gyuu+ yakiniku grill, emporium shokuhin, marina square, 2.0.

there was a 1-for-1 ocbc card promotion for their WAGYU beef buffet (usually $88++ per person), so of course i had to go. even though L isn't as much of beef person as i am, i still managed to cajole her into going- she is my fellow bottomless pit, after all.

annoyingly enough, they only have two timings for their buffet- either 6 or 8 pm, both of which are awkward timings. there's no way we could make it for the 6 pm one, so we just went with the 8 pm slot. we reached early though, thinking that perhaps they'd let us in if there was space, but they were rigid about it. no matter- we whiled away the time pretty quickly in marina square, wandering around. when it was getting close to 8, we slowly made our way back, and was stunned by the queue snaking out from the entrance.

turned out that there was even a queue to enter the restaurant, even with reservations. that's the first time i've ever seen something like that. plus, confusingly enough, there were two queues from either side of the entrance, and we were confused about which to join. even with our 8 pm reservation, we were only seated in the restaurant a quarter past 8. i think the restaurant caters for larger groups, so the tables were big, rectangular ones. as such, as there were only two of us, we were seated beside a group of four guys. no privacy whatsoever- we could clearly hear whatever they were saying, and i suppose, vice versa.

ordering was fuss-free. just like at tsukeru, over at the other side of emporium shokuhin, they take orders via ipad. the difference from tsukeru, though, was that orders took much longer to appear (especially for the meat), perhaps because the restaurant was running at full capacity. there was a point in time when we had nothing on the table at all, and we quickly learnt to replenish the meat whenever we were almost done. the grill was tiny, though! it was okay for the two of us, but i wondered how the four guys beside us dealt with it.



the selection available wasn't a wide one, but it was of excellent quality, and i suppose that's what counts. they only had three types of beef available- a5 miyazaki wagyu shin shin, USDA prime karubi and USDA prime sirloin, but that was enough. we basically ignored the sirloin and just ordered multiple servings of the other two- especially the thinly sliced wagyu. when L took the first bite of the wagyu, she started laughing (i'm not exaggerating here) and exclaiming about how good the beef was. and she's not even usually a beef person- given a choice of beef and other meats, 90% of the time she'd go for the other meats. and yes- she was right. the beef was awesome. my favourite was definitely the wagyu. towards the end, we stuck with just ordering the wagyu.



they did have pork, chicken, salmon and scallops, but we only ordered a bit of the scallops and pork- the pork belly shio, which came in thin slices, and the pork belly tare, which came in thicker ones. both were good, but nothing compares to the beef.



of course we had to have vegetables too, so that the meat didn't become too overwhelming. surprisingly enough, i think our favourite of the night was the sweet potato (i don't even want to think about how many servings of sweet potato we had). the sweet potato provided perfect balance to the saltiness and oiliness of the meat. it was especially good when it became slightly charred on the outside, giving it a crispness while remaining soft inside. sometimes, it's really the simplest things.

they had matcha and goma ice-cream for dessert (surprising, given that they charge extra for green tea and water), and L got the goma ice-cream. her description was that it was like super sweet sesame paste in ice-cream form, intriguing me enough to give it a try. and... her description was right on the money.

the food was really good- value for money given its quality, and i'd go back... if they're still running a promotion. the logistics, however, are a nightmare- having to queue even with a reservation was pretty ridiculous.


gyuu+ yakiniku grill
emporium shokuhin
http://www.emporiumshokuhin.com.sg/dining/Gyuu