Food Review: Nagai Hokkaido Cuisine At Suntec City | Hokkaido Brand’s First Overseas Outpost In Singapore Serves Omakase From S$98

Posted on January 24, 2023 by theRantingPanda in Food

The Place I love checking out new Omakase restaurants and Nagai Hokkaido Cuisine is a new restaurant which opened at Suntec City recently. Originally from Hokkaido, this is the brand’s first overseas outpost after 29 years and is often frequented by politicians, celebrities and even the Prime Minister of Japan and the Japanese Imperial Family.

Founder Chef Shinchiro Nagai established the outlet in Hokkaido with his 54 years of experience alongside his son Makoto Nagai. Chef Makoto Nagai has 16 years of experience and now helms Nagai Hokkaido Cuisine Singapore. The layout of the Suntec outlet is a mix of regular tables and a L-shaped counter seating, along with a few private rooms.

The Food There are 15 lunch sets from S$28 as well as four omakase set menus, priced at S$98, S$138, S$198, and S$380. Each set and menu continue to focus on dishes prepared in the local Hokkaido traditional way, using ingredients from produce to meats and seafood flown in from Hokkaido.

I had the S$138++ Omakase Menu, a 6-course meal and here is what to expect:

Appetiser
The highlight of the appetiser platter is definitely the chunky Hokkaido prawn with prawn roe.

Sashimi
This course features Chef Shinichiro’s Hand-carved Ice Plate Sashimi on a custom-carved clear rock of ice. I had a good variety of fresh Hirame, Otoro, Scallop, Prawn, Cod Fish Egg, Salmon and Octopus Head sashimi layered on freshly shredded slices of pumpkin.

Grill
I had the Grilled salmon glazed with miso yuzu, served with a tomato enclosed in a white wine jelly cube.

Chef’s Special
This course features one of the most popular seafood from Hokkaido – Hokkaido King Crab along with Hokkaido potato. The chunky fresh crab meat is naturally sweet, and there is also a buttery flavour as the crab is sautéed with butter.

Main Dish
This course features two huge sushi rolls stuffed with Salmon, Tamago, Uni, Ikura and Tuna.

Dessert
A simple Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream and sweet potato.

Rants A relatively seafood centric menu which features the famous exports of Hokkaido such as their prawns and crab. If you are looking for a more varied kind of kaiseki omakase such as those with wagyu beef, then this might not be a suitable option.

Will I Return Again? It is great that there is a good mix of menu options for lunch or dinner to cater to different budgets. Ingredients are overall very fresh, and if you have always been a fan of Hokkaido cuisine and seafood especially, the omakase menu here might be to your liking.

This was an invited tasting, though all opinions expressed are our own.

Make your reservations instantly at Nagai Hokkaido Cuisine here.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5
Overall Experience: 3/5