been a much more pleasant alternative.

Anyway, on to the meal. The top end kaiseki set meal on the menu was priced at S$250 per person, which sounded rather reasonable for eight courses of the freshest seasonal ingredients flown in from Japan. And besides, after my recent Aoki fiasco, S$250 sounded like a steal.

The presentation started with an amuse bouche of marinated baby squid, which were very juicy and sweet. Then came the individual servings of fresh uni in the shell, accompanied by freshly grated wasabi. The uni was fresh, but not the freshest I've had, but still very delicious. The third dish was sashimi, and this came with bonito, mackerel and baby abalone. I especially liked the tender abalone. This dish was accompanied by dried pickled seaweed that contrasted well with the sashimi. The next dish was white freshwater eel in ponzu sauce, and toro served with pickled ginger cubes and strands of seaweed that resembled cod roe.

One of my favorite dishes was the grilled wagyu beef slices, served with a pickled sweet ginger stem. The tempura course was fried whitefish and vegetable, again very fresh and well prepared with flaky tempura batter. The restaurant's signature dish was braised kinki fish, this was served in a very large bowl that contained a whole fish cooked in sweet brown sauce, accompanied by fresh vegetables and steamed rice. The kinki fish was simply delicious.

The eighth and last course was dessert, consisting of a choice of fresh fruits flown in from Japan. I selected strawberries, pineapple, cherries and kiwi fruit. The fruits came sliced and encased in a large ice globe that was partially melted on the side to allow access to the fruits inside.

Overall, I was very impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the innovative presentations. They were a refreshing change from the traditional kaiseki meals that focused solely on the freshness of the ingredients with little room for the chef's creativity to shine through. I liked the food very much, and would definitely be back.