Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke Takeaway

Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke is one of the most popular restaurants in Paya Lebar Square. Patient patrons are often seen sitting on a row of chairs at the entrance waiting to get into the Japanese restaurant. If you don’t feel that you must take full advantage of the free-flow salad bar, Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke takeaway allows you to enjoy an affordably priced good meal without the long wait for a table.

Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke in Paya Lebar

Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke, a new concept restaurant of Chef Keisuke Takeda’s chain, offers a variety of sumiyaki (charcoal-grilled) dishes. The restaurant in Paya Lebar Square is quite compact and can accommodate about 30 guests during normal times. With safe-distancing measures, even fewer diners can get to eat in the restaurant.

It does not take reservation and you cannot go into the restaurant to chope a table. Entry to the restaurant is allowed only when your whole dining party has arrived. There is almost always a queue outside the restaurant. There are signs along the queue to give an indication of the waiting time. The wait can be more than 30 minutes and often longer than that.

Menu of Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke

The main items on Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke’s menu are grilled fish. If you really don’t like fish, there are eel and chicken. The set meals start at $13.90 and come with access to the buffet-style salad bar.

Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke Takeaway

We visited Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke in Paya Lebar Square recently to order Charcoal Grilled Chicken with Rock Salt Set ($13.90) and Charcoal Grilled Mackerel Set ($14.90) for takeaway. We were told that the wait would be about 20 minutes. That was just nice for us to pop into Giant Supermarket next door to pick up some groceries.

Each set came with rice, spaghetti and a variety of Japanese appetisers and condiments in a bento box. In addition, there were miso soup, an onsen egg and salad in separate containers.

The salad bowl included a variety of items with different colours. The cold fresh tasting salad with the sesame salad dressing provided was delightful. The miso soup was also good.

The chunky pieces of Charcoal Grilled Chicken with Rock Salt had a nice smoky flavour. There were bits of charred marks and the meat was tender. It was very enjoyable eaten on its own but it also went well with rice or spaghetti.

The Charcoal Grilled Mackerel was quite a big piece of fish and rather meaty. It had crispy skin and the meat was soft. It was a simple rustic item which was good for heath and enjoyable.

We were rather surprised to be given whole eggs when we collected our Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke takeaway meals. However, we must say “preparing” our own onsen tamago (poached egg in a soy dashi broth) at home was an interesting experience.

Buffet at Home

In the end we had a lot to eat. We actually felt pretty much the same as after we had an all you can eat buffet meal in a restaurant – in other words, we had eaten more than we should. Not getting access to Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke’s free flow salad bar made no real difference. We felt like we had a buffet at home – both in terms of the variety of items and the amount of food. We could not have eaten more than what they had given us in the attractively priced takeaway sets.

Charcoal-Grill & Salad Bar Keisuke
60 Paya Lebar Road
#B1-16 Paya Lebar Square
Singapore 409051

Tel: +65 6241 8588  

Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 11:30 -14:30 / 17:30 – 22:00
Sat-Sun & PH: 11:30 – 22:00

Nearby MRT Station: Paya Lebar Interchange

Website

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog