Charlie Tamoto

Japanese cuisine is often seen as healthy – but that doesn’t mean it can’t get even healthier. New Elgin Street restaurant, Naked Gurume Gyarari – which literally means Naked ‘gourmet gallery’ – has been touting itself as a particularly salutary establishment thanks to chef Justin Chan. The organically conscious Locofama executive chef has taken his green concepts and brought them over to Naked to create what he sees as a healthy Japanese tapas dining experience. The restaurant is divided into a gallery, which sports a few modern pop paintings and a long table for private dining, and a main area which goes for a contemporary chic Japanese aesthetic, with lacquered walls and dark wood furniture creating a comfortable, laidback atmosphere. We order the fried lotus roots ($58) and tuna tartar ($148) to start. But we’re immediately disappointed. The roots are overly sweet – too much sugar sprinkled on them – and the accompanying garlic yuzu cream is too rich for the dish. The tuna tartar over a wonton crisp is thankfully a better starter, playing on the tried-and-tested flavour combination of coriander, truffle and ginger. It’s simple and solid – but hardly inspiring. For mains we go for the recommended Sexy Naked ($238), which sees bigeye tuna pieces being served over crispy rice. It’s topped with sweet potato crisps, unagi sauce and spicy mayonnaise, and also boasts some squid ink foam. But it’s all so excessive. The Naked concept is about going ‘stripped down’ to bring out t