Located along Neil Road, iKO is welcomed by new chef-owner Dylan Ong, the founder behind The Masses, a popular and well-known Franco-Asian restaurant. With his outstanding wealth of experience and cooking skills, iKO has new menu additions that can only be defined as Modern-Japanese Bistronomy.
While Chef Dylan might be more familiar with French cooking, he created the new dishes at iKO based on his foundation in French cuisine, together with his love for Japan and its produce. He also tried to be more experimental and adventurous when curating the menu for iKO.
Menu at iKO
The menu at iKO is split into various sections, such as Snacks, Raw, To Start, and Mains.
We started off with some bar snacks such as iKO-Bee ($15) which is a fun bag of homemade, hand-sliced potato chips seasoned with sour cream and bottarga powders. Beware, this is highly addictive!
For snacks, the names Negitoro Ice Cream ($18) and Salmon Ice Cream ($18) attracted our attention even before they were served. The former being an adorable seaweed cone filled with minced raw tuna, cured egg yolk, and green onion bud, while the latter was filled with minced raw and smoked salmon, crème fraiche and ikura. While we are huge toro fans, the salmon version was our personal favourite.
There was also the Lil Basket ($20), which were beetroot baskets stuffed with Hokkaido snow crab, spicy avocado mousse, and lime gel. Almost like a modern Jap version of our local kueh pie tee!
Moving on to the Starters, the Hay Smoked Hamachi ($24) impressed with its ponzu brown butter paired with slices of Hamachi, scallion garlic oil, compressed green grapes, and trio sesame.
The Dope You Up Bowl ($42) featured a velvety later of ume shiso rice topped with A4 wagyu buri, Bafun uni, ikura, lightly cured egg yolk, and wagyu fat emulsion which resulted in a burst of umami flavours. On the other hand, the A4 Wagyu “Sukiyaki” ($28) had tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef slices served with glistening egg yolk, shiitake mushrooms, leeks, scallions, and perilla brought together by a delicious white sukiyaki sauce.
Presented beautifully was That High Sess Somen ($38), a cold appetizing dish consisting of chutoro, Hokkaido snow crab, Bafun uni, and Kavian caviar. You can expect a creamy mix of textures with perfectly cooked noodles that are coated with goodness from the sea.
The 8 Hours Braised Abalone ($28) is also another noteworthy dish over at iKO. We loved the bed of pearl barley cooked in abalone liver sauce, which we can see being absolutely delicious in pasta. The dish came with braised mushrooms, elephant stem, and asparagus.
For mains, we had the Hay Smoked Guinea Fowl ($32) which featured a medley of 15 seasonal Japanese vegetables. The fowl itself was tender and paired well with the homemade sake ume sauce.
There was also the Miso Black Cod ($36) which uses a plump black cod marinated in miso for three days, served together with creamy pumpkin puree, Manila clams, and grilled firefly squid, thinly sliced carrots, pickled daikon, and juicy roasted nectarines.
We ended off the meal with the Yuzu Semi Freddo ($15), a sweet treat composed of firm and soft zesty yuzu curds, Hokkaido milk ice cream, fluffy mint sponge completed with a miso-caramel drizzle, and honeycomb. If not, you can opt for the Cream Cheese Panna Cotta ($14) which is grape heavy dessert, consisting of panna cotta and cream cheese.
Drinks Available at iKO
The modern Japanese restaurant is also offering a range of refreshing sakes, such as the Mizubasho Junmai Ginjo which has a refreshing, sweet, and gentle finish. The Mutsu Hassen Summer Sake, which has notes of watermelon, and the Miyankanbai Sparkling yuzu which uses organic yuzu from the Kochi Prefecture.
From August, they will also host Highball Night every Monday – free flow House Pour Whisky Highball at $10, BYOB every Tuesday; and Ladies’ Night every Wednesday, where every female diner will receive a free glass of prosecco.
iKO
65 Neil Road, Singapore 088897
Mon-Sat, 12pm-3pm, 5.30pm-12am, Closed on Sundays
For reservations, kindly email reservations@iko.com.sg
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