Suju Dining Takashimaya is an outlet of the popular Japanese restaurant at Mandarin Gallery, Suju Masayuki. It has a focus on rice and miso soup, considered to be the pillar of Japanese dining tables. Brown rice and miso arrive directly from the local market of Nagano. Fresh fish are selected and delivered by air from Tokyo. These ingredients were the stars of our Japanese Teishoku lunches there recently.
Suju Masayuki Japanese Restaurant
Suju Masayuki started as a small shop in the town of Karuizawa in the Nagano prefecture of Japan.With a focus on traditional Japanese food, it has six restaurants and stores within Japan. Its first outlet in Singapore Suju Masayuki Mandarin Gallery opened sometime around 2015. This low key restaurant with 54 seats has a dark-wood traditional Japanese style which has stood the test of time and is still quite popular.
Suju Dining Takashimaya
Suju Masayuki Takashimaya (also referred to as Suju Dining Takashimaya in the Takashimaya shopping centre directory) opened in 2023. It is quite surprising to have a second store located so close to the Mandarin Gallery one. I guess this reflects the success of the first store. Do note that it is not located in the main Takashimaya shopping centre building. You can find it in the small building next to the taxi stand, accessible from level 2. I think this small building used to house a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
The Takashimaya outlet has the same style of wooden furniture. But because of its location and the big full height windows, it enjoys a lot of natural sunlight which gives this restaurant a different character from the other one. This one has a brighter, more contemporary look and is also larger with 92 seats. These pictures of a quiet restaurant were taken just before the lunchtime crowd filled it up. It is advisable to make a reservation even on a weekday.
Suju Dining Takashimaya Menu
These are pictures of some sample pages from the Suju Dining Takashimaya online menu. We were there for lunch and focused on the set lunch or “teishoku” options. The teishoku items feature a main course served with rice, miso soup and pickles.
Side Dishes
In addition to the teishoku sets, we also tried a couple of side dishes – Agedashi Tofu ($12) and Yasai Tempura (Assorted Vegetables Tempura, $17.00). We are happy to order these again on a future visit.
Suju Teishoku
This is a picture of the brown rice, miso soup and pickles. There was a choice of white or brown rice. Each of these was good, especially the crunchy pickles.
The Hokke Himono Teishoku ($25.00) had grilled dried Atka mackerel as the main course. The fish appeared to have been salted as part of the drying process and so was more salty than expected.
The best dish was Gindara Miso Teishoku ($48.00). The marinated charcoal-grilled black cod was fresh and coated with a miso paste before grilling, giving the fish a complex flavour.
A very fresh fish was used in the preparation of the Tai Head Shio Yaki ($28). The charcoal grilled tai fish (sea bream) head was simply grilled with salt. The freshness of this fish was the most impressive. However, it was quite bony and only small bits of meat could be extracted from the half of a head (it was sliced down the middle).
Our only non-fish main course was the ginger pork. Sliced pork fried in ginger and soy sauce was nice and provided a break from the fish dishes.
A Traditional Japanese Lunch at Suju Dining Takashimaya
Overall, lunch at Suju Takashimaya was a mix of the familiar flavours we had previously at the Mandarin Gallery outlet and a fresh experience of a new restaurant as the decor and ambience of this new outlet was very different. But in both cases, we are glad to say, service remained very friendly and helpful.
Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 4
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPsย 
Suju Dining Takashimaya
391 Orchard Road
#02-13 Ngee Ann City
Singapore 238872
Tel: +65 87964650
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 11:30 am to 3:30 pm | 5:30 pm to 10 pm
Sat, Sun & Public Holiday: 11:30 am to 10 pm
The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog