Matsukiya Holland Village – New Kushiyaki Restaurant

Matsukiya Holland Village is a beautiful Japanese restaurant in the new One Holland Village mall. This is the their second outlet. The first Matsukiya kushiyaki restaurant is at Paragon Orchard.

One Holland Village Japanese Restaurant

An attractive wall of sake bottles makes it clear that this is a Japanese restaurant. Matsukiya Holland Village is located on level 3 of One Holland Village. Level 3 is the highest level of shop units at this new suburban mall. There are fewer restaurants on this floor and therefore it feels more peaceful than the lower levels. You can read more about the restaurants of One Holland V here.

Inside the restaurant there are counter seats as well as booth seats for diners. Everything looks new, clean and traditional Japanese. Very nice indeed.

Difference Between Yakitori and Kushiyaki

According to its website, ” Matsukiya doles out traditional kushiyaki that is grilled over traditional bincho-tan”. What is kushiyaki? According to Wikipedia, Kushiyaki (串焼き) is a formal term that encompasses both poultry and non-poultry items, skewered and grilled. Yakitori and kushiyaki are used interchangeably in Japanese society to refer to skewered meat collectively; however, when referring to a specific item, yakitori will not be used unless the primary meat is chicken.

Matsukiya Holland Village Menu

Here is a picture of the Matsukiya Holland Village menu. Grilled items take centre-stage on this menu with different types of meat and vegetables available. There is also a set lunch menu available, but we did not try that. Instead we picked items from the a la carte menu.

This is a picture of the Matsukiya Holland Village sake menu.

UOB Card Deal and Opening Special

On the day of our visit, there was an opening deal offering a free kushiyaki set. This is no longer available. There was also a UOB card deal of one free stick of salmon for a minimum spend of $50. I am not sure if this is still available.

What we ate at Matsukiya Holland Village

Lunch started with a walnut avocado salad ($8). It was a fresh pleasant start to the meal.

Next was the free items from the opening deal – bacon asparagus, shiitake mushroom and tsukune (chicken ball). The menu prices (per stick) are $6, $4 and $7 respectively. The tsukune was the delicious, bacon with asparagus was good, the shitake was average.

Here is a picture of the salmon belly stick which was free because of the UOB card deal. The menu price is $7. It was good and we would order this even if we were paying. The dish behind is bacon with golden mushroom ($7 per stick). We like this as much as the bacon with asparagus. Grilled bacon wrapped with vegetables is a good combination.

We tried a couple of grilled dishes. The Gindara (cod fish, $26) was available with salt or teriyaki sauce. We picked the latter but perhaps the salt version might be better as the sweet sauce dominated the dish, crowding out the natural cod taste. The serving size was rather small.

The grilled prawns were grilled in their shells but with the centre cut open for easy access. They were not very large prawns but nicely grilled. Priced at $7 each, it looks affordable but the total cost of the meal quickly adds up.

The IKA dish (whole squid, squid ink mashed potato, $26) was the best dish of the day. The squid was substantial. Grilled just nice with a nice thin charred surface but remaining fat and juicy inside. The black ink mashed potato sauce combined superbly with the squid.

Our meal ended with an inaniwa udon ($12). The thin slippery noodles were nice but the soup was too salty for us.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 4
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

Matsukiya
7 Holland Village Way
#03-21 One Holland Village
Singapore 275748

Opening Hours:
11:30AM – 3:00PM (LAST ORDER 2.15PM);
6:00PM – 10:00PM (LAST ORDER 9.15PM)

Nearby MRT Station: Holland Village (CC21)