$29.90 For A Mountain Of Wagyu At Keisuke’s Cool New Beef Sukiyaki Don Joint  

Instead, during our media preview tasting, we were happily surprised to see a sleek 14-seater styled like a modern, somewhat luxe sukiyaki restaurant — even though prices are casual. It’s burrowed within the new, nondescript condo-mall Onze @ Tanjong Pagar (that name is seriously bengz), beside Tanjong Pagar Plaza.

And here, sukiyaki is not just a vague concept where the chef simply throws everything in a mystery pot of stew in a hidden kitchen, slaps it on rice and calls it a sukiyaki rice bowl. Think of Keisuke’s rendition as a quick-service cross between a high-end sukiyaki restaurant in Japan, where servers cook your food tableside throughout your meal — and a mid-range sushi counter-cum-gyu don joint.

Here, there are chefs in white jackets and ties stationed at each of the seven electric stoves along the granite counter, where guests sit several inches across from them.

Upon order, they get busy: first, a handful of coarse brown sugar is thrown into a shiny steel pot to caramelise, creating a sweet base for the sukiyaki sauce. We've never seen raw sugar being used at the table in sukiyaki restaurants we've visited in Japan. Apparently this follows the less common Kansai-style sukiyaki, as opposed to the more popular Kanto method where only pre-sweetened brown sauce is poured in.

As the sugar darkens and bubbles, a ladleful of soy, mirin, sake and dashi is splashed in and brought to a boil. Next, a few slivers of leek for pungent complexity, and an avalanche of your beef of choice. The slices are swirled with chopsticks till rosy red flesh turns pink-and-brown. Mushrooms are tossed in, then the steaming mound is piled on a bowl of hot Koshihikari rice, a brick of soy-braised tofu and some glass noodles nestling beneath.

The steel pots they use don’t even have handles. Instead, the chefs use pliers to pick it up whenever they need to manipulate its contents (oh, the Japanese).

Speaking of rice, Koshihikari grains from Niigata are cooked in sultry black double-lidded Japanese claypots (called donabe). The two lids mimic the effect of pressure cooking and the pots retain heat for a long time, continuing to steam the rice after its taken off the stove, resulting in more perfectly cooked grains.

Koshihikari rice from Niigata is used here.

Elsewhere in the shiny open kitchen: chefs shaving hunks of steak into thin sheets and ladelling various braised ingredients from a receptacle that looks like an oden warmer.

A smartly dressed bunch of cooks.

Why all that fuss? Because it looks stylo-mylo. But perhaps the most stylo thing in the kitchen today is chef Keisuke Takeda himself. As with each of his new concepts here, he flies in for a short while to train staff and oversee the cooking — he's only here till 25 September.

There’s no tie around his unbuttoned mandarin-collar white shirt — just a chunky silver necklace with a fox pendant. This goes perfectly with his ultra long ponytail, Louis Vuitton Nike sneakers and intimidating rock star stance as he icily observes the proceedings in the kitchen, stopping to stare scarily at an unfortunate chef who did something not to his liking.

The menu here is simple, there are just two options here: the cheaper Beef Sukiyaki Don with US Prime Beef, sliced from a Chuck Eye Roll ($13.90) and the Kiwami Wagyu Sukiyaki Don featuring higher-grade Yonezawa Beef A4 ($29.90).

It's tastefully pasted onto a wooden ‘book’.

We can’t stop munching on the two types of carefully crafted pickles placed on the counter. We prefer the tangier blend of Chinese cabbage, Japanese cucumber, carrots and kelp to the more muted pumpkin, beetroot and burdock one. The former adds a refreshing counterpoint to the sweet, rich meat.

Also complimentary: what’s called Sesame Tofu but isn’t technically tofu. Goma (sesame) paste is blended with kudzu root powder, a starch commonly used in Japanese cuisine, to form a gelatinous, slightly sticky, nutty blob. It’s drenched in a starchy dashi sauce. Not bad.

This is the answer to our beef rice bowl prayers in Singapore. Prior to this, it was: A) take out a second mortgage to get a divine but expensive wagyu don at a fine-diner. B) Go to a Yoshinoya-type place for a subpar braised beef bowl. C) Eat the more common flame-torched thick beef slices cooked like steak at the numerous casual beef rice joints around town (not our fave, we prefer braised beef don).

A generous 110g of Yonezawa A4 wagyu (a step below the highest grade) which according to Keisuke, is “one of the top three Japanese Wagyu known to the culinary world”, is shaved into thin slices and simmered briefly in sauce before being piled precariously atop our golden bowl.

Instead of dipping the beef into beaten raw egg like at a traditional sukiyaki restaurant, we’re given a wobbly onsen egg. We’re not sure if portions were more generous during our sneak preview, but our beef was so mountainous (the tofu beneath was a crafty trick to add height, but still) that when we poured the egg on top, it slid right off the meaty summit and onto the floor. The chef kindly gave us a new portion, and the gooey yolk enveloped the beef so luxuriously that we forgot to be embarrassed.

The barely cooked wagyu is slippery and smooth, with a rich meaty flavour that complements the slightly too sweet but still comforting and savoury sukiyaki sauce. Interestingly our bowl of beef seemed more tender than our partner’s, which was chewy in parts. We’re guessing it’s a combination of his portion being cut from a less fatty part of the chuck — and perhaps slight overcooking.

We love the block of meltingly soft, creamy tofu and bouncy shirataki (transluscent noodles made from konjac yam) buried beneath; they've soaked in all that sauce and are super umami. We’re also given a little jar of beefy pan juices to drizzle over the meat and wonderfully cooked, plump, glistening rice. Fab value — beef rice bowls at this price usually come with stingily portioned, lower quality meat.

The same 110g Himalayan mound of beef, but shaped from the cheaper American chuck eye roll. Honestly? Unless you’re on a budget — splurge on the more delicious wagyu version. While the US beef is perfectly fresh-tasting, it is noticeably dryer, less fatty and duller than its Japanese brethren. That being said, its accompaniments like the juicy shimeji mushrooms, tofu and rice still make this overall a very decent bowl for the price.

You can order extra US Prime Beef for $10 (120g) or Wagyu for $25 (120g), plus a large serving of Koshihikari rice at additional $2. But we think it’s unnecessary — we could barely finish our portion (our ravenous makan kaki polished off every morsel, though).

Each order of beef don comes with miso soup that's yummier than your garden-variety version. Dashi with depth is infused with a dash of pleasantly pungent, sharp red miso that’s also full of character.

Go for the Japanese wagyu if you can afford it. The silkier mouthfeel is far superior to the less fatty American beef.

This is the relatively fatty chuck cut of the cow. The A4 grade of marbling is just one level down from the highest grade of wagyu. All the beef used here is air-flown and chilled, not frozen.

But be prepared to leave the restaurant smelling of eau de beef and soy.

Bring your appetite along.

Designer-worthy, gleaming cups and bowls add to the modern vibe of the place.

You'll see this at the counter — sprinkle on some of the yuzu shichimi on your beef for a fragrant hint of citrus-kissed spice.

We love elegant sukiyaki and comforting beef rice bowls — here, you get two in one towering, tasty stack. The gourmet flourishes and theatrical show kitchen are delightful in this truly inspired concept. While the texture of the wagyu (only the Japanese beef is worth eating here) is slightly inconsistent, we can’t really complain because prices are affordable for the overall quality. Our only real grouse? The place is tiny and we foresee queues. Crazy queues. And when that happens, we hope the food remains equally good — especially with stylish kitchen commander Keisuke-san out of the country by then.

Beef Sukiyaki Don Keisuke opens 24 Sept at #01-01 Onze @ Tanjong Pagar, 11 Kee Seng St, S089218. Tel: 6535-1129. Open daily 11.30am-2.30pm; 5pm-10pm (walk-ins only). www.facebook.com/keisuketokyosg. ​​​​​​​

Photos: Florence Fong