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10 Best Japanese Restaurants in Singapore

Deng Xiang

November 18, 2025

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Japanese food in Singapore has reached absurd heights in 2025. We now have more Michelin-starred Japanese restaurants per square kilometre than Tokyo itself, and the average sushi lunch costs more than a hawker dinner used to cost for a week. These are the ten establishments that locals still fight for, re-sell reservations for profit, or quietly drop four figures without blinking. Prices are 2025 dinner omakase or set-menu rates unless stated otherwise.

1. Sushi Kimura – Palais Renaissance

$480–680 per person (lunch $380 on weekdays)

Tomo Kimura quietly serves the most refined Edomae sushi in Singapore from a ten-seat counter hidden on the third floor of Palais Renaissance. Every piece is aged between three days and sixty days in his dedicated ageing room; the kohada alone will ruin all other gizzard shad for you forever. He flies in ninety percent of his fish from Tsukiji Shijo twice a week and still rejects half the shipment if it doesn’t meet his mood. Bookings open on the first of every month at 10 a.m. for the following month; the website crashes within forty-five seconds.

2. Shoukouwa – One Fullerton

$550–750 per person (two Michelin stars)

The only sushi restaurant in Singapore that still holds two Michelin stars in 2025. Eight seats, two seatings per night, and Chef Kazumine Nishida who trained under Jiro Ono’s son. The rice is cooked in Hagama over binchotan and seasoned with two kinds of akazu that have been aged seven and fifteen years respectively. They introduced a caviar-topped otoro in 2025 that costs an extra $180 and sells out before service starts.

3. Aoki – Shaw Centre

$380–550 (lunch sets from $180)

The granddaddy of high-end Japanese in Singapore since 2004. Chef Aoki still greets every guest personally and remembers your name from six years ago. The winter hokkaido uni served in a carved ice bowl is so creamy it feels illegal, and the anago is brushed with a sauce his family has used for four generations. Walk-ins are technically possible after 9:30 p.m. if someone cancels, but you’ll need karma and perfect timing.

4. Takada – Singapore Shopping Centre (yes, that old mall opposite Mandarin Orchard)

$450–650

The 2024 opening that instantly became impossible to book. Chef Takada spent fifteen years at three-Michelin-star Ryugin in Tokyo before deciding Singapore needed his brand of progressive kaiseki. Twelve seats, one seating per night, and dishes like chawanmushi with 30-year shaoxing and shaved black truffle that make grown men cry. Reservations open three months ahead on Tock; the waitlist currently stretches into 2026.

5. Hashida Sushi – Mandarin Gallery

$420–680 (Hashida Garō counter $800+)

Chef Kenjiro Hashida (fourth-generation sushi master) still ages his tuna in the traditional Hon Maguro way for up to three weeks. The Garō counter introduced in 2025 is four seats only, uses fish flown in daily on Japan Airlines first-class cargo, and pairs each piece with rare sake from barrels that cost more than a car. Locals quietly trade reservations like Pokémon cards.

6. Ki-sho – Scotts Square

$550–880 (private room kaiseki up to $1,200)

Chef Kazuhiro Hamamoto serves possibly the most beautiful kaiseki in Southeast Asia from a traditional Japanese house transported plank-by-plank from Kyoto. The winter 2025 menu features matsutake grilled in a miniature hibachi at your table and fugu shirako that melts like custard. Private rooms come with their own garden and koi pond; people propose here and nobody bats an eyelid at the bill.

7. The Gyu Bar – Devonshire Road

$288–388 omakase (lunch $188)

The only dedicated Japanese beef omakase that matters. Twenty courses of A5 wagyu from different prefectures prepared thirty different ways: sashimi, tartare, grilled over binchotan, wrapped around uni, smoked tableside in a glass dome. Chef Daniel Ong sources rare cuts like chateaubriand and misuji that most steak restaurants have never heard of. Bookings open on the first of every month; they’re gone before you finish your morning kopi.

8. Sushi Sakuta – Stanley Street

$380–580

The 2023 opening that stole half of Kimura’s regulars. Chef Sakuta worked under Masa in New York before returning home and deciding Singapore needed proper Edomae without the attitude. The counter is twelve seats, the rice temperature is checked with a thermometer before every piece, and the akagai is so fresh it still moves slightly when placed on your plate. They added a $120 sake-pairing that’s actually worth it.

9. Esora – Mohamed Sultan Road

$395 (lunch $295) – one Michelin star

Chef Shigeru Koizumi’s modern kaiseki is served in a room that looks like a Zen art gallery. The signature dish of uni encased in frozen dashi stock that melts into hot broth at the table still causes Instagram blackouts every night. All plates are custom-made Arita porcelain; they change the entire dinnerware set four times a year to match the season. Bookings open sixty days ahead and disappear in ninety seconds.

10. Burnt Ends (Sushi Counter) – Dempsey

$450 per person (four seats only, Thursday–Saturday)

Dave Pynt’s one-Michelin-star modern Australian barbecue restaurant added a secret sushi counter in 2025 that books out faster than Taylor Swift tickets. Four seats, four courses of binchotan-grilled fish followed by eight pieces of nigiri finished over the same coals. The otoro is smoked for exactly six seconds and tastes like edible incense. Reservations drop randomly on Resy; you need to stalk the app like it owes you money.

The 2025 Japanese Fine-Dining War Table (Dinner Omakase/Set after ++)

Total damage if you attempt all ten in one year: approximately $5,500 and permanent inability to enjoy normal sushi ever again.