Shinzo Japanese Cuisine

Shinzo Japanese Cuisine is a small omakase restaurant at 17 Carpenter Street, in the Clarke Quay area. Head chef Patrick Tan leads the team. The kitchen serves chef-chosen menus of sushi and seasonal Japanese dishes at lunch and dinner.

The name Shinzo means "heart" in Japanese. The restaurant has been running for more than a decade, and the team puts as much weight on warm, friendly service as on the food.

The chef

Chef Patrick started making sushi at 21. He trained at Nogawa, a Japanese restaurant in Singapore, in the 1980s. Over the years he has also worked at Sushi Jin by the Les Amis Group and at Sushi Chiharu. At Nogawa he learned that a good sushi chef offers real hospitality, not just good food. That lesson still shapes how Shinzo looks after its guests.

What to order

The meal to come for is the omakase. You leave the choices to the chefs, who serve one course at a time. There are separate omakase menus for lunch and dinner, and both are shown on the official website.

Much of the seafood is flown in from Japan, and the menu shifts with the Japanese seasons. Expect sashimi and nigiri along with other small courses. Past menus have included fish such as sawara (Spanish mackerel), mirugai (geoduck), anago (sea eel) and uni. Chef Patrick also likes to work in ingredients you might not expect in a Japanese meal, such as foie gras and century egg.

The setting

The dining room is small and narrow, at street level on Carpenter Street. It was laid out so that every seat has a clear view of the chefs at work. That means you can watch each piece of sushi being shaped. The chefs talk with guests across the counter, and diners often end up chatting with each other too. The restaurant likes to say that people arrive as strangers and leave as friends.

Good to know before you go

• Booking: reserve by phone, by email or through WhatsApp, using the details on the official website.
• Seats: the room is small, so book ahead, especially for dinner.
• Dietary needs: the chefs set the menu, so mention any allergies when you book.
• Who it suits: couples and small groups who want a chatty, unhurried sushi meal.

Nearby

Because Shinzo is in the Clarke Quay area, it is easy to pair dinner with an evening walk by the river at Clarke Quay. For more sushi in the area, try Koji Sushi Bar at Raffles City. Other restaurants in the area include Scaled by Ah Hua Kelong and Hanjip Korean Grill House. For a place to stay in the same part of town, see Pullman Singapore Hill Street. You can also browse more Japanese restaurants in Singapore or all restaurants in City Hall and Clarke Quay. Menus and booking details are on the Shinzo website.