Gochiya: New West Mall Japanese restaurant with individual teppanyaki cooked at your table

We’ve all seen the many individual self-service yakiniku restaurants in Singapore, but we’ve got something new with the recent opening of Gochiya at West Mall: Individual teppanyaki at your own table!

Usually, people think of the teppanyaki experience as sitting around a counter, where a chef skillfully cooks and shovels food around the grill.

At Gochiya, however, the food is partly cooked to 80%, then brought to guests and served on the cooktops installed at every table — sort of like a hotplate.

When it comes to meat, every diner has their own personal preference for doneness. Some like beef pinker, some want it more thoroughly cooked.

Here, customers have the freedom to choose how they want their food done and maybe even practise some of their own teppanyaki chops.

If you’re curious, Gochiya is found in the new B1 food hall of West Mall and it’s opened by the same folks behind other established casual dining brands such as Gochi-So Shokudo.

Your favourite doneness

One of the highlights of Gochiya is actually the hamburg steak, which is made with a special blend of 60% premium pork and 40% Rubia Gallega beef — one of the best beef you can find in Spain.

The accompanying side dishes for each set aren’t an afterthought, either — other than the teppanyaki main, diners also get a silky ikura chawan mushi and fluffy freshly cooked Japanese rice!

For the best value, the team recommends the signature hamburg combo (S$22.90) that features a trio of meat: Hamburg, Iberico pork jowl and Iberico secreto.

It also comes with a topping of mozzarella cheese so you can get those tantalising cheese pulls down for the gram.

Meat wise, Gochiya’s hamburg is juicy, with the blend of pork sweetness and beef richness giving it a great deal of flavour. Meanwhile, the fatty but succulent jowl was also quite indulgent.

Of course, it all depends on making sure you don’t overcook it.

For those who can’t take beef or pork, or want a lighter alternative, there’s also the salmon and chicken (S$18.80), a duo of chicken leg steak and salmon steak.

Pretty decent, but pales a bit in flavour and depth as compared to the richer beef and pork options — this one relies a bit more on the sauce you choose. 

The mushroom cream sauce is a bit more fragrant, while the black pepper sports a more pronounced sweet and peppery sharpness.

Other than your usual teppanyaki, Gochiya also offers tonkatsu sets that also come with shredded cabbage, miso soup, sesame seeds and tonkatsu on top of the standard accompaniments.

It works similar to the famous Japanese gyukatsu shops: You drop the katsu onto the hot plate and let it cook to your preferred doneness!

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We recommend leaving the thick Duroc pork katsu (S$17.90) with a whisper of pink, to get the best texture of the thick, bouncy and slightly fatty pork cut. 

While teppanyaki is Gochiya’s main speciality, we gotta say the tonkatsu’s crust is also quite delightfully light and crunchy, too, and complements the pork very well. 

If you’re living in the West, love Japanese food, and are hoping to try something new, this might be worth a visit to Bukit Batok!

This was an invited tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on our megalist on Amoy Food Centre for the CBD folks and the best chilli crabs you can get in Singapore.

Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.

You can also book a ride to Gochiya at West Mall.