Biseryu Japanese Restaurant at Far East Plaza, the sister outlet of Deli’s Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza, houses 8 restaurants from Japan under its roof: Burger Cafe (Tokyo, wagyu burger), Fukuyoshi (Kanagawa prefecture, hamburg), Jinbocho Beef (Tokyo, beef don), Kurobeko (gyukatsu or beef cutlet), Senri (Miyazaki prefecture, Gyutan or ox tongue), Shibaura Genghis Khan (lamb don), Yellow Gourmet (Osaka, omu rice), and Tonkatsu Kagura (Nikko, tonkatsu or pork cutlet).

In short, they specialise in beef although they have pork and lamb for variety.

Although that was how the helpful waitress introduced the restaurant to us, I tried to google these Japanese brands to no avail. I’m just going to take her word and the menu (“Fukuyoshi – voted by European Monda selection as one of 50 top chefs in japan in 2016”) to be true.

Ox tongue steak (100g, $17)

The helpful waitress highly recommended the ox tongue, which comes in different sizes (100g $17, 150g $26, 200g $34, 250g $42). It has a nice smokey aroma but marinated too sweetly.

We call this the “heng / suay” dish. There are some pieces that are tender and smooth, the “heng” pieces.

But there are some “suay” pieces that are super tough and chewy, almost impossible to chew, or rather, you have to masticate like a cow. “Just swallow it, don’t chew,” Mr Fitness advised. But when it was his turn to be “suay,” he spat it out.

We overheard the boss explain to the next table that that is the texture of ox tongue. No, don’t bluff us leh. We have eaten ox tongue countless of times; this is not our first time at the rodeo. We know it is not like that.

We also ordered the Black Angus Prime sirloin beef katsu don ($33) because it looks so good in the menu:

Photo found in the menu

But in real life:

Actual photo of the Black Angus Prime sirloin beef katsu don ($33)

What a mess. It’s so thin that you can’t really tell if it’s rare or medium-rare (which is how the restaurant insists on doing their beef). So oily that it stained the paper, making the bottom wet, losing its crispiness. Wet bottoms are never good.

If this is the first time a person eats “Black Angus Prime,” s/he will never want to spend money on it again.

The waitress on her own initiative gave us a steak knife. “You may need this,” she says. But you should be able to eat a good piece of gyukatsu with chopsticks: pick it up and bite. It shouldn’t be stringy and tough with sinews, it shouldn’t 藕断丝连 like a Korean romance drama.

When you look at it, you already know it is going to be bad: the panko crumbs are all over the place. A good piece of katsu should hold everything in place like a tight spanx.

Grilled Lamb Don (200g, $18)

They use lean shoulder meat for the grilled lamb don (100g $12.0, 150g $15, 200g $18, 250g $21). The menu says it uses a special sauce, but it tastes like teriyaki, overly sweet teriyaki, that overpowers the lamb to the point that we didn’t know what meat it was.

We spent $80 for two persons. I think the 8 restaurants in Japan which lend their names to Biseryu won’t approve. The service is excellent but all things else…

Biseryu Japanese Restaurant
Far East Plaza #02-59, 14 Scotts Rd, Singapore 228213
tel: +65 9819 5112
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Food: 4/10
Price / value: 5.5/10
Decor / ambience: 5/10
Service: 8/10

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–Japan Rail Cafe, Tanjong Pagar Centre: Summer Specials from Different Prefectures in Japan
–Rang Mang Shokudo, Japan Food Town: Best Chicken Karaage in Singapore?

Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.