Araki was one of the numerous new restaurants that opened when I was away at my overseas work stint (2019 to 2021). And having only read good stuff about Araki (from Instagram), I knew I had to visit. =) Araki reveals upcoming reservation information on their Instagram account. I made mine by sending them a WhatsApp message on the first day of the month.

And some things never quite change… Orchard Plaza is still quite the maze! You don’t know if you are walking in the correct direction to the unit. It took me a few wrong turns and a long walk down the corridor before I found identified unit 04-23. Even that wasn’t easy as Araki had no signboard. And to enter, press the bell and the staff will open the sliding door.

Chef-owner Issey Araki’s favourite colour must be black. Everything within the restuarant was black except for the wooden L-shaped counter. And yes, I noticed they even ‘black matt’-ed the air conditioner.

I read from other’s Instagram posts that dinner starts without waiting for latecomers. I reached by 6.55pm, and dinner commenced at 7.10pm. There were 3 groups including me (solo diner) that night. One of the group was running really late (the last of the 4 reached at 7.35pm), so chef Issey san started dinner for the other group and me first.

And since we had already indicated our choice of menu during reservation, there was no physical menu at Araki. Not even a drinks menu. For (alcoholic) drinks, you just walk up to the fridge and select your choice of alcohol. And my omakase dinner, $350 comprised:-

1) Dish #1 (above) – Salmon roe, hairy crab mixed with miso, hairy crab leg, seaweed and a dollop of wasabi.

  

2) Dish #2 (above) – Blacklip abalone with shark fin. I felt the choice of spoon and (shallow) bowl for this dish was weird. I had much difficulty trying to scoop up everything. In the end, I just picked up my bowl to finish every single drop of it. Keke.

3) Dish #3 (above) – Wild baby blue fin tuna (medium fatty tuna cut; chutoro), aged for 2 weeks. And because it’s a wild fish and not farmed fish, the texture was more chewy than ‘melt in mouth’.

4) Dish #4 (above) – Mackerel stick sushi (saba bozushi), and served with seaweed. This was good. I only wished it was sliced thicker.

5) Dish #5 (above)

6) Dish #6 (above) – Hay-smoked bonito with eggplant sauce and mustard.

7) Dish #7 (above) – Steamed thornyhead (kinki) with yam and zucchini, in ponzu sauce with grated radish. I enjoyed this, especially the broth.

8) Dish #8 (above) – Smoked black throat sea perch (nodoguro). Served piping hot, the fish was so juicy. Loved it. I especially liked the additional crunch with every mouthful because of the pickled gourd.

9) Dish #9 (above) – Tiger prawn (kuruma ebi) with Japanese sansho pepper leaves.

10) Dish #10 (above) – Belt fish (tachiuo) tempura with lotus root sauce

11) Dish #11 (above) – Black sea bass in hot milk-butter broth, and Hungarian honey truffle.

  

12) Dish #12 (above) – Chef Issey san’s version of Häagen-Dazs. Big ‘ice cream cone’ of minced tuna and yellow pickled radish, sea urchin and caviar. And it was pure joy watching chef Issey san put this ensemble together. After the tuna and urchin was rolled in seaweed, he continued to top it with more sea urchin. And the cherry on the ice cream was a gigantic spoon of caviar. No picture could properly capture the size of the hand roll. It was so huge that I had to finish off the top layer (with my chopsticks) before I could attempt biting into it.

13) Dish #13 (above) – Roasted tea.

  

14) Dish #14 (above) – Clay pot rice with tilefish (amadai) and matsutake mushroom.

15) Dish #15 (above) – Miso soup with seaweed.

16) Dish #16 (above) – Grapes.

First impression of Chef Issey san was that he’s very solemn. He focused on what he needed to do for dinner. Though one could tell he has his playful side by how he posed gamely for the camera with the abalone. He was like a totally different person. Not forgetting he’s a gentlemen at heart too. For the sushi, he would serve the females before the males.

That said, chef Issey san did very shy-ly showed his humourous side. Chef Issey san made a mistake when he was making the sushi for the group of 4. The first 3 in the group were given tuna, but the fourth was given another fish. The puzzled guy enquired about it, and the group with chef Issey san had a good laugh over it. And seeing how supporting the group of 4 was, chef Issey san teased the fourth guy (later into the meal) by making him a super small Häagen-Dazs. It was even smaller than one’s pinky.

I enjoyed myself at Araki. Although my heart hurt alot when I had to take out my card to pay. It was overpriced. Quite the pity because friends used to share meals at Araki were value for money. Within 1.5 years of its opening, Araki’s menu has gone through at least 2 price increases.

But as I share my experience at Araki (on my food blog), it’s sad to also share that Araki will be closing its door on 30 January 2022. But don’t despair if one is hoping to try chef Issey san’s dishes in future because Araki’s Instagram account dropped hint that something might be brewing. Maybe a new restaurant concept? Maybe a collaboration? Only time will tell…

Related posts:

Dinner @ Kaiho Sushi // CLOSED Dinner @ Arakawa Osaka Cuisine // CLOSED Dinner @ Shiki (Sydney, Australia) // CLOSED Lunch @ Sushi Dai // CLOSED Dinner @ G-ONE // CLOSED