IN CASE you still don't know, there's a new hotel in town.

Actually, it's not new but the name is.

Last week, the former Raffles The Plaza at Raffles City was rebranded as Fairmont Singapore, and has become part of an American five-star hotel chain that is branching into Asia.

Inagiku, the Japanese restaurant in the hotel, is not new either. It has been around since 1986 when the hotel - then known as the Westin Plaza - first opened.

And although it was refurbished in the mid-1990s, it was starting to show its age, with its traditional decor of beige and browns.

So earlier this year, it closed for a complete overhaul to bring it up to date. But unlike the hotel, it kept its old name, and head chef Yoshiyuki Nobukawa, who has been with the restaurant for more than 10 years, is still at the helm.

It reopened two months ago sporting a contemporary, more stylish look.

The lights are turned down and warmer. The general colour scheme is a chic black. And on a wall is a slideshow projection showing artworks made from recycled paper.

It's a bit like walking into an experimental theatre production - strange and interesting.

The food, however, is a mix of old and new.

Traditional fare such as sushi, tempura and teppanyaki still fill the bulk of the menu.

But for me, these are the less exciting options.

ROOT FOR THIS: Try the crispy deep-fried mixture of sliced burdock, prawn and Japanese herb (top picture) at the stylish Inagiku restaurant.

The sushi is decent but at $12 for a pair of salmon sushi and $23 for honmaguro (tuna), I can think of many places that offer similar quality at lower prices.

Even the teppanyaki prawn with Inagiku special sauce ($60) - a signature dish - does not taste as good as I remember. The prawns are fresh, certainly, but the thick, creamy sauce, made from a fiercely guarded recipe that purportedly involves 12 ingredients, is rather bland.

So is the fried udon noodle ($15). Fried with egg and pieces of chicken, it would have tasted much better if there had been some sweetness to balance the flavours.

Adding some vegetables or onions would have done the trick, I think.

The serving is rather generous though, enough for two persons.

For more interesting dishes, you should check out the specials.

There is an interesting dish of live flounder sashimi with sea urchin and caviar, drizzled with sesame sauce and fresh lime ($45) that offers an intriguing mix of flavours. The lime, especially, is wonderful as it simply perks everything up.

The only thing is, the few pieces of paper-thin fish are hardly enough to line the stomach.

To fill up, you have to depend on another special: a deep-fried mixture of sliced burdock (a root vegetable), prawn and oba leaf, a Japanese herb ($25).

It reminds me of a local deep-fried Chinese snack made with prawns, turnip and flour, except that this is more crispy. And it tastes great, with the sweetness of the prawns tinged with a slight bitterness from the herb.

Another deep-fried dish of Kagoshima kurobuta pork ($30) is also excellent. This is done katsu- or cutlet-style and comes with a little salad of lettuce and cabbage leaves with mayonnaise.

The meat is covered in a thin batter coating instead of breadcrumbs, making it lighter. And the oil used to deep-fry it has a nice fragrance.

But it is the pork that is truly worth paying every cent for. It is succulent, springy and tender all at the same time.

If you are into bizarre dishes, you have to try the wasabi cherry sherbet ($20). It looks like ordinary sherbet but tastes strangely of cherries cooked in soya sauce. And the wasabi gets your tongue tingling with fire as you eat more and more of it.

It certainly gives the term 'hot dessert' new meaning.

INAGIKU
Fairmont Singapore, Level 3,
80 Bras Basah Road,
Tel: 6431-6156

Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6.30 to 10.30pm
Food: *** 1/2
Service: *** 1/2
Ambience: *** 1@
Price: Budget above $100 per person for a la carte. Set lunch menus start from $60

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