Meet the adorable Japanese couple behind Al Solito, a lovely nine-year-old izakaya gem at Orchard Plaza
“Come try our food! Our food is Japanese-Italian and very nice, and we have been open for nine years already!”
This friendly voice catches our attention during our search for a spot to chill at in Orchard Plaza, not long after we get off the escalator at level three.
Our heads swivel to the right, where we’re greeted by an enthusiastic middle-aged lady with the widest grin.
She’s clad entirely in black, and sports a shoulder-length, reddish-brown bob — you know, the tint that Asian mums and aunts have developed an affinity with.
It’s immediately discernible from her accent that she’s Japanese, and she beckoned us to take up the last remaining table in an almost-full izakaya.
This is Al Solito — a spot we hadn’t heard of, before this chance discovery.
Given the meteoric rise in the popularity of Orchard Plaza and her many izakayas, we wondered why a stalwart such as Al Solito hasn’t been talked about more.
Still, it’s plain to see that it’s a beloved third place for many.
It seems most of the seats were taken up by regulars — many of whom were Japanese — and there was constant back and forth between them and the friendly Japanese proprietor.
That meant that we absolutely had to give it a try, don’t you think?
Hiromi-san wa kawaii desu (is so cute)
Inside, Al Solito reminded us of Japan’s authentic izakayas. Not too much flourish, just plain wooden tables and simple walls, and a small, intimate — almost cramped — setting.
Many of the walls are also adorned with notes left by the many customers who had enjoyed themselves in the past — such a nice little personal touch!
Our host introduced herself as Al Solito’s owner, 58 year-old Hiromi Oi.
More accurately, Hiromi-san is part-owner, and she runs Al Solito with her husband, 63 year-old Koichiro Oi, who is both owner and chef at the Orchard Plaza izakaya.
As Hiromi-san weaved around the space with pep and finesse, charming one table after another, Koichiro-san stood firmly rooted behind the counter, stern and lasered-in.
It’s quite fascinating to ponder how the couple — one a vivacious social butterfly, the other a reserved introvert — came to be.
Also, how does this dynamic help them navigate the hectic life of service that underscores daily life at Al Solito?
Golden-retriever wife, black-cat husband
There’s a term that’s often thrown around by millennials and Gen-Zs: “Golden-retriever boyfriend, black-cat girlfriend.”
A golden retriever would bring that sanguine, sunshine energy, while the black cat is more outwardly aloof, but is intensely affectionate, deep down.
It characterises relationships that just work, in spite of — or maybe because of — the couple’s distinctly opposing temperaments.
It’s a fitting label for the Al Solito couple, with that distinction markedly clear as we sat them down for a chat.
The black cat, Koichi-san, sits to the side with the slightest shadow of a sheepish grin on his lips, while the golden retriever, Hiromi-san, breaks out into cute poses and speaks with enthusiasm.
Koichi-san acknowledges their differences: “I like her character the most. We are very different, but I like it that way. She can express her feelings easily, and she often says the things I cannot say because I’m shy.”
“She brings warmth and energy, and that balance feels right to me.”
On the other hand, Hiromi-san appreciates his calmness: “He fully supports anything I want to do, and that makes me feel safe and free. He’s calm, steady, and always there, even without many words.”
“I express my feelings openly, and he shows it through his actions. We always end up on the same page,” she adds.
How did these two fall in love?
Well, the Al Solito love story is remarkably heart-warming — the kind your parents or grandparents would recount and make you melt into a chorus of “awwws”.
Hiromi-san cheekily asks Koichi-san: “You catch me or I catch you?”
“You catch me,” the grey-haired chef replies, with a sort of subtle, mischievous energy.
Everything began 26 years ago, when Koichi-san first came to Singapore for his first-ever overseas job in 2000.
At the time, he was working as a sushi chef at his family’s sushi restaurant, in his hometown of Hiroshima.
“I was always interested in working overseas, and a Singapore restaurant had an advertisement for a vacancy,” he said in Japanese.
That search brought him here, where he started as a chef at Yamagen, a Japanese restaurant at Orchard’s Paragon.
As fate would have it, this move spun the red thread which brought the duo together.
“He never call me!”
Of the two, Hiromi-san was the first to come to Singapore, arriving in 1997.
She had also worked at Yamagen — though she had already left prior to Koichi-san’s arrival.
The restaurant ended up playing host to their hilarious meet-cute, with one of its Singaporean staff inadvertently playing matchmaker!
With a tinge of incredulity in her voice, the lady boss says: “She called me saying they had a chef from Japan. He didn’t speak much and didn’t speak English, and they were worried he would leave soon.”
Their mutual friend felt he needed a talkative Japanese-speaking friend, and tried to enlist her help. (Hiromi-san is an Osaka native, and they are known for their conviviality and warmth.)
She quipped: “Talkative Japanese friend? Not a pretty Japanese friend?”
The seeds for Al Solito were thus first sown. Hiromi-san recalls their first meeting: “First time we met, he was very shy, you know? He doesn’t look at you — he looks at the coffee cup when he talks.”
Hiromi-san wasn’t at all put off, though, as awkward as it sounds.
Subsequently, Koichi-san popped by the restaurant she was working at a few times to see her — rarely saying much, however.
After they’d visited each other’s workplaces a few times, Hiromi-san broke the stalemate: “I gave him my phone number, and told him if he had a fever or anything — going to the hospital even — he could call me.”
Alas, that phone call never did materialise, even a month later, and she thought the shy chef might have returned to Japan.
That misunderstanding eventually cleared up when they ran into each other again at one of their restaurants.
“He showed me he still had the note, but he didn’t call because he didn’t get a fever,” Hiromi-san recalled, with a twinge of bemusement in her voice.
She wondered: How could a man like this exist? To her, he was a very interesting and rare type of person.
She continued to push the offense, regardless. She recalls: “I appreciated him always coming to my restaurant. So I asked him: ‘I’m free today after 3pm. Can I invite you to go for coffee?’”
But Koichi-san said he was full and already eaten, and then went home!
What could have been the first date for the future Al Solito owners was inexplicably rejected.
The Gen-Zs would say he “fumbled the baddie”, but while many women would be rightfully put off by an outrageously shy and taciturn man, the Al Solito lady boss wasn’t just any woman.
“He still continued coming to my restaurant. But he never asked me to be his girlfriend,” she adds.
One way or another, the relationship blossomed, and the pair opened a kaiseki-style restaurant in Cuppage Plaza in 2006, named Ooi Dining.
It was when they needed to sign rental documents that Hiromi-san dropped the bomb: “Sign the marriage documents, while we’re at it. I’m so hardworking — you better keep me.”
And the rest is history — they have been married for 20 years now.
Opening Al Solito
So, when did Al Solito come into the picture? A friend was planning to return to Japan and asked Hiromi-san if they were interested in taking over the space.
You might be familiar with how seedy Orchard Plaza used to be, not too long ago — the prospects of opening an F&B concept there were a little doubtful.
However, that didn’t deter them and eventually, they opened Al Solito as a wine bar in 2017.
While the original plan was purely for a wine bar, guests started requesting food to pair with their wines and sakes.
The initial food offerings were such a hit, guests requested more and more food. Eventually, Al Solito evolved into the casual restaurant it is today.
Fast forward nine years: Orchard Plaza has become a hotbed of Japanese restaurants, housing some of the most talked-about izakayas in Singapore.
“We’re happy that Orchard Plaza has become so popular! Last time, it was all karaoke and cabaret clubs, that‘s why we were surprised that there are so many restaurants now,” the couple remarks.
Customers so touched, they cried
After opening Al Solito, the couple was mostly at Cuppage Plaza, letting their Singapore staff run things at Orchard Plaza.
In 2017, the owners decided to wind things down at Ooi Dining, and took a step back from actively working. It was a retirement of sorts — so they could “jalan jalan Singapore”, as Hiromi-san hilariously puts it — until they returned to Japan in 2019.
Hiromi-san came back in 2020 to oversee things at Al Solito, but her husband decided to stay in Japan for a while longer.
When 2024 rolled around, though, the ever-eager chef decided to come back to Singapore. Since his experience was in kaiseki cuisine, Hiromi-san asked him if he wanted to change the style of their restaurant.
Koichi-san was confident, and Hiromi-san challenged him to cook up a spread of Japanese-Western dishes for her to try.
“Everything was very nice — I was so surprised! I think his basic skills are very good, that‘s why Italian or Western food also ‘can’,” she says.
She quips: “That‘s why I’m fat — he keeps feeding me!”
Things changed a lot when he took over the reins at Al Solito, as a lot of regulars from their Cuppage Plaza days came back just for him.
Hiromi-san remembered an incident when one of them returned, saw the chef-owner and cried!
After Ooi Dining had closed, that customer was desperately searching for another restaurant with the same standard of Japanese food. When they tasted his cooking once again, they were so grateful that he had returned.
This all impacted Koichi-san deeply, as he says in Japanese: “Seeing customers be happy from eating my food is my favourite part of running the restaurant.”
In fact, he takes a lot of pride in his craft, going into the restaurant at 9am to begin prep.
Al Solito simply means a lot for both of them, as Koichi-san says: “Running it together feels natural and meaningful. It gives me purpose, especially when I see my wife and customers happy.”
Funnily enough, even though they have been discussing nurturing younger staff to take over, so they can retire and “enjoy life with their CPF payout” (Hiromi-san’s exact words), Koichi-san says he still wants to continue cooking!
Al Solito is all hearty and homely
What is on the Al Solito menu, exactly?
Well, it’s not your typical izakaya fare, instead incorporating a motley of western influences, with signature dishes such as the uni pasta (S$45).
Al Solito’s signature pasta features a tangle of dainty cold angel-hair pasta as the base, crowned with luxurious accoutrements of uni, ikura, and caviar.
The pasta is perfectly slender, al dente and everything comes together nicely with the most exuberant burst of umami. While the ingredients are heavy hitters in the flavour department, it was quite balanced and refreshing!
For a more traditional taste of Japan, the hamachi kama nitsuke (simmered yellowtail cheek, S$30) is a bestseller that Hiromi-san insists we try.
Although looking rather unassuming, Al Solito’s treatment of the yellowtail cheek is superb, as it breaks apart easily, with every inch soft and tender, and punctuated with delectable gelatinous sections.
On top of that, the sauce was absolutely addictive — the sublime mix of richness and sweetness makes this the perfect partner in crime for white rice.
Beef aficionados also shouldn’t sleep on Al Solito’s homemade baked hamburg (S$26).
This was a thicc and juicy slab of beef that’s as simple as it gets, but also as succulent as it gets.
It’s also got a nice slight crumbliness and a moreish sauce to accentuate the beefy richness, too — definitely one of the best Japanese hamburgs we’ve had in Singapore.
Koichi-san also has something from his hometown on the Al Solito menu: The very unique oil-marinated oysters from Hiroshima (S$20).
Not only does the oil add a mesmerising depth of flavour, the oysters have a strikingly different texture from your usual oysters — pleasantly firm, but still nicely juicy.
If you’re always on the hunt for hidden-gem izakayas (like us), we are quite excited for you to give Al Solito a try.
For Hiromi-san, who has been actively involved with Al Solito for a longer period, she says she feels happiest when she sees customers bringing other friends back to visit.
She explained: “It’s not easy to run this kind of small restaurant for nine years. So I am always very happy, and I appreciate it when they come back!”
For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the best spots to hit up in the new Lentor Modern and the photogenic botanical-themed bar in Joo Chiat!
Tue 6pm to 10pm
Wed 6pm to 10pm
Thu 6pm to 10pm
Fri 6pm to 10pm
Sat 6pm to 10pm
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- Dhoby Ghaut
Evan started off writing about food on Instagram, before joining outlets such as Buro and Confirm Good to pursue his passion. His best work usually comes after his first whisky shot in the morning.
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