Moga’s modern take on the izakaya
The speakeasy’s new cocktail menu captures the rebellious spirit of its namesake Japanese ‘modern girl’
NESTLED within the railway-themed Pullman Singapore Hill Street, past the hotel’s American diner Madison’s, is a nondescript black sliding door. Behind it lies izakaya Moga, short for the Japanese phrase “modan gaaru” or “modern girl”.
The term originated in the 1920s, when Japanese “modern girls” ditched kimonos and conservative ideals for Western fashion and lifestyles.
Moga’s interior is similarly modern, but with Japanese elements.
The main 48-pax dining area is sleek and stylish, with wooden tables flanked by plush leather couches and chairs. There are also seats at the kitchen counter or bar, under shelves bearing Japanese artefacts, from ceramic sake vessels to wooden kokeshi dolls.
Behind a traditional Japanese noren curtain is a cosier, dimly lit 32-seater space, which opens only when the main area is full – or for private events.
There, artworks sprawl over the walls, from a mural of a “modern girl” sporting a chic bob, cocktail in hand, to layered fabric depicting a Japanese garden. A small screen plays a looped animation of the high-speed Shinkansen zipping through Tokyo’s nightscape – a nod to the luxury rail roots of American industrialist George Pullman, after whom the hotel chain is named.
A month after its first anniversary last November, the bar launched a revamped cocktail menu of 16 drinks. Headlined “Breaking the Norm”, the menu pays homage to the rebellious spirit of its namesake modern Japanese girl with creative spins on familiar cocktails.
It aims to offer an “elevated” and “modern” izakaya experience, says bar manager Gavin Teverasan, who joined Moga in mid-2024. His career includes stints at 28 HongKong Street, Neon Pigeon, Barbary Coast and Nutmeg & Clove.
Moga’s menu has two halves: the “Izakaya” section of eight highball-style cocktails, and the “Modern” section with contemporary takes on seven classics – and one dessert.
Unlike a traditional highball, which contains only whiskey and soda water, each Izakaya cocktail contains at least four ingredients.
“The idea of the Izakaya cocktail is about taking something very simple, and adding many different components to make it more complex,” he says.
For instance, the Salted Yuzu Highball – one of Moga’s bestsellers – has seven ingredients: scotch whisky infused with genmaicha, yuzu saline, fizz, acid blend, buckwheat tea syrup, shio koji and angostura bitters.
Conceptualising the menu took six months for Teverasan, who has never been to Japan. For research, he spoke to Japanese bartenders and made weekly grocery runs to Don Don Donki to pick out ingredients for experimentation.
Each of the 16 cocktails takes inspiration from a different Japanese ingredient, from Aomori apples and sakura to black sesame mochi and togarashi chilli flakes.
Japanese sake also makes an appearance in the bar’s signature cocktail, the Dirty Sake-tini.
A twist on the classic dirty martini, it uses the quintessential Japanese rice wine as the base, instead of gin. The cocktail uses house-made Japanese cucumber pickling brine in place of of olive brine.
The only outlier on the menu is The Frozen Drink, which riffs off the Japanese dessert anmitsu – featuring jelly, red bean paste and fruit – rather than a classic cocktail.
The sweet treat has been reimagined as an ice-blended cocktail, pairing Kujira whisky with taro, milk, stewed Azuki beans and matcha powder, topped with a Pocky stick.
For the less adventurous, Moga also offers an extensive list of sake and spirits, including Japanese whiskies and gin. Have these with the bar’s hearty izakaya fare, which includes bar bites, sashimi platters and sharing plates.
Its food menu has been refreshed to include six new Japanese-fusion dishes such as spicy XL clams infused with chilli bean paste and yuzu kosho, as well as crispy squid made with sansho fish sauce, kizami yuzu and green chilli.
Dirty Sake-tini
- 40 ml sake
- 10 ml iichiko Saiten shochu
- 15 ml Mancino Secco
- 25 ml Japanese cucumber pickling brine
- Garnish: pickled Japanese cucumber
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