Along with other topnotch Japanese restaurants such as Shiraishi, Akane and Tatsuya that have been rated as one of the few best Japanese eateries in Singapore, Aoki (co-owned by Les Amis Group) is most noticeably famous for its raw fish such as sushi and sashimi, even though the restaurant does offer almost every aspect of the cuisine like tempura, shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. Located beside the flagship restaurant –Les Amis, Aoki stands quietly along the second floor of Shaw Centre. The location is a bit misleading though. On the website it reads #02-17, yet it is in truth on the first floor, just beside the road that is in the middle of Shaw Centre and Pacific Plaza.

The entrance to the restaurant is deliberately dim and understatedly posh. The sliding doors admittedly do require quite a bit of effort to slide open. Thankfully, the waitresses who are dressed in faux kimono suits are attentive and quickly assist in the sliding doors. The resounding ‘いらっしゃいませ’ is heartwarming and before long we were seated into one of the private rooms. We chose not the counter seats because we were not sure if photography was allowed at such close proximity with the chefs. Nevertheless, the ambience of the private rooms complimented the restaurant’s main concept of Zen minimalism. On one side of the private rooms you have the opaque sliding doors so that the waitresses can bring in the food, on the other, there is a translucent screen and between that and the window there are some bamboo shoots and leaves. Certainly exuded very warm and comfortable vibes.

Aoki offers two main menus. A traditional one that has all the perennial favourites of Japanese cuisine and the other – a seasonal one, with as you have guessed, nature’s best offers in each season. With no prices though. Yes, proceed at your own risk.

We being mere mortals took to the traditional menu. After about 5-10 minutes of scrutiny and discussion (heh!), the following were set to entertain us throughout the meal. For appetizers/starters/sides, we had mentaiko (spicy cod roe), konowata (fermented sea slugs’ intestines in Soya sauce and raw egg) and uni sushi. For mains, my partner had the Maze Chirashi set while I had the Shokado set.

Lunch thus started, with the opening side as a salad of some sorts- fresh and crisp greens with a drizzle of some pretty tasty and savoury vinaigrette. While decently done, nothing quintessentially Japanese though. There were some yellow petals of some sort that really made the whole dish look pretty.

The uni sushi came shortly and much to our delight, it was fresh. For those not in the know, the part of uni that we eat is actually the sea urchin’s reproductive organs and when fresh, should taste slightly earthly and even floral with a creamy and subtle taste. Aoki’s uni sushi certainly had those elements. At $12 apiece, it is still moderately affordable.

The konowata was highly interesting. Halfway through the uni course (if I may so call it), the waitress attending to us gave us this minute porcelain pot (about 3.5cm in diameter- yes that small!) with a brownish substance flowing around with a quail’s egg suspended in the middle. Upon first sight, we thought it was a condiment to the uni sushi or the main course. Only when the waitress told us it was the sea slugs’ intestines then we realized what we had in stored for us! It certainly didn’t look appetizing. For one it looked like effluent, honestly, something that probably came up from the sewage system or something that came down from somewhere when us human beings have a stomach upset. Next it was hard to hold the thing in place. It either dripped down back to the small pot if you were unsuccessful with the chopsticks or it kept looking more and more unpalatable (or even inedible) as you stared at it. Nevertheless, when we both mustered enough courage to eat it, the konowata had a taste that resembled oysters, mussels and cockles OR a mixture of the aforementioned three shellfish. Warning though: it isn’t clean on the palate, there is a palpable fishy aftertaste that lingers around. That is not to say that it tasted downright awful. It tasting ‘interesting’ would probably be a better description. There is also a quail’s egg, which would probably help to mask the strong taste of the sea slug’s intestines. But I took the delicacy neat. At $18 per small pot, make that per very small and minute pot, it is not cheap, but it is perhaps worth the experience. On second thoughts, this might be an acquired taste. But then, how many times do you need to acquire such an expensive taste? An Expensive Acquired Taste. Snob Slugs.

The mentaiko (spicy cod roe) was predictable but still good nonetheless. There was a similar dish that was “salted cod roe” but the one we ordered turned out to be salty as well. So perhaps the salted cod roe might end up to be a salt explosion in the mouth. We were given some nori to accompany the mentaiko. Fresh and bursting with flavour, we were well on the way to food heaven. The portion for this side was more forgivable. It came in the size (and to think of it, colour) of a Taiwan sausage, sans the fats and rubbery skin of the Taiwan sausage. This one costs $15.

This review will focus on the Shokado set instead of the Maze Chirashi one simply because I didn’t eat the latter. Like most places that serve Shokado, this one came in a lacquer lunch box. Four compartments that contained 4 different kinds of Japanese cuisine. There was tempura, nimono (cooked dish, nothing exceptional), sashimi, and rice. I was expecting prawns and the normal vegetables found in a typical tempura moriwase but I guess not. The tempura compartment was merely vegetables. A bit of a disappointment but the tempura had the natural sweetness of the vegetables. The best part of the Shokado set was undeniably the sashimi. For the fishes that I could discern, there was chutoro, hotate, ama ebi, hamachi, sea bream and some clams. The creaminess of the fishes was well balanced off the sprinkling of a citrus zest and this was of importance since the zest ensured you would not be weighed down by the heaviness of the fish. For the most part, the sashimi was fresh and the flesh was firm. The hotate in particular was sweetly firm and tasted very clean on the palate with no fishy aftertaste. The clams were also firm and had the right texture, certainly not soft and limp that hint of staleness. The chutoro though was a bit disappointing. There was a slight fishy aftertaste and it didn’t taste as firm and creamy as it should be, despite the well marbled look of the chutoro sashimi. Because the highlights of Aoki are the sushi and sashimi, which means it puts itself almost in the same league as Shiraishi, comparisons between both eateries are thus inevitable. For me, and me only, since peoples’ tastebuds do taste food differently, Shiraishi still reigns in at #1 for sashimi, sushi and everything raw. Aoki as such would probably score a 8/10 if Shiraishi comes in at 10/10. Do note this is just pertaining to the raw stuff and if we were to consider the cooked stuff Shiraishi does have some room for improvement. Also, these ratings are just for the set lunch menu, so the dinner and the seasonal menu may plausibly contain more high quality food items. But to serve food during lunch that is not representative of the actual quality would mean mediocrity nonetheless eh? Also, I didn’t get to taste much sushi except for the uni sushi so my opinions may not be all that accurate or wholesomely representative.

All too soon, the main course was polished up and our tables were cleaned promptly for desserts. We were given new hot towels and houjicha before the desserts made their way to the table. To be honest I expected merely some sliced fruits but much to our pleasant surprise, we were served a trio of desserts. Small pumpkin custard topped with a raspberry, a cup of plum jelly and a small scoop of melon sorbet. The pumpkin dessert was especially commendable since one could really taste fresh and real pumpkin, unlike some other dubious culprits (read: pumpkin soup in Jiang Nan Chun, and pumpkin soup with diced scallops in Szechuan Court). The melon sorbet did not taste 100% melon and we suspected there were some other fruits added to the end product, but nonetheless it was light, sufficiently creamy and refreshing- a perfect way to cleanse the palate and end the meal.

Service is highly laudable. Attentive, helpful yet never intrusive and most importantly friendly. One of them even tried conversing in Japanese with me after she realized I knew a bit of the language, much to my embarrassment though since I could only barely make out some sense of what she was talking. As we left the eatery, the waitress guided us to the door (the heavy sliding door….) and even walked with us out of the door. Empty plates are never left on the table for long and plates, chopsticks and bowls are always re-arranged nicely to ensure the table looks tidy and presentable.

Prices are on the high side, understandably. Lunches set from $30 and dinners start from $165 (I believe $165 refers to kaiseki sets). But essentially what you get is high prices for high quality meals, so there is still value over all. This meal came up to $151.20 after taxes.