Singapore · Sushi · Local Pick · Bill Hosted by a Coworker
I was in Singapore for work, not eating my way around the city, and I would never have found Hanashizuku on my own. The reservation came from a coworker who has lived in Singapore for ten years and has eaten his way across most of Asia. He said this was the best sushi in the city and it held its own against anything he had tried in the region. So a group of us followed him into a mall just off Orchard Road and climbed up to the second floor of Cuppage Plaza, which is not a place a tourist would walk into for a sushi dinner.
This article is not sponsored. A coworker hosted dinner, so I do not have the receipt, but he framed the bill as a lot less than I would have guessed for what came out of the kitchen. We did not tell Hanashizuku we were going to write about them.
The Find: a Mall, a Stairwell, and a Local Who Knew Better
Cuppage Plaza is the kind of place I would have walked past a hundred times without going in. It is an older mall, out of date, with a lot of empty storefronts, and when we were there in the evening it read a bit sketchy. The Japanese restaurants are tucked away on the upper floors. Hanashizuku sits on the second level. If you wandered in cold you would probably keep walking. With a local at the front of the group, you climb the stairs, push the door open, and the room is warm wood, calm lighting, and Japanese voices behind the counter. Authentic, not cute. The kind of room where the food is the point.
The order of the evening was straightforward. Sake and Japanese beers on the table from the jump, no cocktails, no theater, nothing fancy. Just a few coworkers, a long order list, and a kitchen we let drive the rest of the night.
The Starters That Earn Their Place
The meal opened with two small plates that I would not normally write about, except that both made me stop and pay attention. The charred edamame came blistered in the pod, with real smoke on them, not the steamed-and-salted version most places lean on. The spinach goma-ae was creamy, slightly sweet, and properly cool against the warm food showing up next to it. Neither of these is the dish you book Hanashizuku for, but both told me the kitchen was paying attention to the small stuff, which is usually a good sign for what comes after.
The Sashimi Platter, the Reason My Coworker Brought Us Here
The platter came out on ice with five or six cuts laid out like a small painting. Tuna, salmon, what I think was yellowtail belly, a thicker white fish, and scallop, all on shiso leaves with little yellow petals scattered across the plate. The fish was clean, cold, and tasted of the sea in the way good sashimi should, not of refrigerator. The cuts were generous. The wasabi was fresh. The pickled ginger was the right kind of sharp.
This is the dish I would point a friend to. Not because it is the most dramatic sashimi platter I have ever seen, but because it is honest, balanced, and the kind of plate that tells you the rest of the menu is in good hands. My coworker called it the best sushi in Singapore. I would not argue with him.
The Rolls: Spicy Mayo on Top, Tobiko on Top, Rice Holding Its Own
We ordered a few rolls to pass around. One was a chunky spicy tuna maki with avocado, on rice that looked like it ran to the brown side, topped with bright orange dollops of spicy mayo. Another was a tobiko-and-avocado roll with the orange roe stacked on top and a cream-cheese style dollop tucked into each piece. A third had shredded greens inside and a thicker carpet of tobiko on top.
What I noticed across all three was the rice. It was warm, seasoned with restraint, and held together without being mushy. The fish-to-rice ratio was honest. The toppings were generous but not so heavy they buried what was underneath. None of these rolls were doing tricks. They were doing the boring, hard things well, which is the thing I want from a sushi place I am paying for.
The Izakaya Plates That Snuck Up On Me
The sashimi and the rolls are the headline. The things I keep thinking about, though, are the plates I did not order and would not have ordered if my coworker had not waved them through. A platter of grilled sausages (the menu calls it the sumoku sausage, a grilled smoked sausage) sliced thick, with a little dish of whole grain mustard and a small salad. Grilled corn, charred dark in places, sweet and smoky enough to make me eat it without the butter most places need to make corn interesting. And a generous tempura platter with shrimp and vegetables on grated daikon, the batter light and shattery instead of bready.
Most sushi places treat the non-sushi side of the menu as obligation. Hanashizuku treats it the same way it treats the fish, which is to say, seriously. If you came in for just the izakaya plates and skipped the sushi entirely, you would still walk out happy.
The Bill: I Did Not Pay, but Here Is What I Was Told
I am usually firm about giving you a real number, because most travel writing dances around price and I think that is unhelpful. This one I cannot give you cleanly. The coworker who picked the spot covered dinner, so I never saw the bill. When I asked him about it, he was casual, almost offhand. His phrasing was that it was not a lot for what we had eaten. Coming from someone who has lived in Singapore for ten years and eats out plenty, that is a number I trust more than my own guess would have been. I will add a clean price next time I am here paying my own way, and I plan to be.
Would It Work for the Family?
This was a work dinner, not a family trip, but the question I always ask anyway is whether I would bring Vika and the kids here. The answer is yes, easily. Hanashizuku is not a cutesy kid-themed sushi place, and that is part of why it works. The room is calm enough that Vika and I could have it as a date night. The menu has enough rice-and-protein on it that Josh and Emily would find something they want. The izakaya plates, the corn especially, are the kind of thing teenagers actually eat. I would book this for a family dinner, a lunch on a Singapore stopover, or just the two of us if Vika and I had an evening to ourselves in the city.
The Verdict
Clean sashimi, properly seasoned rice, rolls that do the boring hard things well, izakaya plates that punch above what the menu category suggests, an honest room without a single piece of theater, and a local-vouched address that I would have walked past forever on my own. It is not a temple sushi experience I am going to dream about for the rest of the year. It is the place I would bring the family for dinner in Singapore, take Vika for a date night, or recommend to a coworker landing at Changi for a week of meetings. If you find yourself in Singapore with a free meal slot, climb the stairs at Cuppage Plaza and book a table.
Common Questions About Hanashizuku
Where is Hanashizuku located?
On the second floor of Cuppage Plaza, just off Orchard Road in Singapore. The mall is older and out of date, with a lot of empty storefronts, and in the evening it feels a bit sketchy. The Japanese restaurants are tucked away on the upper floors, so you have to know it is there. If you wandered in cold you would probably keep walking, which is exactly why a local had to show us. The room upstairs is nothing like the mall around it.
Is Hanashizuku expensive?
I cannot give you a clean number on this one, because a coworker who has lived in Singapore for ten years hosted the dinner and I never saw the bill. His framing was that it was a lot less than you would guess for what came out of the kitchen. I will add a real price the next time I am there paying my own way.
What should you order at Hanashizuku?
The sashimi platter is the reason to come. Beyond that, let the izakaya side of the menu surprise you. The charred edamame, the grilled corn, and the tempura on grated daikon were the plates I did not expect and keep thinking about. The rolls do the boring hard things well, with warm, properly seasoned rice.
Is Hanashizuku good for kids and families?
I think so, even though our visit was a work dinner. The room is calm, the menu has enough rice and protein that Josh and Emily would find something they want, and the izakaya plates are the kind of thing teenagers actually eat. It can work as a date night too, with one caveat. The food would absolutely hold up, but this is not a fancy setting, so if you are looking for a charming, Instagram worthy room, I am not sure this place fits that bill.
Do you need a reservation at Hanashizuku?
Our table came from a coworker who booked ahead, and I would do the same rather than gamble on walking in. The room is small and this is a spot locals treat as their own.
Want to see the sashimi platter and the izakaya plates in motion? We posted a few short videos from this visit on Instagram. Head over to @travelandfoodguy and check them out.
Have you eaten your way through Cuppage Plaza, or do you have a Singapore Japanese spot we should put on the list for the next trip? Drop it in the comments. We are always looking for the next one.
