SINGAPORE: When a food trend is a good trend, it stays on the menu. (Hear that, raindrop cake?) So, like Korean barbecue and salted egg-everything, mono-ingredient restaurants have continued to grow sideways across Singapore.
Case in point: Newly opened restaurant Kuro Maguro which, as its name suggests, serves mainly bluefin tuna. There have been queues forming outside its Tanjong Pagar Centre (which, by the way, has become quite the Japanese food enclave) eatery since Wednesday (Feb 1), thanks in part to its half-off otoro meshi donburi (marbled tuna belly rice bowl) opening promotion.
Diners queuing outside the new donburi restaurant at Tanjong Pagar Centre. (Photo: Kuro Maguro’s Facebook page)
It could also be that folks here are ready for salmon to move over and hand the sashimi spotlight to tuna, now that Japan wholesaler Misaki Megumi Suisan has made it a lot more accessible.
To keep the top-grade fish affordable, the company freezes its freshly caught tuna at minus 60 degrees Celsius and ships it straight from its own trawlers in Kanagawa’s Misaki Port to Singapore via ANA freight.
Kuro Maguro offers 18 donburi options, plus other menu items that let you enjoy various cuts of tuna sliced, minced torched or grilled.
Not that into fish? Make a beeline for any of these other one-track options:
CASA TARTUFO
Sea urchin and truffle risotto at the “house of truffles”. (Photo: Casa Tartufo’s website)
Despite its popularity here, the “house of truffle” is still – almost six years since it first opened – the only restaurant in Singapore dedicated to the precious fungi. To cater to the masses, many restaurants use synthetic truffle oil instead, but Casa Tartufo has been telling their origin story for years – their truffle comes straight from their suppliers in Piedmont, Italy.
Diners at the family-owned trattoria can have the exquisite, but pricey mushroom on mains like egg noodle, scrambled egg and sea urchin risotto (PSA: Black winter truffles are still in season until around March) or for flavour as in truffle fondue with caviar and truffle honey.
Black winter truffles are now in season. (Photo: Casa Tartufo’s website)
Don’t skip dessert – items like tiramisu, chocolate ice-cream and gianduja, pistachio and lemon sorbet have all been enriched with truffle.
Casa Tartufo is at Scarlet Hotel, 33 Erskine Road.
HATCHED
Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast at Hatched. (Photo: Hatched’s Facebook page)
Which came first – the chicken or the egg? At Hatched, the mean protein is ahead of everything else. It’s an all-day breakfast joint, so egg-centric brekkie dishes like croque madame and eggs benedict are a given. If you ask us, the rest of it is cheating, really (how many Western dishes don’t contain any egg?), but here, if you’re craving a simple egg dish, you can choose from the whole nine yards – baked, boiled, fried, poached and scrambled.
Hatched is at 267 Holland Avenue.
LATTERIA MOZZARELLA BAR
Buffalo mozzarella served with cherry tomatoes and basil. (Photo: Latteria Mozzarella Bar)
When eaten fresh, mozzarella can melt even the most hardened non-cheese lovers. The best place to get the job done? Latteria Mozzarella Bar in Singapore, which has cow and buffalo mozzarella, as well as the even more beloved burrata.
Mozzarella is the star ingredient at this Duxton Hill eatery. (Photo: Latteria Mozzarella Bar’s Facebook page)
It’s a beautiful place, perched atop Duxton Hill, under whose fairy lights one would sit even before seeing the menu. If you happen to like coffee with your cheese, they just launched their Sunday brunch, which includes items like saffron and porcini mushroom risotto.
Latteria Mozzarella Bar is at 40 Duxton Hill.
MAN MAN UNAGI
Grilled unagi on rice at Chef Teppei’s newest Singapore restaurant. (Photo: Diane Leow)
Before people have even tired of queuing for Yamashita Teppei’s chirashi bowls (they probably won’t), the Fukuoka-born chef has pulled yet another newbie out of his magic restaurateur hat. Almost as raved-about as his namesake outlets, Man Man Unagi offers all manner of the Japanese freshwater eel, including a famous Nagoya dish that makes Man Man the most immersive restaurant on this list.
Hitsumabushi comprises eel that is split down the belly and grilled without steaming, then sliced and placed on rice. To enjoy it, you’re encouraged to split your meal into at least three parts – eat the first as it is, add garnishing like spices, seaweed and spring onion to the second and pour broth into the third. End your meal with your favourite part. Itadakimasu!
Man Man Unagi is at #01-01, 1 Keong Saik Road.
PINCE & PINTS
Chilli lobster with man tou. (Photo: Pints & Pints’ Facebook page)
If you love lobster, now would be a good time to try Pince & Pints as it recently started taking reservations. The menu is modest with less than 10 items, but that seems enough to gain it fans. Recommendations include the lobster version of chilli crab complete with fried mantou and the truffle roll, which contains grilled corn.
Pince & Pints is at 32-33 Duxton Road.
