[Review] Wagatomo Ushers in Spring with Refreshed Omakase Menu

Wagatomo, a Japanese restaurant located in Tanjong Pagar, recently introduced its refreshed omakase menu to celebrate the arrival of spring. The new menu features lighter flavors, fresher profiles, and ingredients of the season’s most popular produce, in line with the restaurant’s principle of serving only the best in-season ingredients at their peak quality.

Crafted by chef-owner Tomoyuki Kiga, the seven-course menu is designed to let the fruit, vegetables, meat, and seafood shine without overcomplicating the dish. The Spring 2023 Omakase menu is available for dinner only from March 6, 2023, and is priced at $96 per person, with a minimum of two pax to share.

To start, two tartlets were served to entice the taste buds.

One of the tartlets is a delectable topping of spicy tuna sashimi spiced with togarashi aioli and speckled with sesame seeds as well as thinly sliced negi. The other is a Japanese interpretation of the French Petit Pois, serving up green peas first sautéed with amazu and then served on a bed of green pea puree, finished off with Japanese perilla leaf.

The Tomato 3 Ways is a sharing dish that combines sweet, sour, and umami flavors, creating a symphony of taste. It is made from generational heirloom tomatoes, a mix of tomatoes marinated in amazu, and cubed tomato jelly made from tomato water. It is served with a tomato consommé steeped with houjicha, which brings a dish of clean and pure tomato flavors, requiring nothing but a simple garnishing of micro herbs.

The Maguro Tataki is a sharing dish of lightly torched fresh maguro slices drizzled over with a sauce of vinegar, soy, and sugar. Atop sits shredded pickled ginger flower, negi, and garlic chips for a burst of contrasting tastes and textures.

The Haru Kakiage is a sharing dish that features the crispiest spring vegetables, including asparagus, bamboo shoots, burdock, onions, and carrots, brought up a notch in this classic vegetable tempura mixed with diced prawns. The crunchy discs are served with a tentsuyu sauce carefully made from dashi, mirin, and soy for incomparable flavors.

The Saba Shio Yaki is an individual dish of grilled saba mackerel from Fukuoka, seasoned with coarse-grain salt and grilled over prized binchotan charcoal to perfectly crisp the thin skin. A side serving of yuzu zest mixed with grated daikon brings out the further sweetness of the fish.

This was one of my favourite dishes for the night. Grilled to perfection, the mackerel is sweet and juicy on the inside, with the slightly charred skin adding a crispy texture. A light dash of the yuzu and daikon sauce further enhances the flavours.

The Beef & Negi is a sharing dish that showcases Wagatomo’s signature beef, using the chuck roll of Kamichiku 4% Miracle Gyu, grilled just right to render the prized marbled fat into melt-in-your-mouth goodness, and served with negi sautéed in brown butter. Finishing off the flavors is a potato puree with umeboshi topped with hazelnuts for a nutty, buttery complement.

When you are using such a prime ingredient, it makes sense to keep the food preparation straightforward to preserve the richness of the natural flavour, which was done well for this dish.

For dessert, Chef Tomoyuki experiments with five different ways to serve the humble apple.

The Baked Ringo is a sharing dish that features apple pie chutney encased in a baked apple, crowned with refreshing green apple sorbet. Around the apple, gel dollops make a treat for the eyes, alongside a cap of dehydrated candied apple for extra sweetness. Hazelnut ties the entire dessert together with its fragrant nuttiness.

It is almost like a work of art – too beautiful to dissect and eat.

Overall, the refreshed omakase menu at Wagatomo is a delight for purists who appreciate the flavors of the season’s freshest produce. The dishes are carefully crafted to showcase the ingredients, and the simple yet elegant presentation is a testament to Chef Tomoyuki’s culinary prowess.

Wagatomo

Address: 5 Wallich Street, #01-12, Guoco Tower, Singapore 078883

Tel: 8313 6622

Email: [email protected]

Opening Hours:

Mon to Sat:
11.30pm – 2.30pm (last order 2pm)
5.30pm – 10.30pm (last order 10pm)

Closed on Sunday

Nearest MRT station: Tanjong Pagar MRT