Akanoya Robatayaki

Behind its closed Japanese wooden doors, inside this restaurant is an experience truly one of a kind! It boasts of a true Japanese dinner theatre experience where skilled Japanese chefs kneel on an elevated platform to grill or barbeque your choice of food chosen among an array of freshest Japanese seafood, vegetables and meat display at the counter in front of you. The most interesting part is that the Japanese chefs cook and serve the food right in front of you too!! This concept, reputed to be the first in town, brings together the finest food, sake, service and atmosphere for a truly memorable dining experience.

This is the most interesting find that Ted and me have to date! We happened to stumble upon it while we were at Orchard Parade Hotel area and I highly recommend this place for a truly one of a kind experience! From the namecard we were given, this place appears to be one of the restaurants affiliated to the Akashi Japanese restaurant located just beside it. Incidentally all these restaurants are synonymous with great Japanese dining cuisines.

Don’t be taken aback by the closed Japanese doors, once you step inside, a truly different experience awaits you! All of a sudden when you step in, everyone in the restaurant greets you in a loud unanimous Japanese greeting. Unfortunately, as I could not really understand Japanese well enough, I am unable to make out what was being said to me. But I do know that its a very warm greeting from all the staff!

The air-conditioned restaurant has 3 grill areas, with 2 chefs each sitting on an elevated platform in front of a counter filled with various seafood, meat and vegetables. A crowd of about 12-15 or so people sits in front the chef who cooks in front of them for each grill area. Despite the grill/barbeque being carried out, the place is not smoky at all as the smoke is cleverly absorbed through a vent just above the grill area. As we were shown inside to 2 seats at the corner, we could hear loud Japanese greetings and voices inside the restaurant. The place seems to be bustling with constant activity and excitement with all the staff including waiters, waitresses and chefs all shouting to each other on the food orders and delivery reports. Really interesting indeed!!

As a start, we ordered the green tea. We were given a cold hand towel to wipe and start our dinner. We were first served a starter which was a delicate tofu with fish roe served with corns (Otoshi @ S$6 each). Delicious. Next we went to order our grill food items, the waiter show us to the front of the counter to choose our food. We were greeted with a huge selection. This includes: really fresh and great big Alaskan crabs, huge tiger prawns, oysters, big fresh fishes, black pork sticks, chicken sticks, asparagus, Japanese green onions, vegetables, various types of mushrooms, potatoes and many many others. We were spoilt for choice! We noticed most diners there ordered the fresh fishes or the Alaskan crabs as barbeque food. Finally making our difficult order among the many choices we were given, we also ordered the Chef’s Recommendation of Asari Misoshiru (soya bean paste baby clam soup @S$10) from the Kitchen’s menu. Their additional menu also includes other items like chawan mushi, soft shell crab, prawns,fish.. and rice/noodles with price ranging from $10-$40-seasonal prices. The soup was tasty and very delicious in my opinion. The clams were also very fresh.

I especially liked the black pork sticks (Tontoro Kushi @ S$7 per stick) which were very tender. So were the grilled chicken sticks (Yaki Tori @ S$5 per stick).

The big tiger prawns (Kuruma Ebi @ S$15 each) were nicely grilled and very fresh too!

The fresh mushrooms (Shimeji @ S$8 and Maitake @ S$12) were mixed and grilled after being wrapped in a silver foil. The vegetables like the asparagus (Asupara @S$6) and Japanese green onions (Senju Negi @S$7) were also very fresh and delicious. Whilst dining in the midst, at about 830pm, suddenly we were informed all the customers in the restaurant had to partake in a clapping ceremony, which we understand from the waiter later that it was a process meant to thank all the guests for patronising them that evening. Everyone in the restaurant had to clap their hands altogether real loud in between shouts of Japanese led by the chefs. It was really interesting!

Finally, we were served our fruit desserts which were very sweet and fresh mangoes and honeydews (@ S$6 per pax). In total, we spent about S$70++ per person. We really enjoyed ourselves a great deal, having thoroughly soaked into the boisterous Japanese dining experience there. We are sure we would be back there for a great lovely treat again! It’s a truly rare and uniquely Japanese experience which is quite difficult to find in Singapore. Strongly recommended for those special occasions where you are prepared to fork out for great food and experience!

Akanoya Robatakayi is located at 1 Tanglin Road, #01-01, Orchard Parade Hotel, Singapore 247905. Opening hours from 630pm to 130am. Tel: 6732 1866. Best to call to reserve a place as seats are limited.