Hi everyone,
I am not sure how many of the Steemit users live in Singapore or plan to visit Singapore at some point, but if you do, I hope you will find my posts helpful for navigating your way around this beautiful city-state for some great eateries.
Ever since I moved to Singapore about a year ago, I have visited a few yakiniku restaurants around the downtown and Tanjong Pagar area. Last weekend, I thought I would fill my appetite for some grilled meat, so I went online to search for a yakiniku place. I came across this place called Yakiniku Yen, located at Ann Siang Road near Telok Ayer station. The place looked pretty cool and the reviews were generally good, so I decided to give this place a shot.
First thing I noticed was the clean interior. The walls are painted black (even the AC units were painted black), so the place gives sort of a cool ambience.
You can't really see from the pictures, but the patrons are seated at a bar table, and the staff prepares and grills the meat for you as you order. The staff was super friendly, efficient, and skilled. It was also really easy to get their attention, which was great.
Nice diagram, in case you are curious about the meat parts described in the menu.
I started off with Yen's Special Salad. It is a cabbage salad with sesame dressing and peanuts sprinkled on top, along with lightly fried tofu. The tofu was really great. Little crispy on the outside but really soft and creamy on the inside. The sauce was good too, but I personally thought they could do with putting in a bit less. It was a good appetizer though.
For my first meat, I went with the ox tongue. The ox tongue at a yakiniku restaurant near this place, called Yakiniku don-don, is pretty great (it has massive amounts of spring onions sprinkled on top that gives a very unique flavor), but I liked the ox tongue here a bit more. The chef prepared it with some ground onion and spring onions on top. I sprinkled some lemon and it was just great. Very soft and flavorful! It was definitely one of the best ox tongue I had in a while.
Then, it was time for some wagyu. These were probably one of the softest pieces of meat I have had in my life. It feels like the meat melts as soon as it enters your mouth. I did feel a hint of scent you get from under-cooked meat. I usually eat my meat rare, so under-cooked meat is usually not a problem for me, but this one did feel some scent with this. Unfortunately, I was not very satisfied with this wagyu (but you might feel otherwise!).
I finished off with some iberico pork. It was very chewy and tasty. I liked this much more than the wagyu.
I had couple pints of beer and a bowl of rice with my meal, and the total came out to around S$150. Singapore isn't cheap, so the price was reasonable (believe it or not). I definitely enjoyed my dining experience here and would come back to this place.
Next time you are in Singapore and you are craving for some meat, give Yakiniku Yen a try.
Thanks for your time in reading my post.