Tucked away in the bowels of the connecting space between Raffles City Shopping Centre and Fairmont Singapore is highly acclaimed Mikuni, a Japanese restaurant that revolves its extensive menus around seasonal Japanese produce.

We first experienced the brilliance that was Mikuni at the annual gourmet food extravaganza Savour, where we tried its sublime grilled foie gras and decided that we had to make a visit there soon. Esther’s birthday provided the perfect excuse.

Mikuni may look small from the outside but its interior is cavernous. Its modern contemporary decor and artistically dim lighting, however, is more nightclub - kyō comes to mind - than what we expected of a restaurant that prides itself on seasonal Japanese cuisine.

But we’ll let the food do the talking.

Overwhelmed by the dazzling number of items on the menu, Esther and I took the easy way out by opting for set menus - I went for the Grand Tasting Tour ($220++, add $90++ for a daiginjou sake pairing of 4 glasses), while Esther chose the seasonal Summer Menu ($158++).

The Otoushi (appetizer) course of the Grand Tasting Tour consisted of Smoked Eel with Black Sesame Sauce and Fresh Kyushu Nori Seaweed with Foie Gras Egg Custard (above), with the salty smoked eel paired surprisingly against an equally umami black sesame sauce that had me licking the bowl.

How about the Sea Eel with Seaweed Tempura with Truffle Mayo, part of the Summer Menu, rolled up into a most delectable morsel and even escorted to the table by a tiny crab that’s been baked to a crisp?

The procession of seasonal items continued: there was ayu (アユ) sweetfish (the prefectural fish of Japan's Gunma and Gifu Prefectures, if you must know), baby eggplants from Kyoto, kani (crab) from Hokkaido, for example. It would have been good to have a naturalist at the table to explain where the produce came from, but that probably would’ve ruined our romantic date.

But we thoroughly enjoyed the Kagoshima Wagyu Beef and Kyoto Organic Maganji Green Pepper and Garlic, the thick if slightly petite cut of beautifully grilled, well marbled meat melt-in-the-mouth with every bite. 

Then there’s the Gindara Saikyou Miso Yaki, a miso and butter glazed silver cod that was grilled to perfection, and reminiscent of an amazing sablefish we had once had at Blue Water Cafe in Vancouver. Its creamy sweet flesh, offset by the savoury miso, was gorgeous.

Plates often arrive as impeccable edible art, with prodigious use of flowers and other garnishes - as evidenced by the sashimi that came as part of seasonal menu, which were hiding in what looked like the leaves that cloak the gooseberry fruit.

The problem is that while in some cases you know that you can pretty much eat anything on the plate, like this dish comprising of seasonal vegetables - micro tomatoes, anyone? - and tuna garnished with parmesan, in others - like the sashimi dish from the Grand Tasting Tour course (main picture) - hints are not quite so obvious. It took a bite or two for me to realize that the very pretty garnish wasn’t so edible (or tasty).

But Esther and I judge a restaurant not only by good food but also its ability to surprise, and here Mikuni passes with flying colours. While we’re suitably impressed by the near perfect execution on its modern take of classic Japanese cuisine using the freshest of seasonal produce, what impressed us most was one simple item.

When it arrived, the dessert in the Grand Tasting Tour course - a rather simple slice of Japanese musk melon impaled by a liquid filled tube - raised our eyebrows. Our server then explained that the tubed contained Hibiki 17 Year Old Whisky, and that we should either squirt the whisky over the melon cubes or into them. The combination totally surprised us - the sweetness of musk melon pairing so well with the delicate vanilla and fruity notes of the whisky.

You know something magical just happened when Esther remarks that she’s so putting that on the menu of our next house party.

All in all, Mikuni was an enjoyable, if rather costly, dining endeavour. If you do visit the seasonal menu and the grand tasting menu is highly recommended, both of which are great showcases of seasonal ingredients as well as the culinary talent of Mikuni’s kitchen. If nothing else, there’s always the melon and Hibiki 17 in the latter.

Mikuni is located at Level 3, Fairmont Singapore, 80 Bras Basah Road.

- Daniel