Waku Ghin has always been the restaurant people bookmark for “one day” and then quietly close the tab on. Since Monday, 19 October 2026, the Marina Bay Sands restaurant has offered two shorter ways in: Five at Five, a five-course menu at S$250++ served nightly from 5pm to 7pm, and Hanare, a six-course menu at S$288++ around a counter with only four seats.
That matters if you’ve been saving for a proper special-occasion dinner, because high-end tasting menus in Singapore usually ask for one long evening and one very large bill. Splitting the experience into smaller, cheaper formats changes who can realistically sit down, and for a first visit, the 5pm option looks like the smartest door to knock on.
Meet Chef Tetsuya Wakuda
If the name only rings a faint bell, Tetsuya Wakuda is one of the chefs who shaped Japanese-influenced fine dining in Australia. He moved from Hamamatsu, Japan, to Australia at 22 and started out washing dishes. He then cooked under Tony Bilson, whom he credits with turning cooking into his career, and opened Tetsuya’s in Sydney at 27 before setting up Waku Ghin in Singapore.
What makes these launches interesting is something he said in a 2026 interview. He prefers the term smart casual to fine dining, arguing that eating out has become more relaxed and personal without dropping its standards. He also said he starts every dish with the ingredient and rejects produce that falls short of his specifications. A short early dinner and a tiny counter that follows the day’s catch read like that philosophy turned into a booking system.
Hanare: Four Seats, One Room
Hanare takes its name from the Japanese word for a smaller dwelling set apart from the main house. True to that, it sits in a private, cherry wood-lined room away from the main dining room, built around an exclusive four-seat counter. The restaurant calls it its most intimate dining experience yet, and with four stools in total, that’s hard to argue with.
Chef Tetsuya creates the menu, while Chef Shuji Yoshitaki cooks it in front of you. According to the restaurant, Yoshitaki refined his craft at Gion Maruyama, a Kyoto kaiseki restaurant known for seasonal, multi-course cooking, which is where the two chefs first met. The six courses change daily depending on what the chefs judge to be the best produce that morning.
The detail we like most explains why the room is so small. Waku Ghin says the four-seat format lets the chefs buy fish in tiny quantities and serve its most prized cuts, such as tai no kama (the collar of sea bream) or engawa (the fin muscle of flatfish). Each fish only yields enough of these for a handful of diners, so the seat count follows the fish rather than the other way round. That’s a far better reason for exclusivity than velvet-rope theatre!
Hanare runs from Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm till late, according to the restaurant, which recommends contacting Waku Ghin in advance to reserve.
Five at Five, Course by Course
Five at Five is pitched as a genuine Chef’s Table experience squeezed into five courses, and the line-up reads like a greatest-hits reel. It opens with a delicate broth of seasonal fish, followed by seasonal sashimi, typically chutoro (medium-fatty tuna belly).
Then comes the showpiece. A Canadian lobster is presented on ice before it’s cooked on the teppan, a Japanese hot iron plate, right in front of you. It’s finished with garlic and tarragon butter, plus croutons to soak up every drop of the lobster juices.
The main event is Ohmi Wagyu from Daikichi, a historic producer in Shiga Prefecture. The restaurant says the cattle are raised exclusively for Chef Tetsuya on a specially developed diet in a calm environment. It’s seared on a plancha, a flat metal grill, and served with seasonal produce such as matsutake mushrooms and eggplant, alongside garlic chips, salad, rice, soup and pickles.
A light, refreshing seasonal dessert closes the meal. Like Hanare, the menu shifts with the seasons, so the dishes above describe this autumn’s version rather than a fixed list.
So, Which One to Book?
For most readers, Five at Five is the pick. It puts lobster and wagyu on the same menu.
Hanare suits a different diner. If you love seafood, enjoy chatting with the person cooking, and want an anniversary where the room is almost entirely yours, four seats and the rarest cuts of the day are worth the extra spend. Five at Five is the taster; Hanare is the date you remember.
One budgeting note: the “++” on both prices means service charge and GST go on top, so plan for a final bill noticeably above the menu figure. If this has you planning more splurges, our look at the newly minted MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2024 restaurants and last month’s one-day four-hands dinner at Summer Pavilion are good places to keep reading.
🗓️ Date: From Monday, 19 October 2026
⏰ Time: Five at Five nightly, 5pm to 7pm; Hanare Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm till late
📍 Location: Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands
🦞 Five at Five: Five courses, S$250++ per guest
🐟 Hanare: Six courses at a four-seat counter, S$288++ per guest
📞 Reservations: Contact Waku Ghin in advance, especially for Hanare
With only four seats at Hanare and a two-hour window for Five at Five, the earliest bookings will go to whoever moves first. Check menus and reserve your spot on the Waku Ghin page on the Marina Bay Sands website, then start working out which birthday deserves the lobster!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Marina Bay Sands.
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