Birthday Dinner at TANOKE Singapore: A Hidden Japanese Gem

Singapore Restaurant Week is back this April, and it brought us straight to one of the most unexpectedly wonderful dinners we’ve had in a long time. For my sister’s birthday, I booked us a table at TANOKE, a quietly tucked-away modern Japanese restaurant on Purvis Street.

Hidden shopfront, intimate setting, and a dinner set at a price that was more than worthwhile. 

We went with the curated dinner set with sake pairing and added on the salted egg soft-shell crab from the recommended side dishes because how could we not.

The Food: In for a Treat

The dinner set runs four courses: appetiser, second course, main, and dessert. Each dish was thoughtfully curated and complete on its own.

We began with the salmon tataki, and it was a wonderful start. Delicate slices of salmon, seared just enough on the outside while the inside stayed silky raw, served with a ginger-wasabi ponzu that was tangy and appetising. The sauce lifted the natural sweetness of the fish without overpowering it, and I could remember thinking the salmon had melted as soon as it hit my tongue. 

The salted egg soft-shell crab had also been an excellent choice. The crab was tender all the way through, coated in a golden salted egg sauce that was rich but not heavy, savoury without tipping into excess. 

The second course was the nasu kani ankake: soy-braised eggplant with crabmeat dashi ankake and sakura ebi flakes. I’ll be honest, I liked eggplant, but I didn’t know eggplants could taste this different (and better). The eggplant had absorbed all the dashi braise and finished with the gentle crunch of dried sakura shrimp. It was quite a treat.

For the main course, we chose the spicy miso tori momo (chicken thigh) and the gindara orange teriyaki (black cod), and this was the undisputed highlight of the night. The chicken thigh was smoky and well-seasoned, but the winner was still the black cod. The fish was tender, and the saikyo miso glaze had balanced the sweetness with a deep, fermented richness. The rice, served alongside an onsen egg, was made even more flavourful after being drizzled with the miso sauce. 

Dessert brought us acai sorbet and espresso affogato, both clean and satisfying closers to a full meal. The yuzu jelly deserves its own mention because it was simply divine: fragrant with that unmistakable citrus brightness.

The sake pairings were well curated. Each pour came from a different region and was selected to complement the different dishes. Nothing too dry, nothing too sweet. It amplified the taste of the food rather than competing with it, and I appreciated how the staff member introduced each bottle.

The Verdict: Amazing 

TANOKE is truly a hidden gem, and I wouldn’t have discovered it without Singapore Restaurant Week. The ambience was warm and pleasant; the service was attentive, and the complimentary yuzu sake house pour was such a generous lovely touch. This was exactly the kind of dinner I’d hoped to give my sister for her birthday: full of flavour, full of care, and full of little moments worth remembering. Thank you for such a wonderful time. 

Not a sponsored post.