No matter the cuisine, man was meant to grill. Tamashii Robataya specializes in robatayaki – the Japanese slow grilling of fresh produce and meats over charcoal. Its specialties include a very nicely cooked Kinki fish, and a wonderful grilled beef with rice (saga gyu don) and truffle. As with many of Singapore’s restaurants serving high quality food, the question is going to be on the value perception as dining here may not be cheap.

I enjoyed my dinner at Tamashii Robataya and I think part of that reason is because we sat around the counter, which adds a layer of fun to the good food (and of course with good company). My first time here, we were in the private room so it seemed much more formal. The restaurant is located in the central business district of Singapore, just behind Boat Quay, which makes it convenient for those looking to go straight to dinner from nearby offices. High ceilings and a nicely decorated counter where all the fresh vegetables are displayed makes it all the more enticing.

We opted to order a la carte, which came up to around SGD160 per person after tax, excluding drinks. The restaurant does offer three types of degustation sets starting from SGD100. The top end SGD200 degustation is a lot of food so for a special night out, it looks okay. The house specialties – the Kinki fish (Thorn Head fish) and gyu don with truffle – along with our sashimi platter were the higher priced items in what we had. We shared the fish among three to four of us and also split the gyu don between two people. There is enough food to go around with the portions provided.

We started with a tomato salad and kanikko (deep fried candied little crabs) and followed this with a sashimi platter. Then we moved on to the grilled vegetables choosing the peppers, leeks and white asparagus, the latter being in season. In between we had a minced chicken ball.

We thought of ending our meal after the next dish – which was the saga gyu don with truffle. The gyu don comes with a nice runny egg. However, as the guys were still hungry, we added chicken wings and the kinki fish. The chicken wings, incidentally, were excellent.

For dessert I had the warabi mochi (a sweetened bracken starch mochi) while my husband had ice cream – one of which was grape sorbet and very good.

On the whole, the food is nicely cooked and tasty. The question becomes the value proposition. Having said that, there are a lot of options in Tamashii’s menu to which reasonable budgets can be met. If my budget is SGD100, I’d drop the sashimi and kinki in favour of other grilled seafood (this is my opinion). Even though the scallop sashimi was very good – with a twist of yuzu – my preference would be to go to sushi restaurants for my raw fish. That’s because I’d want to try more of the grilled dishes in a robatayaki restaurant. The gyu don is a must, however, and I’d also go back for the chicken wings. Alternatively, for a splurge, go for the whole hog SGD200 menu.

Tamashii is open daily for lunch and dinner except Sundays. For more info on Tamashii or to reserve online, see website: http://www.tamashii.com.sg/concept.php