Les Amis group consolidates; brings all Japanese restaurants under one roof
MOVE aside Orchard Plaza. Shaw Centre is shaping up to be a new mini Japan Town, as the Les Amis Group consolidates its operations to bring all eight of its Japanese concepts under one roof.
The Scotts Road mall has long been the stronghold of the F&B operator, which now has restaurants located over three floors, including its flagship three-Michelin-starred Les Amis.
The group has undergone a merry-go-round of sorts as it adjusts to market conditions, closing underperforming outlets and replacing them with new ones. In the process, it shifted several restaurants from other locations to Shaw Centre, while re-shuffling the positions of existing restaurants at the same time.
The most prominent move was the relocation of the high-end kaiseki restaurant Zeniya from Shangri-La Singapore to the ground floor of Shaw Centre. Zeniya – the Singapore outpost of the two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Kanazawa – takes over the space that first housed Jinhonten back in 2022. The upscale kappo eatery closed in 2024 and was replaced by Sushi Jin, a mid-priced sushi bar that was previously at Farrer Park Hospital. Sushi Jin has since moved to the third floor.
Chef-owner Shin Takagi (left) of the two-Michelin-starred Zeniya in Kanazawa. PHOTO: LES AMIS GROUP
Zeniya reopened on May 17, and the decision was a tactical move to be closer to town with better accessibility than the hotel, says Shin Takagi, the chef-owner of the original Kanazawa eatery, who was in town to serve guests for the first week.
Being in a hotel made it dependent on its guests who did not necessarily want to eat Japanese food, explains Takagi. 'Besides Japanese, they have other restaurants to choose from, like Western and Chinese, so they'll choose one of the three.'
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Its location also made it a destination spot, with fewer opportunities to attract new clientele. Shaw Centre, on the other hand, 'brings us much closer to the local market', he adds.
Zeniya serves a seafood-based kaiseki menu. PHOTO: LES AMIS GROUP
Takagi plans to come to Singapore more regularly to cook, while his brother continues to run the family business in Kanazawa. Zeniya sits within a larger restaurant space taken up by Tenjin, the group's casual tempura restaurant. While currently serving tempura donburi, the plan is for Takagi to oversee the concept, tweaking the recipes and menu. It will subsequently be renamed Tenjin by Shin Takagi.
Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa serves freshly grilled live eels. PHOTO: LES AMIS GROUP
The group also recently tied up with Unagi Yondaime Kikuwa to open its first Singapore outlet, moving its stalwart Mui Kee Congee to Shaw Centre's third floor so as to release the street-facing space for the popular Nagoya-based brand, which specialises in freshly grilled live eels. Its price-friendly unagi donburi sets are targeted at the mainstream market, and such 'strategic collaborations allow us to leverage the expertise of established players and scale sustainably', says the group's spokesperson.
In all, there are eight concepts under Les Amis Group's newly revamped Japanese Collective branding that cover all price points. Zeniya and Sushi Ryujiro form the top tier, followed by mid-high to casual eateries such as Wagyu Jin, Shabu Jin, Jinjo, Sushi Jin, Unagi Yondaime Kikuwa and Tenjin. One concept, Torijin, closed in March.
The menus have also been tweaked to prevent overlaps between concepts. For example, unagi don is no longer offered at Jinjo. Given Zeniya's fish-based cuisine, Wagyu Jin – which had previously expanded its seafood options – has pivoted back to serving beef-centric omakase.
Centralising the Japanese restaurants allows for economies of scale in terms of access to ingredients, manpower management and cross-training across outlets, adds the spokesperson. 'This ecosystem gives us the operational strength to ride out market shifts.'
The Les Amis Group has 31 outlets and 18 dining concepts in total, including Peperoni Pizza, La Taperia, Bistro du Vin, Nam Nam and Mui Kee. There are no plans for any closures besides Torijin, whose space was absorbed by Sushi Jin. Two more Peperoni outlets will open in June and July, bringing the total number of outlets to 33. The strategy is to be 'cautiously optimistic, with a view to growing our portfolio when the opportunities arise', says the spokesperson.
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