The grill glows orange in front of me before the meat arrives. It’s a small thing, set into the counter at my single seat, and it hums faintly under the chatter of the room. No flame. No charcoal. Just a low electric warmth I can feel rising toward my face.
A plate comes. Thin slices of beef, laid out like pages — tongue, skirt steak, short plate — each one marbled with fine threads of fat. I pick up a slice with the tongs and lay it on the grill. It takes a second. Then the sizzle starts, quiet at first, building as the fat begins to render. The smell reaches me a beat later — that deep, toasted beef aroma that always seems to arrive before the taste does.
This is Yakiniku Like, tucked into the busy stretch near Somerset MRT Station, where Orchard Road moves fast and nobody lingers long. The counter is built for people like me, eating alone. One seat, one grill, one plate. You cook your own meat at your own pace, and nobody hurries you, though the room is moving quickly all around.
The grill is the thing I keep thinking about. Yakiniku has always been a shared act — a charcoal pit in the middle of a table, smoke curling up into everyone’s clothes, friends reaching over each other to turn the meat. It’s one of those rituals that makes Japanese food feel communal before you’ve even taken a bite. The smoke was part of it. You carried it home in your hair. Here, the electric grill takes that away. It’s smokeless, clean, efficient. I’ll step back onto Orchard Road in a few minutes and smell of nothing at all.
There’s something quietly strange about that. The whole ritual of yakiniku was built around company, around the slow shared work of grilling and talking. Now it’s been folded down into a single seat, a single grill, a meal you can finish in twenty minutes between errands. The intimacy hasn’t vanished. It’s just turned inward. Instead of cooking for the table, I’m cooking only for myself, paying attention to one slice at a time, deciding when it’s done by the colour of the edge.
I lift the skirt steak off the moment it curls. It’s still soft in the middle, the fat gone glassy. I dip it, eat it, reach for the next. There’s a rhythm to it that I didn’t expect to find alone — a small, contained focus, the kind you don’t usually get in a place this close to a mall.
Maybe that’s the trade. We’ve given up the smoke and the crowd for speed and a clean shirt. Something is lost in that. But something is also offered back: a quiet half-hour, a grill that asks nothing of you except attention, a meal that belongs entirely to you.
I finish the last slice and watch the grill dim. The room keeps moving. I sit a moment longer than I need to, in no hurry to rejoin it.
Cuisine in the World Meets Singapore: Inside Nakhon Kitchen’s Cross-Cultural Magic
Dio Asahi | March 26, 2026
There’s a rite of passage for any food lover living in the East of Singapore, and it involves a queue. Specifically, the perpetually long, snaking queue outside Nakhon Kitchen in Bedok. I’d heard the legends for years: authentic Thai food, rock-bottom prices, and a wait time that tests your commitment. So, on a Tuesday evening…
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The Spice Route Secrets: A Deep Dive into Malay Ethnic Food
Eda Wong | March 24, 2026
My first time ordering Nasi Padang in Geylang Serai was overwhelming, I randomly picked dishes and was shocked by a $20 bill due to premium beef rendang and squid. That taught me to always ask seafood prices and that Malay food is a complex, modular cuisine. Malay food is everywhere in Singapore, in hawker centres,…
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The Shokunin Spirit: How Japan’s Craftsman Philosophy Lives Inside Singapore’s Most Disciplined Omakase Counter
Dio Asahi | March 21, 2026
The fire is not roaring; it is breathing. In a small, darkened workshop in Sakai, a swordsmith watches the colour of the steel with eyes that have tracked the same transformation for forty years. He does not look at a clock. He listens to the hum of the charcoal. He waits for the metal to…
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The Evolution of the Plate: How History Transformed Iconic Malaysian Dishes
Eda Wong | March 19, 2026
I used to think I understood Malaysian food. As a Singaporean, it’s practically in my DNA, right? Nasi lemak for breakfast, a cheeky roti canai for supper – I thought I had it all figured out. Then I spent a week eating my way through Penang and Kuala Lumpur, and I realised I knew absolutely…
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The Soul of the Table: An Educational Guide to the Role of Food in Malaysian Culture
Eat Drink Asia Team | March 17, 2026
We still remember our first collective Rumah Terbuka (Open House) experience in Kuala Lumpur.Standing at the doorway of a home during Hari Raya, we were utterly paralyzed by the sheer volume of people and the aroma of Malaysian cooking. There were aunties ladling beef rendang and tables groaning under the weight of colourful kuih. “Do…
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Asian Food Comfort Trends: Why Broths and Bowls are Dominating Globally
Eda Wong | March 14, 2026
I still remember the first time I faced a “build-your-own” Mala Xiang Guo counter. I stood there, plastic tongs in hand, completely paralyzed by the mountain of choices. Lotus root? Kelp knots? three different types of tofu skin? My anxiety spiked. I panicked, grabbed way too much luncheon meat, and ended up with a $28…
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The Fifth Element: A Masterclass on Umami in East Asian Cuisine
Dio Asahi | March 12, 2026
I’ll never forget the first time I made miso soup from scratch. Not the instant kind, but the “proper” way. I boiled water, dissolved miso paste, added tofu, and waited. It tasted flat, salty and cloudy but missing the deep, satisfying flavor I loved in Japanese restaurants. I thought maybe I needed better miso. Years…
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Why My Quest Ended at Yummy Western (409 AMK)
Dio Asahi | March 10, 2026
There’s a specific magic to a late-night supper hunt in Singapore. It’s the ritual of chasing a craving through the humidity to find that one stall that hits the spot. For me, that meant a pilgrimage to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10. I arrived at 10 PM on a Friday, just as the ‘supper soul’…
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A Taste of Time: My Dinner at Guan Hoe Soon
Eda Wong | March 7, 2026
There’s something special about visiting a place that has seen decades of Singapore’s history unfold. Guan Hoe Soon, tucked away on Joo Chiat Road, holds the title of Singapore’s oldest Nyonya restaurant, and you can feel that heritage the moment you step inside. I’d heard about it for years, a place where recipes aren’t just…
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The 6 Best Halal Restaurant in Singapore for Authentic Nasi Padang
Eda Wong | March 5, 2026
There are few meals as satisfying as Nasi Padang, a colourful feast where you choose from a variety of dishes to create your perfect plate. Over the years, I’ve explored Singapore’s Nasi Padang scene, especially in Kampong Glam, sampling everything from humble hawker stalls to renowned spots. This list highlights the best halal Nasi Padang…
