Sushi Hare – Japanese Omakase in Stanley Street With Taiwanese Chef

Opened in 2022, Sushi Hare is a cozy omakase restaurant in Stanley Street. I have always had a sweet spot for this relatively short and seemingly forgotten road. Sandwiched in between 2 well-known thoroughfares, Stanley Street is a treasure trove of restaurants such as Restaurant Gaig, Miznon and Common Man Coffee Roasters as well as charming shophouses – seemingly a world away from Singapore’s CBD which is only 1 block away. 

Sushi Hare has a mere 10-seat capacity but entering it, one is immediately transported to a seemingly serene world. This world is marked by motifs dealing with the concept of light, such as the luminous sun disc by the entrance and sheets of cypress and glass veneers from the ceiling. 

Sushi Hare is unique in the sense that it is the only Japanese restaurant in Singapore helmed by a Tawanese chef. Chef Angus Chang is the chef-owner of Sushi Hare and he brings with him years of experience in omakase settings. He was previously at Mizuki prior to setting up Sushi Hare. 

Sushi Hare offers lunch at S$250 per person while dinner ranges from the S$380 ao menu to the S$500 hare menu. During my visit to Sushi Hare, I tried their ao menu which consists of 19 courses. 

The service at Sushi Hare is subtle but effective. I could tell that the staff members were conscientiously checking on me – constantly changing my cutleries and plates and making sure my cup was filled with water at all times.  

We started the meal with Botan Ebi – sweet shrimp topped with caviar and uni. The sea urchin makes a frequent appearance in Sushi Hare’s omakase.

Next comes the Iwashi. This was quite unexpected, and rather unconventional, and I loved it! Here, sardine sashimi is wrapped with shiso leaves, gingers, spring onion and seaweed. This combination resulted to an explosion of flavors characterized by the slightly astringent shiso leaves and warming taste of ginger. While there’s a tendency for ginger to overpower (it wasn’t in this case), everything worked well together without obliterating the mild flavors of the sardine.

The third course, the Kegani or Japanese hairy crab, is served with dashi jelly which added plenty of zest to the dish. The jelly is made with konbu, katsuobushi, rice vinegar and gelatine. 

The fourth course, the Chutoro Noodles, consists of fatty tuna sliced into long strips resembling noodles. Rather than being served with the typical wasabi or soy sauce, the chutoro came with soy sauce steeped in konbu and with bafun uni and nori seaweed strips soaked into the sauce. This was a rather novel way of having the prized fish and the sauce really served to heighten the already rich flavor of this fatty cut. 

The omakase also comes with at least 8 pieces of nigiri, each served separately as is the custom for this dining format. Chef Angus serves a seasonal array of fresh fish, depending on what is available from Japan at a given point in time.

During my dinner, highlights among the nigiri courses included the buttery Ankimo or monkfish liver, freshly grilled Beltfish wrapped in nori as well as the bouncy Shima Aji or striped jack.

Special mention also needs to be given to the Shiro Ika or cuttlefish which was sweet and oh so soft that it essentially disintegrated after entering my mouth!

Given the sheer number of nigiri and rolls that come with the omakase, I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of hot dishes squeezed into the ensemble. The Hotaru Ika was notable for its fragrant firefly squid grilled over binchotan and smoked with wara straw. A light smokiness permeated this dish with the vinegar-ed rice providing a bit of a contrast.

There is also the Ebi Imo or the shrimp-shaped taro that came in an ankake sauce of kegani and gingko nut. 

Just before dessert, Chef Angus presented the Tamagoyaki. Now it is quite customary to have some tamago near the end of the meal but Sushi Hare’s version was more similar to a cake, both in terms of texture and sweetness. It was fluffy and relatively light. I loved it so much that I requested for seconds. Chef Angus gladly obliged. 

Although I was partly expecting a surprise of some sort owing to the preceding dishes, our sweet ending was a dependable and most welcome musk melon from Shizuoka as well as grapes. It’s simple but it does the trick.

While many omakase restaurants these days aim to present something unique through theatricality or through lively banter, Chef Angus does it in Sushi Hare through subtle changes to familiar flavors. His fastidious approach also heightens these touches – nothing too loud but just as effective. 

Sushi Hare
14 Stanley Street
Singapore 068733

+65 9737 0113