BOTAN Japanese Restaurant is a traditional Japanese restaurant specialising in sushi, sashimi and Omakase prepared using premium ingredients.

Located at Far East Square, this cosy Japanese Restaurant & Bar in the Central Business District offers a wide variety of authentic Japanese cuisine, from their signature Omakase, Premium Wagyu A5 Miyazaki Beef, Chirashi Don and a range of premium sashimi, fresh season catch air flown from Hokkaido, alongside with more than 60 types of imported sake and shochu from various regions across Japan. There is a wide selection of beer, wine, whiskey and spirit go along with more than 40 types of bar bites to choose from. Botan also serves up an assortment of rice bowls, noodles and affordable set menu, catering to the CBD crowd.

We went for the omakase dinner menu, which was specially curated for Amex 1for1 offers. Even though it was a 10-course meal and most of the portions look small, the full set would actually make you feel full after you have completed all the courses.

There is also another omakase set, that is available to the general public. The dishes are more or less similar to the Amex menu just now, but they also include a 300ml bottle of sake for an additional $40.

First time trying fugu which is puffer fish. The poison has been removed and what we are eating is the flesh that has been sliced thinly and cooked in teriyaki sauce. It was served warm and more chewy than I had expected.

The Japanese Onsen Tamago with Ikura was a letdown which was also similar to the reviews left by others. It was like a Yakun half-boiled eggs set, but with premium ingredients which is the ikura on top. The egg was not warm but cold, so perhaps we were not used to eating it in this state.

Hyogo Oyster was imported from Osaka, which was very fresh and juicy. The citrusy sauce masked the seafood taste of the oyster and it was flavourful.

Next is the Kanpanchi with truffles. It is a yellowtall sashimi and with the truffles shavings on top, it just added a unique fragrance to the dish.

The next few courses also did not disappoint. We started with the premium 3 kinds of sashimi, and the tuna belly was my favourite. It was smooth and fatty that it just melted in my mouth. There was also freshly grated wasabi by the side.

The Grilled Hamachi was oily like salmon, but quite nice to eat it. There were many bones so eating it was quite troublesome.

The miso soup is standard soup without any premium ingredients. It tasted pretty normal.

Next, we had the Ikura chawanmushi which is not to be missed, because the of the succulent Ikura. The chawanmushi feels like a cooked version of the previous dish – onsen egg cooked with streaks of egg while and bears.

One of the highlights is the A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef which also brought back fond memories of Fat Cow. The beef has a well marbled texture with some fatty parts that melt in your mouth. It was too few pieces and we craved for more. The beef was grilled simply without the use of much seasoning, so you can dip it in salt and eat it with garlic chips.

Next, we had the Kuruma Ebi Tempura which was a huge piece of Japanese tiger prawn. It was succulent and meaty.

Lastly, for desserts, we had a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I was slightly disappointed that there was only one standard flavour as I would have liked to choose other flavours such as green tea or sesame.

Overall, it was a top-notch omakase experience at Botan without breaking the bank. We wished that we could watch the chef prepare the dishes instead of being brought course by course. I think that the ingredients used are premium and the presentation is superb, for example even just for one piece of oyster, it is served on a bowl of ice. Botan has a large seating area, so even if you are here not for the omakase set, you can also order ala carte items.