Tajimaya Yakiniku is another one of those restaurants where you have to cook your own food which has sprouted out in recent months. Its sister restaurant just next door (they’re actually linked and staff serve both sides) is the shabu shabu arm of Tajimaya.


Its interiors were nice and comfortable with soothing, cream colours and muted clean lines characteristic of Japanese decor.


Here’s the charcoal grill with the fiery red charcoal in all its heated glory. There’s something to be said about grilling with charcoal and the telltale smoky flavour it imparts into food.


We ordered a plate of sesame salad to have some greens in our meal. It was very ordinary and those few sprigs certainly weren’t worth its $9++ price tag.


Next came the pork collar which was had a nice marinated that tasted good after the meat was grilled.


Of course, the star of the night was the plate of Wagyu beef with all that fine marbling. All that fat renders the beef so tender!


Then came along the even fattier pork belly which was pretty good too. By that point, all the exercise I had done earlier in the day had come to naught. When grilling the pork collar, we were told not to put more than three slices at a go because anything more would cause too much fat to drip onto the charcoal which would then see it spewing fire. We believed it ‘cos it happened with the three we put on the grill!


Overall, it was an enjoyable enough meal but it wasn’t exceptionally good for the price paid. You would have to budget for at least $35 per person. Service was good but I’m not in a hurry to go back again as I didn’t think there was anything special there. Two weeks later, I went to try the shabu shabu side – the food was even more forgettable than Yakiniku’s.
1 HarbourFront Walk
#01-102 VivoCity