So it took me a bit of search on Google Maps before I found the name of this place where I'd gone for dinner a couple of months ago.
I don't usually have to google the name.
It sticks in my mind most of the time.
But maybe I was a little rushed this evening.
And maybe I had been too occupied trying to figure out what else was interesting on their menu.
To be honest, I'm not sure whether the place I went to was Wagyu Aburiya: Steak and Sukiyaki, or Yamakita Tempura & Tapas. (Google Maps says one thing, Google Reviews from the same maps shows another)
As F&B is, it might be both, but I know I had both wagyu, and tempura during that evening there.
The location of this particular place is not the easiest to find.
Neither is it the most difficult.
It's easy to spot if you're coming in from the Studio M side- the building in which it sits in is just opposite.
It's slightly more difficult if you're coming in from the banks of the Singapore River, because whether you're walking on the Alkaff Quay side of the River, or the opposite side, you'll have to keep going until you get to Alkaff Bridge, and then the restaurant is in the building right in front there.
This evening we were coming in from Orchard, Killiney and Kim Yam Road, so along Mohammad Sultan we went until we turned into Nanson Road.
It was early when we arrived, so when given the choice of indoor or outdoor, we chose indoor, right at the counter looking over the open kitchen.
The layout here at Wagyu Aburiya/Yamakita can be described as casual elegant.
Meaning that whilst you may not get the very proper and very elegant table setting that you'd find at restaurants elsewhere, neither will you get the super affordable, bright, cheery, (sometimes gaudy) colors of plastic plates and bowls.
There's an order to their table setting here- paper napkin, chopsticks, tea cups, spoon- the more I looked at it, the more charming I thought it felt.
I didn't waste too much time admiring their cutlery and crockery, of course.
There was the menu.
Which unfortunately I didn't get to seriously browse, because by the time I looked through the menu, our orders were on the way.
This evening we decided on a dish of wagyu beef cubes stewed dry.
What the sauce consisted of, I don't know, but the beef was tender, easy to pick up with my chopsticks, and incredibly tasty. I loved how the yolk of the beautifully poached egg broke apart at a single tap, and how it flowed so gracefully over the tender cubes of meat.
Sometimes we forget just how nice runny egg yolk goes with beef until we have it once again.
There was a bowl of soup- a sort of beef broth, I think- that was thick, rich with flavor, and had cute little slices of beef swirling about inside. I was more taken in by the broth than the meat- I don't know why.
Maybe it was very heartening.
And even though it were a warm day outside, it was surprisingly comforting.
Perhaps that's one unique way to describe the food here at Wagyu Aburiya/Yamakita.
I know that there've been comments that their food's ordinary, pretty common, like not much of a big deal, but one has to savor their offerings with an open heart and an open mind.
This is not a place where the food's similar to that of an izakaya that's often full-bodied and full flavored.
Neither is this a place where the food's exquisite, delicate and a work of art aka omakase style.
But it is a place where a tired soul can come in, order a sake, order a beer, and have familiar food to go along with it.
You don't have to think.
You don't have to look for the X-factor within the dish.
You can just mindlessly guzzle down your beer/sake and keep your stomach filled.
In other words, it's a place where you can easily just stone- no need to think.
I didn't think too much about the food when our tempura arrived at our table.
I just picked up my chopsticks and carried on eating.
I mean, there's not much you want to squeeze out of a weekend brain when faced with a serving of pumpkin and a serving of ebi in front of you.
But mind, the pumpkin was fresh, the batter was thick and crispy with a slight crunch, and every bite of the vegetable gave me a flavor of pumpkin sweet, batter salty and mushy smooth.
It was very satisfying.
Very comforting, sort of a clean-tasting dish with natural vegetable sugars.
The ebi had a different sort of sugar, of course, this one with its natural flavors of umami.
Did I manage to taste it out from the prawn?
Yes, a little.
But I was more interested in the texture- you know, that distinctive bouncy chew and 'burst of the sea' that fresh seafood give you- and the way the chew balanced out the crunch of the thick tempura batter.
So fresh, and so tasty were them both that I didn't even use the sauce.
Actually, by that time, I didn't even bother with the chopsticks, simply picked up the tail of the tempura coated ebi with my hands.
A little out of etiquette (and maybe even a little inappropriate) but I wanted to be as comfortable and casual as I could- what with environment, ambience, company, and all.
So you can imagine just how glad I was when a little surprise came up just when I finished my portion of ebi.
Tempura ice cream.
A dessert which I can never resist.
And even though I completely missed out on what must have been its skillful preparation- the control of batter thickness and flame and fire- that's all right.
The ice cream was wonderful.
And I'll just have to wait for the next time.