Too many times in the last couple of years we found ourselves daydreaming of other lives. Void of travel, we’d imagine jetting off to the French Riviera for a week, then postponing our return flight to stay for months in a beautiful villa, sun-kissed and glowing from the beauty that surrounds us. Or, we’d picture living slowly in rural Japan, eating fresh produce and learning all things Japanese.
That fantasy of a slow, mindful life in Japan’s countryside is what came out of my experience at Restaurant Imamura. Sequestered in a historic, stone-walled building within Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, the dining temple feels like a portal that sends you to a remote Shinto shrine deep in a sacred forest. As soon as you step through its black double wooden doors, the world quiets to the sound of your breathing – until you ascend the stone steps and the shoji door slides open to welcome you inside.
Restaurant Imamura is the brainchild of chef Hirofumi Imamura, who cut his teeth in some of the world’s most renowned kitchens in the world, including the now-defunct Michelin-starred sushi institution Kazuo Okada in Hong Kong. Here, in a dark, brooding space that commands stillness, chef Imamura follows the “Philosophy of Five”, an culinary approach based on the ancient Japanese principle of “Gomi” (five flavours), “Goshiki” (five colours), and “Goho” (five methods) that culminates in an artful gastronomic experience that appeals to all five senses.
Japanese restaurants generally lean toward seafood, but Restaurant Imamaura pushes forward vegetables. Of course there’s the necessary fish, uni and wagyu, but the chef’s true pride and joy are the produce flown in fresh from Japan – so much so that he presents tray after tray of whole vegetables when he introduces each dish.
The dreamy 10-course signature menu begins with a delicate palate-opener consisting of a prawn and three types of turnips, one of which even has a fascinating tinge of smokiness. Next comes a shallow bowl of tender abalone chunks and pickled Japanese mountain asparagus with sweet, oceanic liver sauce, jolting our taste buds awake with a multitude of flavours and textures. Like a symphony, the high follows with a dip courtesy of a comforting Ichiban dashi broth. Swimming in it is a perfectly grilled yellow-tail topped with slices of Kintoki carrot, Horikawa burdock, Mitsuba parsley, Maru daikon and yuzu peel.
Flavours are so far subtle and restrained, but we’re only just starting to get under chef Imamura’s spell. With the Sashimi, the menu takes a decadent turn with raw slices of fluke fish, Shiro ebi and uni, topped with a layer of shoyu jelly, a big spoonful of caviar, tiny shiso flowers and Menegi scallions. After I devour every bit in the rectangular vessel, Chef hands me a negitoro sushi wrapped with Negi scallions. The sumptuousness of chopped raw bluefin tuna coupled with the sharp, spicy-peppery taste of the scallions restore the palette from the richness of the previous dish.
At this point, we have a small intermission. The server presents a box of chopsticks in various woods, length and shape for me to switch to now that all the raw plates have been served. I was told that all used ones are kept, cleaned and donated to a furniture company that recycles old chopsticks. Chef Imamura also shares that the ingredients he uses in his menus are sustainably sourced.
With fresh chopsticks, I break the binchotan-grilled kinki fish into two and pick one up with Kujo negi scallions, lily bulb and some mash made with Saitomo taro. The fattiness of the kinki intermingles with a whiff of smokiness, and balanced with the mild sweetness of the vegetables. To prep the palate for the upcoming Wagyu, chef Imamura follows with what is the best onion quarter I’ve ever eaten in my life. A labour-intensive creation, the soft, sweet and savoury onion is first halved, then deconstructed, layer by layer, and put back together with a thin piece of bonito sandwiched in between each tier. Nori is placed last, before the reconstructed onion returns to its original casing, wrapped with muslin, coated with salt and baked for six hours.
The final two savoury dishes continue to blow my mind. Two thin slices of Mizusako-farmed Kagoshima wagyu are laid flat on a slate and dusted with Chef’s special seasoning. After letting them sit for a few minutes, Chef covers the beef with a baking sheet and proceeds to iron them with a pot filled with white hot binchotan. Post-scalding, Chef snips off the excess fat and sinews with a pair of scissors, then blankets a slice over maitake mushrooms before covering it with egg yolk foam and bits of kinome leaves. We end the series of hot foods with an incredible mushroom mixed rice with generous shavings of truffle, served alongside miso soup and an assortment of perfect pickles.
Finally, stuffed and giddy with delight, we enter Chef Imamura’s realm of sweets. First, a sheet of cotton candy littered with edible floral petals, followed by a Japanese cheese ice cream with Daitokuji bean tuile and covered in solid soy crumbs, the world’s best strawberry and melon, matcha and milk pudding. If you’ve skipped the gushy, long-winded details of this almost otherworldly dining experience, I’d say Restaurant Imamura is a bucket-list type of place; a sacred dining establishment that isn’t afraid to go the extra mile to feed you mindfully with a spectrum of wonderful flavours. Kaiseki takes on a new dimension here, and I left feeling nothing but pure bliss.
Restaurant Imamura, No. 14 Gunner Lane at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, Singapore 099566.
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