Sushi Masaaki

The same hands at the counter

The knife work stays close to the guest as Chef Masaaki Sakashita works at Sushi Masaaki in Central Area, Singapore, setting each course from the omakase bar rather than sending it from a hidden pass. Since 2020, he has held the combined role of chef and owner here, which keeps authorship and service under one discipline. Born in Kyoto and raised beside the Kamo River, Sakashita entered fine Japanese cooking at 18, then worked as chef at Hashida Sushi and Ishi before opening the restaurant that carries his name. That path shows in the way the meal is built: close handling, controlled timing, and a preference for composition that does not crowd the fish. The room may carry contemporary flourishes, but the station is old in its demands. Rice, fish, heat, vinegar, seasoning, and the guest’s pace all have to land in sequence. Sakashita keeps those decisions at the bench.

Akazu, Toyosu fish, and fast decisions

The program is omakase only, with seasonal ingredients from Toyosu Market and a method that favors quick preparation over extended handling. The sushi rice uses Hokkaido rice seasoned with three-year-aged red vinegar, giving it a darker cast and a firm chew at the grain. That rice carries some of the restaurant’s more personal combinations: triple-decked shima aji, ankimo with pickled watermelon, and uni cake with hairy crab. Chawanmushi with uni sits in the same language, softer in temperature and texture but still built around contrast. Sakashita also works with heat as a brief intervention, as in kinki cooked in kombu dashi for three seconds, or grilled items touched by bincho charcoal. The point is not novelty by itself. It is the ability to hold fat, acid, sweetness, smoke, and brine in a small form without losing the line of the fish.

Hinoki under the hand

The counter is made from 250-year-old hinoki wood, and the choice matters because the restaurant is organized around proximity. Guests sit close enough to watch the slicing, the brushing, the lifting of rice, the final adjustment before a piece leaves the hand. Around that bench, the room steps away from strict sushiya austerity: soft pink Gucci crane wallpaper, washi sheets hung like clouds, bright lighting, and a warmth that lets conversation enter service without loosening it. The noise stays quiet. The counter does most of the talking.

A named house, not a borrowed one

Sushi Masaaki does not read as a chef’s stop between other houses. Since 2020, Sakashita has tied the restaurant’s name, room, and daily output to his own standard, after earlier chef posts at Hashida Sushi and Ishi. The signatures to follow at Sushi Masaaki are already plain on the counter: ankimo handroll, chawanmushi with uni, and the uni cake with hairy crab.