There aren’t many Japanese restaurants to recommend for special lunches with clients or staff. The intimate high-end establishments are too small to fit a good number of people and the larger ones have a mass-market feel.
Three-month-old Sushi Jin is one place for such times as it sits in the middle. It’s the latest venture by the Les Amis Group, whose wide portfolio of eateries ranges from upmarket Les Amis to casual Vietnamese eatery Comnam.
The ambience in Sushi Jin is like that of other sushi restaurants, with pine-coloured wood cabinets, counters and wall panels. There’s counter seating for 14, while another 24 can be seated at conventional dining tables in an adjoining room.
This means there’s plenty of opportunity to interact with 29-year-old Malaysia-born head chef Raymond Tan, while fitting in your party. He may not be Japanese but don’t let his lack of birthright fool you. At 21, he moved to Tokyo for two years to study Japanese, and took up a job at a Japanese restaurant.
Since heading to Singapore, he has worked at grill specialists Akanoya Robatayaki and Kinki, a modern sushi establishment that fuses Western ingredients into traditional Japanese dishes. That same approach is found in Sushi Jin, albeit with measured portions. Take the indulgently fatty foie gras aburi sushi, for example – the duck liver is torched with an open flame and topped with a serving of uni. Then, there’s the truffle seafood chawanmushi – generous shreds of crab, prawn and scallop in wobbly and smooth steamed egg, complemented by truffle shavings.
Thankfully for purists, the rest of the menu is unmistakably Japanese. Seafood is flown in thrice weekly from Tsukiji Market, so familiar favourites from sushi to sashimi will boast quality ingredients.
This balance of modern and traditional means Sushi Jin has something for every palate – the ideal solution if you’re looking for a restaurant of a decent size without sacrificing a sense of occasion. #01-11/12, 1 Farrer Park Station Road.
