Keyaki Japanese Restaurant Kaiseki

The best thing about Keyaki Japanese Restaurant at Pan Pacific Singapore is the spectacular decor and this is not a slight. You go to the 4th floor of the hotel and push a door and suddenly, you are in an utterly different world. From the cool air conditioning of the interior to outdoors, from urban modern Singapore hotel to a Kyoto-styled garden. And bearing in mind, we are still in the hotel.

The Kyoto garden is complete with weeping willows, a koi pond, flowing stream, Shoji screens, and circles ploughed in stones. However, the interior is a little disappointing, nondescript, like any average restaurant.

Shinichi Nakatake, the executive chef here, has an interesting resume which includes Michelin-starred French restaurant, Joël Robuchon in Monaco. But there is no influence of French here; purely Japanese. Keyaki was good. Sure it’s not your typical Omakase (it’s just a section that’s cordoned off)- adjoining a much larger (and noisier) dining area.

Keyaki Japanese restaurant prides itself with its freshly sourced ingredients, presented in the form of sashimi, teppanyaki, sukiyaki and more. Their signature offering is of course, the Kaiseki Omakase set. Kaiseki (懐石) pretty much means a multi-course meal, while omakase (お任せ) is a dining style that leaves it up to the chef to decide what dishes you’re having.

The overall experience was nostalgic. Pan Pacific with its bubble lifts is nostalgia personified. The Chinese restaurant and RangMahal (Indian) here is world class- and so why not the same expectations of Keiyaki. Right?

Worth at least a visit for the ‘gram’. The food is above average at you guessed it — 7/10.