Nadaman, Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore

AR and his wife invited XQ and myself to dinner at Nadaman (Shangri-La Hotel, 22 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258350). This is a Japanese restaurant that is part of a renowned chain of fine restaurants with 150 years of culinary tradition.

CR and XQ had the Kobe beef sukiyaki and AR and I had Kobe beef teppanyaki. We also had lobster sashimi to share. The lobster sashimi was a little too coarse in cut. We would have preferred them to slice the lobster tail into smaller pieces. The Kobe beef sukiyaki was quite tasty but AR and I realized through our teppanyaki that the beef didn't seem to be Kobe. The marbling just wasn't right. It was later when we questioned the captain that he admitted that it wasn't Kobe beef, but Australian beef. He explained that Nadaman had stopped importing Kobe beef due to the recent episode of mad cow disease in Japan. I felt cheated since the price they charge was at the Kobe beef level and not at the Australian beef level. Otherwise, it was a perfect evening. The company was excellent with fine food and wine (I brought along a 95-pointer 1997 Italian Brunello di Montalcino). We enjoyed our evening tremendously.

This is an expensive restaurant, without questioned. Our dinner for four cost more than S$900.