Fine wagyu goes casual at Gyu San

WAGYU lovers looking to geek out on their favourite protein have plenty to chew on at the new Gyu San, which serves up fat ribeye sandos and a Japanese dictionary’s worth of meat cuts that prove there’s literally more than 55 ways to slice a cow. The unassuming butchery-eatery in Guoco Tower has a double mission as a casual diner serving Japanese sandwiches, and a full-on butchery focused not just on premium A5 sirloin but an extensive range of cuts to widen one’s beef repertoire beyond  zabuton and misuji. Think kainomi (flap meat), tomo bara (short plate), katarosu (chuck roll), tomo sankaku (tri-tip), seseri (neck) and dozens more - all sliced to your needs and ready to cook at home. 

Helmed by chef Tomoyuki Kiga and French-trained female butcher Linh Lam, Gyu San - literally “Mr Beef” or “beef sandwich”, whichever you prefer - sets out to democratise premium wagyu, serving the same fine dining quality meat in a casual cafe setting, while retailing a comprehensive range of cuts not usually seen outside a restaurant setting.  “That’s because we buy the entire carcass so we can show off the true ‘hero’ cuts which are the secondary parts,” says Kiga of the over 50 varieties on offer.

Gyu San also buys direct from the farms, and not middlemen suppliers. Currently, it offers 3 brands - Kamichiku Satsuma Gyu from Kagoshima; Kanzaki from Iwate; and the prized A5-only Hida Gyu. Kamichiku cattle are raised by just 12 award-winning farmers in Kagoshima and only the carcasses from the top 4 per cent are sent to Singapore. Kanzaki cows, in turn, are sustainably farmed, antibiotic-free and fed an organic diet, so the fat has a low melting point, with a good umami in the meat. And of course Hida gyu comes with its pedigree of a long history and quality as one of the top wagyu brands in Japan. 

Customers just need to point out which brand and what cut they want - from brisket to shank, rib fingers and chuck flap - not to mention ribeye, sirloin and the like - at the butcher section led by Lam. You can also pick up yakiniku and sukiyaki sets with housemade sauces to go. Prices range from around S$20 per 100 g for Kamichiku rump to S$43.90 per 100 g for the highest level Hida ribeye with a BMS level of 12. Just don’t think that buying rump means it has to go into a stew. Because of the marbling, secondary cuts are perfect for grilling, and the beauty of each different cut is its different bite, texture and flavour which holds more complexity than the straightforward butteriness of a sirloin.

Meanwhile, the cafe serves a steady flow of lunch customers picking from a small selection of speciality sandwiches, beer and sake. 

Kiga comes from a fine dining background that includes Akira Back in Singapore and Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo and the US. But he wanted to dial down the formality with Gyu San.

“When we think of A5 wagyu, we often associate it with high-end steakhouses or exquisite Japanese omakase restaurants which can be quite daunting. I wanted to create something that was easier to approach, while still enjoying the same quality so that’s how the sandos came about.”

The wagyu sandos are prepared with Kamichiku ribeye, strip loin or chateaubriand, “using toasted shokupan, a nice tart sauce and a little bit of wasabi to complement the richness of the wagyu”. Other sando fillings include a thick tamago omelette and a juicy, plump prawn paste patty. Don’t miss the home cooked potato crisps fried in beef fat, slowly rendered for hours from fat trimmings.  They’ve also been getting requests for grilled steaks, which may go on the menu soon. 

Gyu San is also just the start of more things to come. Just across the eatery in the same F&B enclave in Guoco Tower is the soon-to-open Wagatomo, which will be helmed by Kiga. It will be a full-service restaurant, serving “modern Japanese food with Asian flair” to reflect the many different cultures he’s been exposed to.  

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“I still want to honour my roots but never felt the need to restrict myself to only one thing,” he adds. “The menu will serve large and small bites that are good for sharing.”

Gyu San is at #01-03, Guoco Tower, 7 Wallich Street. Tel: 8313-6633.