Omu Nomu on Beach Road: A Craft Sake Bar Near Me With Doburoku

Omu Nomu changes its sake list every week, and it keeps only about 15 bottles open at a time. The craft sake and raw bar sits at 302 Beach Road #01-08, Concourse Skyline, Singapore 199600, a short walk from Exit A of Nicoll Highway MRT, and it opens Monday to Saturday for lunch from noon and for dinner from 5:30pm until late, closing on Sundays. As a sake bar near me on the Bugis side of town, it is the one that treats sake like natural wine.

Omu Nomu opened in January 2022, according to a JETRO profile of the bar, and it is run by chef-owner Gerard Alexis, known as Alex, who holds three sake qualifications: Certified Sake Sommelier, Sake Scholar and International Kikisake-shi. He told JETRO that a daiginjo from Shinshu Meijo in Nagano changed how he thought about sake, and that if more people were willing to try it, there was a great chance they would fall in love with it too.

The name, Chope's listing explains, is a play on the sound of eating, om nom nom, with a Japanese twist, since nomu means to drink. MiddleClass reported that the bar comes from the same team as Sushi Zushi, which explains the strong raw bar. Time Out noted in late 2022 that it was the first bar in Singapore to champion doburoku, the rough, unfiltered sake that still carries its rice.

The homepage describes a list of about 15 craft sakes that rotates weekly, each one approved by the resident sake sommelier and given the bar's own tasting notes. You can order by the glass, as a micro-flight of small pours, or as a curated sake journey. The styles lean toward the unusual: bodaimoto, an ancient starter method, muroka nama genshu that is unfiltered, unpasteurised and undiluted, spontaneous fermentations and aged sake.

The current collection page shows how far it goes. LIBROM Japanese Earl Grey, haccoba's Coffee Shop, Happytaro Fresh Herb Tea and NON Tono no Doburoku are sakes brewed with botanicals or left cloudy, alongside Konohanano Hanagumori, the doburoku that started the bar's reputation. An archive page lists around 150 bottles that have passed through, including Terada Honke Daigo no Shizuku, a bodaimoto from Chiba made in the old style with a sharply acidic profile.

If you are new to these styles, start with a micro-flight that puts a doburoku beside a clear sake, so you can taste what filtering removes. Then ask the team which of the week's bottles is the strangest and try a glass of that. The bar's whole pitch is discovery, and the staff would rather explain a herbal sake than pour you a familiar Dassai, which you can find in any Japanese restaurant in town.

The bar also takes its highballs seriously, with a list that runs from Suntory Kakubin and Hibiki Harmony to Glenallachie 12 and a marmalade ume highball, useful if someone in your group does not drink sake. During World Sake Week from 1 to 8 October 2026 it ran a 90-minute all-you-can-drink sake party at S$98++ per person, which shows how it handles events: book ahead, because these nights fill up.

The kitchen is the other half of the name. Sushi rice is hand-beaten daily with red vinegar and Akita Komachi rice, seafood is flown in four times a week, and the grill burns Japanese binchotan charcoal. On the dinner menu posted on the website, binchotan skewers start at S$3.80 for heart, gizzard or quail egg, and an Omakase Kushiyaki Set of five sticks is S$26. Renkon chips are S$7 and the nanban-style fried chicken is S$13.

From the raw side, the Tuna Tartare 2.0 with akami, minced fatty tuna and iburigakko is S$28, and the Kaisen Chirashizushi is S$55. The Tamagawa Steak, a 200g wagyu ribeye on binchotan, is S$60. The honest take from MiddleClass's 2025 visit is that the Overloaded Maki carries a steep price and the bluefin cheek sliders, Hoho-Niku Manju at S$26, can get cloying, so put the money into skewers and sashimi instead.

The room is small. SilverKris calls it an intimate 24-seater and recommends the counter over the outdoor seats, and MiddleClass counted about 20 seats inside plus a terrace, with neon lights, bottles on display and the team chatting across the bar. Chope tags it as pet-friendly and al fresco, so the outside tables suit anyone with a dog, but the counter is where the sake talk happens.

Because the list changes every week, the bar is built for repeat visits, and the reviews on Chope read like regulars checking in on what has rotated in. Chope reviewers rate it 4.8 out of 5.

Weeknights early in the dinner service, from 5:30pm, are the easiest time to get a counter seat, and Mondays have historically been skewer nights with cheaper kushiyaki, according to MiddleClass. Friday and Saturday are the nights to book. If Omu Nomu is full, walk about ten minutes up Beach Road to Golden Mile Food Centre at 505 Beach Road, where Ah Xiao Teochew Braised Duck at #B1-43 makes a cheap, filling dinner before you come back for a glass.

City Nomads covered Golden Mile Food Centre when it reopened after renovation, and its guide singles out stalls such as Ah Xiao Teochew Braised Duck in the basement. Heading inland from Omu Nomu instead takes you across to Kampong Glam, Arab Street and the shophouse bars of Haji Lane in a few minutes, an easy second stop after a flight of doburoku.

Address: Omu Nomu Craft Sake and Raw Bar, 302 Beach Road #01-08, Concourse Skyline, Singapore 199600. Email: hello@omunomu.sg. Hours: Monday to Saturday noon to 2:30pm and 5:30pm until late, closed Sunday. Nearest MRT: Nicoll Highway, Exit A. Skewers from S$3.80, with service charge and GST added. Ask the Karpo APP for a late bar near Haji Lane after your last pour.