Toriei, on Level 4 of Cuppage Plaza, serves an 18-course shio yakitori omakase for S$180++ per person at a 10-seat counter. According to the restaurant, it runs Monday to Saturday from 7pm to 10pm, and you book through Toriei’s Inline page or on WhatsApp. With only ten stools around a single grill, the reservation is the part to sort out first.
The premise is simple. Over about two hours, the kitchen works through the whole chicken, from the prized chicken oyster to cuts like heart and cartilage. If you’ve ever wondered what a fancy omakase would taste like with nothing but chicken on the menu, Toriei has an 18-course answer.
A few quick definitions help. Yakitori means grilled chicken skewers, and shio is Japanese for salt, so shio yakitori is seasoned with salt instead of the sweet, sticky tare glaze. Omakase means you leave the menu to the chef. Put together, Toriei is a chef-led, salt-seasoned chicken tasting menu eaten at the counter.
One Grill, Ten Seats
Cuppage Plaza is already full of Japanese hideaways. The restaurant’s pitch is that Toriei stands apart from them by focusing on yakitori alone. There’s no sushi detour and no wagyu add-on to soften the idea, so the whole night comes down to chicken, salt and fire.
That makes Toriei a different proposition from the dressier spots in our roundup of premium casual restaurants. The question here is whether one bird, broken down part by part, can carry 18 courses on its own. It’s a bold bet, and an easy one to get curious about.
The Two Behind the Grill
The name to know is Chef-Owner Roy Koh, founder of Skewers Yakitori Izakaya. An izakaya is a casual Japanese drinking spot with small plates. Toriei takes Koh’s grounding in chicken and puts it into a stricter, sit-down format, where the chef sets both the pace and the order.
Koh shares the grill with Head Chef Asai Masashi, formerly of Bincho. According to the restaurant, the pair season each cut with Okinawan sea salt, cook it over premium Japanese charcoal, and serve every skewer straight from the grill.
That’s the real draw of a 10-seat counter. You’re close enough to watch your next skewer cook before it lands in front of you.
From Chicken Oysters to Zosui
Here’s how Toriei describes the meal. It opens with seasonal appetisers, moves through ten chicken skewers and four vegetable skewers, then finishes with chicken zosui and a seasonal dessert.
The cut the restaurant leads with is the chicken oyster, a small nugget of dark meat from the bird’s back, near the thigh. Toriei says it arrives with crisp skin and a juicy centre. After that come the cuts that might test a first-timer: heart and cartilage.
If we had to pick the reasons to book, it’d be those three. Anyone can grill a thigh, but the oyster, the heart and the cartilage show whether a kitchen has the patience to work through a whole bird. They’re also the bites you’re least likely to order on a casual night out.
The finish is gentler. Zosui is a Japanese rice porridge simmered in broth, the kind of warm bowl that settles you after 14 skewers.
Is S$180++ Worth It?
In Singapore, “++” means a service charge and GST (Goods and Services Tax) are added on top of the listed price, so your bill will land above S$180 per person.
The balance of the menu matters too, since ten of the 14 skewers are chicken. If you’re hoping for a parade of seasonal vegetables, this isn’t your meal. If you’ve spent years ordering thigh and wings at yakitori bars and wondered what else the bird has to offer, Toriei is built for exactly that curiosity.
With room for only ten, the restaurant is selling the counter view as much as the food. That’s a fair trade for a meal you’d plan around a birthday or an anniversary, and a lot to commit to on a random weeknight.
Before You Book
The menu runs as a single fixed omakase, so the chef decides what reaches your plate. Set aside about two hours, come hungry, and leave any squeamishness about heart and cartilage at the escalator.
📍 Location: Level 4, Cuppage Plaza, Singapore
⏰ Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday, 7pm to 10pm
💰 Price: S$180++ per person
⏳ Duration: About two hours
🪑 Seating: 10-seat counter around a single grill
🍢 Menu: 18-course shio yakitori omakase with seasonal appetisers, ten chicken skewers, four vegetable skewers, chicken zosui and seasonal dessert
👨🍳 Chefs: Chef-Owner Roy Koh and Head Chef Asai Masashi
📲 Booking: Inline or WhatsApp at +65 9898 4044
Plenty of omakase menus chase luxury with imported fish and gold leaf. Toriei goes the other way and asks what one chicken, some Okinawan salt and a bed of charcoal can do across 18 courses. If that question has ever crossed your mind over a plate of chicken rice, round up your most adventurous eater and book a seat through Toriei’s Inline page or on WhatsApp at +65 9898 4044, because ten stools fill up fast!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Toriei and Derek Quah.
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