Yakiniquest

Yakiniquest is a Japanese yakiniku restaurant on the fourth floor of Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road. Yakiniku means grilled meat, and here the focus is Japanese wagyu beef served omakase style. The kitchen chooses the cuts, and staff grill each piece for you, so you can sit back and talk.

The story began in Tokyo. Suguru Ishida, his wife Tomoko and three friends spent about 15 years eating at more than 2,000 yakiniku restaurants in Japan. They wrote up their visits on a blog that became well known among Japanese food lovers. The couple opened Yakiniquest at Boat Quay in 2014, and it moved to Mandarin Gallery in January 2022.

What to order

Almost everything comes as a set or an omakase course, and each adult at the table orders one. The menu changes from day to day. The beef is Japanese Black wagyu, known in Japan as kuroge wagyu.

• Weekday lunch sets: one whole slice of wagyu ribeye, or a five-cut selection. Both come with salad, a seasonal side, rice and miso soup. Only a small number are served each day.
• Lunch omakase: a choice of two menus with six or seven grilled cuts, then cold Inaniwa noodles or beef curry rice, and dessert.
• Dinner omakase: the Classic and Quest courses add wagyu starters and the house beef noodle dish. The Quest course also brings thick-cut premium tongue and wagyu aburi sushi.
• The Omakase: a custom dinner built around your budget, for two or more people, booked a week ahead.

Two signature dishes are worth knowing. Yakisuki is grilled wagyu that you dip in raw egg, in the style of sukiyaki. Niku somen is wagyu cut into thin strips that look like somen noodles. On the Quest course you also pick a closing dish, such as tail soup ramen or tongue stew with rice.

The setting

The restaurant covers close to 2,000 square feet and has room for about 64 diners. There are four private rooms, while the main dining room is fairly open. The grills are ceramic charcoal gas stoves, which give steady heat and keep smoke low. They replaced the smokeless charcoal grills used at the old Boat Quay site.

Good to know before you go

• Booking: book ahead, as the number of courses each day is limited. You can reserve online through the official website, or call or message the team on WhatsApp.
• Ordering: every adult orders a set or a course. Children do not have to.
• Children: families are welcome, and the team asks that children stay seated for safety near the grills.
• Dietary needs: courses can include raw meat, raw egg, beef tongue and sea urchin. Tell the staff in advance if you do not eat any of these.
• Cancellations: a fee per person applies to cancellations within 24 hours and to no-shows.

Nearby

In the same complex, Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro serves Sichuan and Cantonese food on Level 35 of Hilton Singapore Orchard. For a day of shopping before dinner, see our guide to Orchard Road and our Orchard Road neighbourhood guide. You can also browse more Japanese restaurants in Singapore, our list of steakhouses and grills, or other restaurants in Orchard and River Valley.