Terra restaurant is proof again that a Japanese twist on western products and food often surpasses the original. Chef Seita Nakamura’s cuisine is firmly rooted in what he terms “Tokyo Italian”, which is recognisably Italian but with ingredients that are Japanese. If done well, and Terra does, the traditional European dishes have a more subtle touch and some novelty.
Located on Tras Street in Singapore, which is now home to a number of good eateries, Terra is open Mondays to Fridays for lunch and dinner and just dinner on Saturday (closed Sundays). The dinner menu is strictly omakase or degustation with the latter a five course meal at SGD98. The omakase has three price points: SGD128, SGD168 and SGD208. This is a multi-course meal and the price difference is accounted by the ingredients. So the SGD208 menu will include things like abalone and sea urchin. The fixed course lunch menu is priced at SGD42 for three courses and SGD58 for four courses.
Being that it was our first visit, we opted for the ultimate omakase with wine pairing. Most of the wines served are Italian – there is no sake, which disappointed my husband a bit. I understand that Chef Seita and Terra’s sommelier/manager Shotaro Aoki may introduce some sake in the future. However, I was quite happy with their choice of wines.
First course was a healthy dose of sea urchin (uni) bruschetta (pictured above). This is always a great combo and we were off to a good start. It’s also a dish that reminds me of Marea, a great southern Italian restaurant in New York that I highly recommend that does an amazing sea urchin crostini with a small slice of lightly grilled lardo on top. We started with a glass of champagne – Henri Giraud Esprit.
Our second course was a grilled prawn in a light, almost thermidor style. This was a very tasty prawn from Mie, which is near Osaka. One of our friends is allergic to shellfish and they capably substituted this dish with a pork dish. The greens here are Japanese rocket. The one area that I think Terra falls short on is the look of the garnishing on a couple of dishes. A few sprigs of rocket here and there doesn’t do much for the aesthetics of the dish in my view. We had vermentino (white wine) from Sardinia by Argiolas to accompany this.
The fish (I think) was nodoguro – black throat sea perch, which is in season, nicely cooked and accompanied with lightly sautéed chopped tomatoes. This is primarily a Japanese fish which I normally preferred grilled and I thought this was the weak link in the meal as while it was nice, the tastebuds didn’t particularly sing. Our wine was a 2013 Etna Bianco from Benanti. The next dish was one of my favourites for the night, an Iberico pork risotto. We switched to red wines, starting with a nice 2010 barolo from Paolo Scavino.
I think Chef Seita does the pastas and risottos well and the abalone risotto was excellent. We continued to have the barolo with this dish – we pretty much finished the bottle as it was left on our table but I’m not sure if that was the intention.
We ended with the A4 grade wagyu beef from Kagoshima which was nicely accompanied by grilled bamboo from Kyushu and mushroom from Hokkaido. We all really liked the bamboo – it was a nice change from the usual beef and potato garnishing. The best wine for the night was a 2007 Brunello di Montalcino from La Velona – it went well with the meat. All of the wines we had are available by the glass as well.
We reached the end of our meal – but before that, dessert was like a deconstructed tiramisu. I did enjoy this – it wasn’t too sweet.
On the whole, I really did enjoy my meal here and I also liked that the lighting in the restaurant was not too dim nor bright. The restaurant is very comfortable with clean, modern lines but not sparse. I’m looking forward to going back to try other dishes and I’m also curious if the cheaper omakase meals would be as good given the change in ingredients. Since, it’s too costly to eat at the high end of the range often, I’ll go back and have the economical variations next time.
Reservations are recommended and available online at the Terra website http://www.terraseita.com. You can also call to make a reservation but most of the time they don’t answer the phone but you can leave a message and they do get back to you.