Bincho at Min Jiang Dempsey - new modern yakitori restaurant

Bincho at Min Jiang Dempsey is the second Bincho outlet of the Unlisted Collection restaurant group. It is not as quirky as the first one, Bincho at Hua Guan, in Tiong Bahru, but this modern yakitori restaurant is still unique enough to leave a strong impression on us.

The first Bincho restaurant is hidden inside a coffee shop (you can read about our visit here). The second one, Bincho at Min Jiang is not as invisible but it is still hard to find. It is located right at the Western end of Dempsey Hill dining enclave. It takes up the corner of a building that it shares with the Min Jiang Chinese Restaurant (you can read about our lunch at Min Jiang here). The best way to navigate is to use Min Jiang as your destination and walk around the side of the building. Bincho at Min Jiang reveals itself around the corner in the form of a slim vertical signboard.

The inside of the restaurant is contemporary in style. There are two large tables, several small tables and more seating along the counter. The Japanese character of the restaurant manifests itself in the form of the menus displayed on the walls and the bottles of sake and Japanese whiskey at the counter. An eclectic selection of mostly retro music (English and Japanese) plays in the background.

Bincho at Min Jiang Dempsey Menu

The standard menu of Bincho at Min Jiang Dempsey is displayed on the walls. Here are pictures of some segments of the Yakitori Menu and the daily menu.

We made our reservation using Chope. We availed ourselves of a Chope Exclusive August Menu ($58++ pp). A promo code CE8BC has to be used at the time of booking. Here is a picture of the Bincho Chope August Menu.

Our drink of choice of the day was Suntory beer. There is a 25% discount for beers during happy hour from 12 pm to 8 pm.

The Food

The first items served were two tiny appetisers (above picture). hey were very small but tasty. These were followed by a sashimi dish with two types of raw fish – salmon and sea bream. The salmon was average, the sea bream was excellent.

A selection of Yasai Maki was served next. I believe these are rolled sliced meat (pork or beef) items incorporating vegetables. According to the Bincho at Min Jiang CHOPE menu, each diner gets two items. We were glad that the chef took the initiative to serve us different items so that we could share and sample four different types of yakitori skewers.

Bincho at Min Jiang Dempsey Yasai Maki — Beef spinach & cheese; pork pumpkin with curry salt

The first set was beef spinach & cheese and pork pumpkin with curry salt (above picture). The next set was pork with quail egg and pork and garlic (picture below). They were all very good. The result of good ingredients being used and also the skill of the chef to cook them just right. All the yakitori items had the same characteristic – the insides were well-cooked and soft with the outsides only slightly charred.

The next dish was the yakitori moriwase – a platter of different parts of the chicken – breast, thigh and wing. They were perfectly prepared. Even thick breast meat portions remained moist and juicy.

The final savoury dish was the mini tsukune don. A small bowl of rice topped with a piece of chicken pattie and raw egg yolk. This was a simple but very enjoyable dish. We noticed that the rice had a nice flavour and a wonderful chewy texture. It was accompanied by a cup of concentrated chicken soup and some pickles.

The dessert was Coffee Anmitsu – a Japanese version of affogato. Espresso coffee was provided to be mixed into a cup of ice-cream and fruits. Which brought us to a sweet ending of an enjoyable dinner at the new yakitori restaurant at Dempsey – Bincho at Min Jiang. We thought that the Chope exclusive menu was fairy priced and is also a good idea to introduce new restaurants to their customers.