Omakase @ Stevens

The counter changed with the role

The menu turns on timing at the pine wood counter, where Kazuki Arimoto, Executive Chef at Omakase @ Stevens in Singapore, reads the room course by course. He entered the restaurant in 2022 as Sous Chef, working inside an omakase format that leaves the chef little cover. The pass sits close to the guest, the sequence has to hold, and each plate carries the next decision.

Arimoto’s move to Executive Chef kept him in the same kitchen and sharpened the brief rather than widening it. Omakase @ Stevens had an earlier foundation under Shusuke Kubota from Nagano, whose cooking set the room toward kaiseki-shaped progressions with French technique. Arimoto, from Osaka, now leads that line through Japanese produce, seasonal change, and a cooked-focused counter that does not depend on sushi as its main language. In 2025 the restaurant received its first Michelin star, and Arimoto received the MICHELIN Guide Singapore Young Chef Award. His own stated aim is plain: “We want a second star.”

French technique inside a Japanese sequence

The program works through omakase and tasting menu progressions, with seasonal menus that have appeared in 6-, 8-, and 9-course forms. The signature donabe rice anchors the meal late, often built on Niigata Koshihikari rice and finished with options such as oyster, beef, cherry trout, or charcoal-grilled river eel. Guests see why the claypot matters before the first spoonful reaches the bowl: steam, grain, fat, and stock have to settle into one rhythm.

The French inflection shows in the sauces and pastry work rather than in a change of posture. Abalone has appeared with liver flan, yam pickles, and iwa nori jelly, and also in a Beef Wellington idea with cod fish and pie crust. Shirako has been paired with balsamico, hollandaise, shallots, and seaweed chip. Wagyu can arrive as katsu with red miso and Madeira, while kinmedai sits within the restaurant’s broader habit of treating Japanese fish through a precise cooked course. Kombu oil, yuzu, binchotan grilling, beurre blanc, and hollandaise share the bench without needing to announce the fusion.

Sixteen seats facing the pass

The room is built for close work. Sixteen counter seats face the open kitchen inside the Novotel Singapore on Stevens, with wood, quiet service, and a restrained interior keeping attention on the hands. The format makes distance difficult. A guest watches the lift of a lid, the cut of beef, the way a sauce lands beside fish rather than over it.

That proximity changes the pace of service. Arimoto and the team have to cook, plate, explain, and continue reading the counter while the next course is already moving. Donabe rice is not a finale in theory; it is a pot in the room, a course that asks for heat, patience, and the right moment to serve. At Omakase @ Stevens, the craft stays visible in the Wagyu katsu, the kinmedai, and the donabe rice.