THE former Raffles The Plaza may have been renamed and rebranded, but even before the new letterheads were printed, its Japanese restaurant Inagiku had already undergone its own revamp and the result is a moody, inky black tribute to contemporary Zen, with equally modern food to match.
It still has its sushi counter (suitably spruced up as well) and the basics of sashimi and tempura are still available, but the emphasis on contemporary Japanese cuisine is what it hopes to differentiate itself with.
Jazzy blues play softly overhead while black on black furnishings get a jolt of neon from the backlit flower logo of Inagiku on one feature wall. It's a sleek backdrop that is as artfully crafted as its food.
To clean your palate, try the hirame or flounder sashimi ($45), a beautifully presented 'haystack' of grated daikon with slices of hirame draped over it and topped with a dab of sea urchin and caviar with a sesame sauce and fresh lime - easy on the eye and refreshing clean flavour.
Meanwhile, your taste buds will go into a huddle trying to figure out if the foie gras fruit lemon-kama ($28) actually tastes good or is just too funky for comprehension. While none of the elements actually match, the boiled cubes of foie gras, grilled pork chunks, prawns, sour mango and grapes was not an unpleasant combination since all the different elements taste fine on their own. But put together and you just wonder what the rationale is.
We much preferred the wagyu ishiyaki ($80), a can't-go-wrong tableside barbecue consisting of thinly sliced marbled beef that you grill on a hot stone.
If you're inclined towards sweet food, then the gorgeously wrapped Taciuo Sugiita-yaki ($38) fits the bill with a grilled mixture of hairtail fish, prawn and shiitake mushroom slathered with sweet miso and wrapped in a bark-line Hoba leaf which imparts a slight woody fragrance. The lime, though, helps cut through the sweetness.
Another unusual concoction was the tai chazutsu-yaki ($35), essentially a Japanese style fish ball stuffed with prawn in a cloying green tea sauce. A more successful combination would be the shiromi sakana awayuki-mushi ($45) aka chawanmushi gone amok, but deliciously so. A leaf is shaped into a boat filled with soup, steamed sea bass covered with beaten eggwhite, sea urchin and a dab of hot pepper. Generous chunks of king crab leg complete this invention, a tasty cornucopia of tastes and textures.
We would say that the new-improved Inagiku's direction is not without merit, especially for those bored with conventional Japanese cuisine. But as it is with experimental cuisine, some will please, some will not, whereas the only way you can go wrong with sushi and sashimi is to cut corners on quality, which Inagiku doesn't. The sashimi is good stuff. But at least now it can claim to be all things to all who like Japanese.
Rating: 7/10
Inagiku Fairmont Singapore
80 Bras Basah Road
Tel: 6431 6203
