Having been away for 2 years (mid 2019 to mid 2021), I had lots to catch up with Singapore food scene. A foodie friend was filling me in on what’s newly opened and what’s currently trending, and that’s how I learnt about Ovenbird. Ovenbird originally started off as private home dining but had to get a brick-and-mortar shop because it’s rumoured someone complained chef-owner Jeffery Yeo was handling raw food. I googled and it really wasn’t a rumour. It’s true. But to be exact, I read from his interview (link) that Singapore Food Agency visited him in September 2020 because someone reported he was preparing and serving sashimi at home. And with the new regulation implemented, home cooks are essentially banned from preparing and serving raw, ready to eat seafood.

But I guess the move was a blessing for us. Cause it meant chef Jeffery could house more people per seating. Slightly easier to get reservation? =)

Reservation is only slightly easier because it’s still a challenge to get seats at Ovenbird. Seats are snapped up within 30 minutes (or maybe less). My foodie friend had warned me that making the booking won’t be easy, but I didn’t know it was going to be that hard until I tried. I was lucky with my booking for September ’21, but wasn’t in my latest attempt in January ’22. I set alarm for 10am but was in the midst of a meeting and only went to the website an hour later. All slots for Summer menu 2022 were taken. Sob. Our September ’21 meal was for the Autumn menu.

Please be punctual because chef Jeffery starts everyone at the same time. And seats are first-come-first-serve. It’s either seats at the counter or communal table. And for a one-man restaurant, I got to say the drinks selection on the menu is impressive. It’s pretty extensive.

My girlfriend and I started our Autumn omakase, $130 with:-

1) Chawanmushi (above) – Sake sujiko, shoyuzuke. Chef Jeffery mentioned the steamed egg was intentionally bland to allow the flavours from the sujiko (salmon roe in sac) to come through.

2) Tataki – Katsuo (above) – Fresh line-caught bonito (4kg). Was told these were sliced thicker. Love it! And just as we finished the 3 slices, chef Jeffery asked if any of us wanted extra portion from the tail. A few of us raised our hands. Me included. Keke.

And from this point onwards, it was a crazy overload of amberjack. Chef Jeffery went on to take out 4 slabs of amberjack belly and started to sear them with his blowtorch. Occasionally spritzing sake on the bigger 3 slabs.

3) Aburi – Buri (Part 1) (above) – 5-day aged Hokkaido Autumn Japanese amberjack (11.1kg). We started with the fattiest part of the belly. Chef Jeffery only seared the skin so that the fat in the buri would melt-in-the-mouth when chewed into it. Really good.

  

4) Aburi – Buri (Part 2) (above) – 5-day aged Hokkaido Autumn Japanese amberjack (11.1kg). And this was the belly. Really thick. Fish steak, I call it.

5) Aburi – Buri (Part 3) (above) – 5-day aged Hokkaido Autumn Japanese amberjack (11.1kg). The loin cut. Served with some salt, this was good. And by this point, I also learnt the trick of eating this. All except the skin should come into contact with the ponzu sauce so that the seared skin would remain crisp.

6) Aburi – Buri (Part 4) (above) – 5-day aged Hokkaido Autumn Japanese amberjack (11.1kg). And as with the katsuo, chef Jeffery asked if we wanted additional. I naturally went for it, again. Ha. But 4 is really the maximum. Any more than 4 pieces and it’s an overkill. Chef Jeffery also mentioned the ponzu sauce would be the most flavourful by the end of our buri dish(es) as it would have absorbed all the fish oil. I actually preferred it halfway through (ie, second buri). The ponzu sauce was too oily by the fourth buri.

7) Steamed – Kuromutsu (above) – 5-day aged bluefish, steamed in chicken broth. This was more than just ‘aged and steamed’. Literally every diner couldn’t help but exclaim how good it was. Which got chef Jeffery very excited of course. He shared in detail of the many steps he took to cook this dish. Really good. Very delicate. Very juicy. Very flavourful.

8) Sashimi – Kinmedai (above) – 5-day aged splendid alfonsino, pumpkin puree. We were specifically told to let it sit for 3 minutes before tucking in, so that the fish could absorb some of the pumpkin. And the initial whiff reminded me much of curry. Apparently chef Jeffery added his own homemade curry powder (made with a lot of mustard seeds) into the pumpkin purée. Chef Jeffery shared this was his interpretation of kinmedai. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the dish. Didn’t help that the skin of the kinmedai was too burnt for my liking. I honestly didn’t think ‘too much smokiness’ would be an issue.

9) Samegarei kampot pepper (above) – 5-day aged Hokkaido ikejime roughskin sole (3.1kg) grilled with kampot pepper sauce. The fish texture was similar to stingray but fattier. And probably because of the association, I liked how chef Jeffery chose a spicy sauce. Spicy in the sense it was peppery rather than chilli-y. Enjoyed this!

  

10) Congee (above) – With matara shirako, matsutake mushroom, root vegetables.

11) Gelato (above) – Japanese autumn pears, quinta do noval white port, gin. To me, this was like vanilla ice cream with pear bits.

It’s without doubt that every diner could feel chef Jeffery’s passion come through his cooking. It’s very amazing how far he has come, especially since he self-taught himself on how to cook, etc. And of all the dishes, I especially enjoyed those which chef Jeffery put a clever local spin on the Japanese ingredients. However, I wasn’t sure if it’s because of the (limited selection of) fishes that chef Jeffery got for our meal, but there was a bit too many aburi (seared) dishes. The meal would have been more balanced and thus enjoyable if the aburi dishes were limited to say… 30% of the meal.

I also got to admit it was slightly stressful whenever chef Jeffery checked in with the respective groups. I felt like I was taking a test because he would ask specific question like “how you find the taste”, etc. I felt like I be judged if I gave the wrong answer. But that’s me. My girlfriend was fine with it. So I let her do most of the answering. Hahaha.

Would I recommend Ovenbird? Well… I do think Ovenbird is worth trying at least once. I’m already planning trying to return for the other seasonal menu.

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…