Entree Kibbles: Yakiniku Go @ JEM (Connected to Jurong East MRT Station) [Singapore]

Sunday, December 05, 2021

Yakiniku Go @ JEM (Connected to Jurong East MRT Station) [Singapore]

I am not a trendsetter, even when the topic concerns food. Contrary to popular assumption, I am not a fan of new eateries with a lot of hype as I am simply not prepared to queue for a ridiculously long period of time for stuff without much review and / or strong endorsement from friends.

Yakiniku Go has been trending since early this year with their first outlet at Seletar Mall; in less than a year time, there are now six outlets! The line to get in was said to be long but it appeared alright when I chanced upon its JEM branch!

We were ushered in almost immediately! Maybe some background on Yakiniku Go; it offers "simple and affordable Japanese grills" with a "smoke-free and fuss-free dining experience"! Two key words; affordable and smoke-free.

Each table has its own electric grill; tongs would also be provided for ease of barbequing. Now, I am not keen to grill the meat myself as I have the innate tendency to overcook and in the case of raw meat, it often means chao ta (burnt).

I didn't check out the menu and recommendations beforehand and didn't know what to order. Hence, I would defer to the signature set; the Yakiniku Go set with full steak and jyo karubi & ribeye slice set.

Yakiniku Go Set - it has beef short plate, beef tongue (I presume 100 grams would be for these two meat), full beef ribeye steak, rice, soup and a choice between normal kimchi or radish kimchi.

Jyo Karubi & Ribeye Slice Set - beef boneless short rib, beef ribeye slice, rice, soup and again, a choice between normal kimchi or radish kimchi. Since we ordered two sets; might as well try the different kimchi.

The normal kimchi was pretty good; albeit a bit on the sweet side and overly garlicky. Both attributes actually appealed to my palate though and were perfect for plain, white rice!

Radish kimchi was, however, preferred even when I am in other Korean restaurants. Speaking of which, why is kimchi, being a Korean essential, served in a Japanese restaurant. Nonetheless, in case you are wondering if refill is possible, I did ask and the answer is a straightforward "no".

Let the grilling begin! It's true that there wasn't much smoke and surprise, surprise, I think we did a neat job in cooking the meat. None was excessively charred and since beef can be eaten raw; some pinkiness wouldn't harm.

Amongst all the meat, the beef short plate was rated the best! For the rest, we actually didn't have any complaint as the meat was juicy and mostly tender, with the exception of the chewy beef tongue that didn't have much fats in the first place.

Dips for the barbecued meat! Above was a citrus-garlic based with a yuzu aroma; not our cup of tea as it was too salty for our meat.

Our favourite had to be the house special yakiniku sauce which was sweeter and reminded us of the gyudon we used to swoon over at Megumi Japanese restaurant.

It was so delicious! As a meat eater, the quantity of meat at Yakiniku Go was hardly enough to fill up my tummy and I can totally see myself ordering more of their ala-carte meat in future visits!

In the meantime, I would just indulge myself with the bowl of plain rice; a typical stomach filler. I am not too sure what rice was used but I can't stop digging into it, with the meat dipped in sukiyaki sauce!