Kinki Restaurant + Bar ... Japanese Cuisine with an Attitude

In the harsh world of F&B, especially when you want to carve out a piece of Marina Bay to call your own playground, you'll have to be a powerhouse. Else, the slide in your own playground will show you the way out. Residing across the bay, opposite the glitzy MBS, we still have our Customs House. But in this Customs House, the laws and rules that used to jurisdict the surrounding waters was a thing of the past and in it's place, a string of restaurants and bars of a cosmopolitan nature. One powerhouse that set up shop in the Customs House is the Kinki Restaurant + Bar that breaks down the norms, the rules that bound Japanese sushi bars. There is non of the zen components which is substituted by some defiant but vibrant graffiti by famous graffiti artists. Japanese cuisine served here can be anything but conventional, at least most part of it. Food goes with drinks here and drinks like sake, beer, wine and even cocktails are a big part of Kinki. For that, Kinki boast a rooftop bar for that evening partying right in front of the Marina bay. Around the place you can spot manga art of Chef Kinki, a sumo wrestler who was sometimes caught between a couple of good companies with voluptuous curves. You cannot help but tie Kinki with Kinky. "i" or "y" doesn't matter to us as we were indulged with the fusion Japanese cuisine that didn't stop short of being refine. W wasn't able to join us, so we took care of J. Doc says, raw fish is good for pregnant ladies but of course you have to eat from a good quality source. Well we took care of that for J in Kinki Restaurant + Bar.

Like I mentioned, it's nothing zen like. Their restaurant on the second floor looked more like a bar in an American city than the typical one that served quality Japanese food. There's a smart casual dress code in Kinki and regulars are typical of the banker folks who drop by to wind down after a good day's work.

Here's our assorted sashimi that was fresh but certainly something that we can get at other good old school Japanese restaurant. I'm just trying to tell you that you can get some down to earth Japanese sashimi like this, but this is definitely not what we came for.

The Tai Carpaccio was more like something characteristic of what Kinki would dish out. It didn't look all that pretty but I tell you, thinly sliced fresh Tai, went really well with truffle oil that was drizzled as a topping and this dish is worth a second order. 

Ootoro Aburi or Blowtorched Tuna Belly was indulging to say the least. Interspersed omega oils delivered the goodness while the light scorching with the blow torch gave a multi textured taste of a cooked exterior with the raw divinity still intact on the inside. All this brought to a completion with a touch of citrus from the grated yuzu topping. 

Foie Gras and Scallop Sushi is another of Kinki's Chef Recommendations that marries the Japanese's Hokkaido Scallop and the French's pan seared foie gras. The rich melt-in-your-mouth foie gras and the sweet freshness from the scallop created a scrumptious taste explosion.

Just to make sure we don't break our banks eating the sushi I mention above, we got to eat more rice! So here's the Prawn and Spicy Tuna Maki a reverse maki that has the prawn rolled inside and spicy tuna paste spread as topping. 

Unagi and Hokkaido Scallop Maki is another chef recommendation that's worth trying.

We all thought that the Wagyu Teppan with Truffle Sauce was tentalizing but for the portion it's a bit too expensive.

After we're done with our sushi and maki, the waitress came and recommended this Baby Lobster Soup that was not on their menu.

Although this is a baby lobster, the flesh was sweet and I thought more tender than the bigger lobster. So shouldn't baby lobster cost more like veal meat?

The only Sweet Ending, Kinki's Name for dessert, worth mentioning is the Oreo Sesame. It's a black sesame ice cream blended with Oreo cookies. HY and J looked at my elaborated dessert in envy while they ate their single scoop sorbets. But of course, I shared this we both of them.

Kinki Restaurant + Bar Website