Gyu bar

When it comes to beef, we’ve become very spoiled for choice.  Many restaurant menus dedicate a section – or a whole page – for meat from thousand of miles away. Categories by continent, country, township, village… It’s starting to look like a wine list, except we fantasize about swirls of white fat on ruby red flesh.

But at The Gyu Bar, the latest high-end yakiniku joint along 30 Stevens Road, diners need only expect one cow breed. More specifically, the Kumamoto Kuroge breed, a pure-blood Black wagyu raised in Japan. Like many wagyu-rearing methods that border on fanaticism, the Kumamoto Kuroge is subjected to very specific care: from being fed a ‘custom-blend diet of vegetables’ to ‘naturally purified water carved by the volcanoes in Mount Aso.’

Don’t mistake the lack of choice for provenance as unambitious though. Sushi Kimura’s chef-owner Tomoo Kimura and two business partners claimed to have taken nearly a year to choose what wagyu to feature before settling on the Kuroge beef. What they lack in the provenance department is made up for with exclusivity. The menu offers various cuts, such as sirloin, tongue, karubi and rosu – all acquired from on Kuroge cow. The selection is further curated in the form of an omakase beef platter of assorted cuts and the Gyubar platter with specific cuts from the eight main parts of the cow. If anything, the platters offer an almost scientific taste exploration of marbling, flavours and textures of Kuroge wagyu – say, the beefier and tougher tongue and the absolutely luscious short rib and chuck rolls that manage a balance of flavours between both meat and fat.

The restaurant also puts diners’ comfort in utmost priority. The first glass of sake is on the house, something of a welcome drink, with the diner’s choice of sake cup. And don’t worry about the absence of any overhead suction pipes above each table. Stoves are armed with a ring of suctions to ensure an odour-free experience for the diner after a meal.

 

The Gyu Bar

30 Steven Road, #01-08

Singapore 257840

Tel: 6732 0702 / 9150 3164