Friends With Benefits

Any restaurant worth its salt will provide good service, but dine enough at any restaurant, make friends with the chef, and it becomes a second home.

- Koh Yuen Lin And Weets Goh

HIS “CANTEEN”

(LEFT) PATRICK TAN, CHEF-OWNER, TAMASHII (RIGHT) MATTHEW ONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CEO, SLB DEVELOPMENT

Fifteen years is a long time to be friends with someone, and especially one who has also been a loyal customer all that while.

With Patrick Tan and Matthew Ong, it’s been such a considerable length of time that the mere mention prompts a brief to and fro – as these things do between old friends – on the actual number of years.

The two met at Tan’s first restaurant, Yoyogi, which Ong patronised at the recommendation of his friends. Impressed with the food and hospitality, he followed Tan when he left Yoyogi to open Tamashii seven years ago. The 38-year-old property developer drops by so frequently that his PA has begun to call the restaurant his “canteen”.

“Coming here is like going to a friend’s place for dinner,” says Ong. “I’m at ease here.” His go-to is the omakase, which Tan prepares with whatever is freshest. If Ong opts for sukiyaki, Tan, knowing his friend’s preference, would do his portion with pork instead of the usual beef; and enliven the dish with a splash of whisky flambed to take offits alcoholic edge. Indeed, there are fringe benefits to being close to the chef. Once, as a “one off”, Tan prepared hairy crabs Ong had brought to the restaurant. “The crabs were in season and it is hard to prepare that many at home if you don’t have a commercial steamer. So I did it as a favour and served them as part of the omakase, but done Chinese-style with vinegar and shredded ginger.”