Suju Dining Japanese Restaurant, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

Suju can be confusing with their name. This was the new branch at Ngee Ann City. Or Takashimaya as many people refer to it (#02-13 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 8796 4650).

I'm not sure if they're officially Suju Dining Japanese Restaurant, Suju Japanese Restaurant or Suju Masayuki. Maybe it's all of them. But henceforth it'll be referred to as just Suju to keep things simple. (Into the Suju-verse... 👉🏼  一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七)

The counter seats are swankier but doesn't face the kitchen like how it is at Mandarin Gallery. Maybe because of the space, the restaurant didn't feel as cosy. Or maybe we're just used to the one at Mandarin Gallery. This one felt a little classier and a bit more expensive. But who are we kidding...Suju has always been pricey.

This was probably just us getting used to the new space and an expanded menu. Saw a lot of things that the original shop didn't have and the initial apprehension soon morphed into anticipation. Menu's digital. Even some of the table service can be requested for from their restaurant's platform via mobile.

That's the tori ume shiso tempura - a tempura of chicken with ume wrapped in shiso leaf. Flavour from the leaf wasn't so prominent. It's mostly the ume. Came with a slice of pumpkin. Sweet!

Not seen before in their main branch was this shinsu salmon - white base is koji fromage blanc sauce and the fish was topped with wasabi oil and ikura. Nice. Also expensive.

Lamb karashi miso yaki. First time ever we've had lamb in Suju. And hell yeah it was good. Meat was reasonably tender with layers of fat. I'm not sure what cut it was but it looked like a saddle. Pretty taken in by the jus which was infused with the flavour from the meat.

This was just known as pork spare ribs on the menu. Ribs according to them had been confited in Suju's black vinegar. And yes, those be grilled pineapples on the side. Sweet and delicious they be. It's not apparent from the picture but there's two ribs in there. The visible one on top was almost as large as the meat knife they provided for this dish. The fat layered meat on the rib was tender had a respectable bite paired with the tangy sweet savoury vinegar sauce thingy. Was easily removed from the bone. Awesome!

Here's where things varied a little with the old. Rice was bottomless, tsukemono refillable once and miso soup is chargeable after the initial serving. There's no option for nama tamago for the rice here. 😞

Dessert was matcha tiramisu. Very nice. Matcha wasn't overbearing and there wasn't contention with the mascarpone. There's also kuromitsu drizzled over.