Dressed in blonde pine wood and espousing an elegant minimalistaesthetic parallel to its cuisine, Shoukouwa is widely considered one of the top Japanese restaurants in town. Helmed by a team of sushi chefs hailing from strong traditions and backgrounds, this one-year-old restaurant sits just eight at the main sushi counter and six in the private dining area, purveying an exclusive, intimate dining experience in the traditions of Japan’s finest restaurants.

Expect a fine dining edomae sushi experience built on the freshestingredients available. To ensure just that, Shoukouwa flies in its fish and seafood daily from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market, one of the few rare restaurants in Singapore to do that. Accordingly, the dishes change regularly.

Nigiri sushi is the speciality at Shoukouwa—delicate, lightlyvinegared mounds of Japanese rice variously topped with fish andseafood, assembled and served piece by piece by the chef behind the counter as you watch and feast. Some seasonal highlights are sweet kinmedai (golden eye snapper), seabream kissed with yuzu scented shoyu, and bold flavoured shimaaji (striped horse mackerel) paired with red vinegar rice. Savour the fatty, tender nodoguro, also known as black throat sea perch, gently seared, lightly drizzled with white sesame oil, and scented with young ginger buds.

Of course, expect tuna cheeks gently kissed with smothering bincho-tan for an alluring smokiness that lingers in the mouth long after the fish is eaten. Round it all off with a mini ikura uni don, a dainty dollop of rice blanketed with shimmering pearls of ikura and topped with briny tongues of top-grade Japanese uni.

Choose from three omakase menus for lunch and two for dinner.