Esora was quite an experience. They pride themselves on modern Japanese kappo cuisine. Newly opened , I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype, but I’m glad to report it did, and I will definitely be paying them a second visit. I always judge a fine dining restaurant on 3 criteria – ambience, service and obviously food. This is going to be a long post so bear with me. Let’s begin.
1. Ambience
First of all the decor is stunning. Simple clean lines, wood and soft lighting is used. The counter is under this gorgeous skylight, giving rise to the name of the restaurant Esora, which means painting in the sky.
2. Service
I could not fault the service. Attentive, quiet, not at all stuffy, I never needed to wave anyone over. All I had to do was catch their eye and they were there. Door was held open for me every time I went to the bathroom, the staff were waiting for me as I exited the restaurant. Nothing was too much trouble, explanations of dish are detailed, and when you engage them conversations are casual, professional and peppered with personal anecdotes, making you feel like you’re just friends trading stories over a meal. These things may seem small, but it’s what I expect when I’m paying prices like this , and they delivered.
3.Food
Let me say outright that I was very impressed by the food. Often I find “modern” or “fusion” places can go horribly wrong. Just lumping 2 ingredients that have cultural origins from different countries together does not a modern restaurant make, but they executed it perfectly. Presentation for each course was also ace and that’s very important in Japanese cuisine – it has to look as good as it tastes. They start you off with some dashi which was excellent, warmed the stomach and always a precursor of a great meal to come.
I had the 9 course set. 5 courses were standouts for me which I’ll go into more detail on, 2 were very good but what I would expect and 2 I thought could be better.
Standout courses in no particular order for me were :
1.Kegani Chawanmushi. I’m a huge fan of chawanmushi and this was incredible with the hairy crab sweetness mixed in with the silky chawanmushi adding so much depth to an already amazing dashi base. Chawanmushi is a relatively simple dish to make but extremely tough to perfect. So when executed like this, it was heaven
2.Uni wth the suppon, cauliflower . They used bafun uni from Hokkaido, already amazing on its own but when paired with the suppon that was a bit tart, it further accentuated the rich and creamy flavours of the uni to the next level.
3.Fried scallop with leek, nori, caviar, also very good. I liked that the nori wasn’t visible but when you bit into the dish with that delightful crunch, you could certainly taste the seaweed in the dish. And of course it’s so hard to go wrong with Hokkaido scallops
4.Surprisingly the dessert of white truffle, ice cream and chestnut was one of my absolute favourites. They do a simple ice cream with some form of chestnut purée at the bottom. More chestnut shavings are done at the top, and then a layer of truffle is then shaved over that right in front of your eyes. The flavours are just incredible. Everything goes together so well. I mentioned to the server that the dessert was one of my favourites and she said the chef’s palate is more savoury than sweet which explained the dessert.
5. Special mention to the Ikura used in the Akamutsu Donabe (the rice course). I thought that course was alright, but the Ikura itself is on another level. I was told this particular Ikura from Hokkaido is only available in September and October which is a shame because it’s seriously the best Ikura I’ve had in my life. FAT, juicy, perfectly formed with so much flavour, I started picking it out of my rice and eating it on its own because it was just that good.
2 courses that I thought could be better. were the Sashimi course and the Omi wagyu. Beautiful presentation aside, I found the sashimi course very ordinary – they served flounder, akami, chutoro, bonito, and nothing particularly stood out in the preparation of the fish. The Omi wagyu beef was good, but over emphasis of rich flavours with the mushroom purée and the sauce just made the dish too rich to properly enjoy. I would have liked a sudachi lime or some form of tangy flavours to cut through the heaviness but that might just be my preference.
They have 2 set menus priced at SGD 198/258. Tea pairing is available at SGD 38/48 , and wine pairing at SGD 78/108. I went for the SGD 258 menu which had 9 courses. Pretty sure menu changes with the seasons so don’t expect everything to be the same!
Esora
15 Mohamed Sultan Road
Singapore 238964
Open from Tues-Sat ( 7pm onwards
