Aoki Restaurant Omakase Lunch – Japanese Food @ Shaw Centre

It was not easy to get a reservation at Aoki Restaurant. We made our online reservation at this premier Japanese restaurant of the Les Amis group 3 weeks in advance, and even then, only a late slot (1.30pm) was available.

Aoki Japanese Restaurant is located at the ground floor of Shaw Centre. It is outward facing at street level along Claymore Hill. Some of its sister restaurants such as Les Amis, Mui Kee and Bistro du Vin are its neighbours along this stretch of road.

Aoki Restaurant Lunch Menu

Aoki Restaurant is a full service Japanese restaurant with an extensive a la carte menu. At lunch time they have some set lunch options – mostly bento box style selections and an omakase lunch option. Here are pictures of the Aoki Restaurant lunch menu. We had good seats at the sushi counter and so we decided on the $135++ Omakase menu. We thought it would be nice to interact with the sushi chef right in front of us.

Aoki Restaurant Omakase Lunch – Salad and Sashimi

Our Aoki Omakase lunch had seven courses, starting off with a salad for appetiser, a simple but pleasant salad.

The next course was sashimi. Since we were seated at the sushi counter we had expected these items to be served directly to us. But this was not the case. The fresh fish slices were served in a plate with compartments. We thought that it was a practical but not the most attractive way of presenting sashimi. In fact, long forgotten memories of NS cookhouse trays came to mind.

Omakase Lunch – Soup, Cooked Dish and Tempura

Our next courses at the Aoki restaurant omakase lunch were soup and cooked dish. The latter was a substitute for the grilled dish indicated on the menu. We thought that the soup was very good – it was the sort of dish we expected from a top rated Japanese restaurant in Singapore such as Aoki. The soup with tuna slices and various vegetables was complex and tasty. Presentation was attractive. It was the best dish of our lunch.

I believe the main ingredient of our cooked dish was a ball of fish roe. It was complemented with some light broth and vegetables. Overall an ok dish which did not leave an impression.

Next to arrive was the tempura dish. There were four items – two flat pieces which I think were pumpkin or sweet potato. They were rather nice. I don’t know what those two long items were – I think they may be some kind of bean.

Aoki Omakase Lunch – Sushi & Dessert

The most substantial part of our Aoki omakase lunch was the sushi segment of the meal. The rice portion of each sushi piece is not much but they all add up. Sushi was served directly by the chef, which was nice. But no description of each item was given. We did not exchange a word with the chef throughout our meal. Perhaps it was the result of our shy character as we did not initiate any conversation. As a result I can’t tell you what we ate. Except that sea urchin sushi was one of them as it is quite obvious. There was an option to upgrade one of the sushi items into uni with the payment of a $5 surcharge. Here are some slideshow pictures of some of the sushi that we ate that day.

Soon after the start of the sushi course, they had begun cleaning up the restaurant. With the clanging pots and scrubbing going on behind the counter, we were quite glad to see the arrival of our dessert platter and the end of the lunch.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Value: 2
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

Aoki Japanese Restaurant
1 Scotts Road
#01-19 Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208

Opening Hours:
Mon-Sat: 11:45am-3pm, 6:30-10:30pm
Closed Sunday

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