What’s Buzzing? A new menu at Hanazen and a brand new culinary direction from Chef Taisei Iwao of 1 Michelin-starred Lumiere and chef-owner of Karato in Osaka, where the Japanese restaurant’s new focus is on an omakase experience with Japanese ingredients along with Japanese and French cooking techniques. The new dinner menu is available for 10-course menu at S$210++ or 9-course menu at S$180++. 

What To Expect? The 10-course menu started with the Uni Brioche, a delicate square of toasted brioche topped with generous and fresh Murasaki uni sea urchin with a dash of paprilka.  

Next up is the Tuna Tartare from Nagasaki Chutoro and Akami topped with caviar, radish and edible gold flakes; before the next Hotate (scallop) course where the lightly seared Hokkaido scallop is served with a side of kelp, kombu and broccoli mousse, then drizzled with broccoli and crab chowder. 

There are quite a couple of seafood highlights on the new menu where next up is the Lobster where a whole lobster is served with lobster roe, then drizzled with lobster miso and bechamel sauce before finishing off with crustacean sauce and blue crab espuma. 

Continuing the seafood streak is the Awabi, an abalone course served with rice with an accompanying koshihikari liver sauce which is intensely rich and delicious.  

The last meat course is the Wagyu, which showcases A5 Kagoshima beef with fresh onion sauce, Shizuoka wasabi and whole black peppercorn. 

Save the best for the last, and I was pleasantly surprised by the Beef Curry. Niigata Koshihikari rice is cooked in European bottled water in a traditional claypot along with a slow-cooked braised beef curry drawing sweetness from carrots, apples and premium Miyazaki mangoes that are priced no less than $100 each.

One of the best beef curries I have had, where the sauce has a natural sweetness and just mildly spicy.  

For dessert, there is the Peach Soup that marries celery with peach, served on diced Yamanashi peaches for bite. A Mont Blanc follows next, where you get vanilla bean ice cream with chestnut and cheese mousse served on sweet potato puree along with toppings of Japanese chestnut, chestnut powder, sweet potato crisps and Graham cracker crumbs. 

The final sweet treat is a Raisin Butter Cookie dollop of cream, served on a butter cookie where the raisins are soaked in Yamazaki whisky. 

Overall Experience I personally find this a good change for Hanazen as compared to the menu when it just opened early this year. The prices are also slightly more accessible as compared to its opening menu, and if you love seafood and meats, this should be an omakase menu you will enjoy.

Hanazen
30 Victoria Street 
#01-21/22 Chijmes 
Singapore 187996 
Tel: + 65 9820 2963 

Opening Hours
Tuesday to Sunday: 6pm to 11pm 
Closed on Monday 

Ranted by The Ranter