Akashi

Akashi Restaurant Review:

Self-taught Singapore-born sushi chef Mervin Goh has fashioned a convivial Japanese restaurant that is both elegant and boisterous, with a lofty ceiling with hanging rice paper lamps and a long sushi bar that is consistently packed with loyal patrons. Even the non-fish appetizers are worth noting, especially the warm salted ginko nuts, vegetable tempura and the grilled sweet potato skewers. Goh excels at making the simplest slabs of fresh fish, like the fatty tuna sashimi imported four times a week from Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, taste like a sensuous experience one ought to have in the utmost privacy. His sweet sushi arrives on petite pillows of nicely seasoned rice, like the toro uni (heaps of oily toro topped with sea urchin) and the smooth and slippery yaki engawa (grilled thin muscle of dorsal fin of a hirame fish). The quivering, smooth ambrosia of ankimo (monkfish liver, also popularly known as the foie gras of the sea) in vinegared ponzu sauce and prized ebodai miso mushi (steamed Japanese butterfish in white miso sauce) are deserving of a return trip. Akashi serves saké only. If you have room for dessert, make it black sesame ice cream served with red beans.