Standing Bar Near Me in Shenton Way: Nikomi 253's Stand and Dining Izakaya

At Nikomi 253 you can order beef liver sashimi for S$18 and eat it standing at the bar counter, the way office workers do after a shift in Tokyo. The izakaya sits at 76 Shenton Way, #01-04/05, Singapore 079119, about 40 metres from Exit 1 of Prince Edward Road MRT, and its sign spells out the idea in plain words: nikomi stand and dining. If you searched standing bar near me from a desk in the Tanjong Pagar towers, this is the closest proper version.

The venue describes itself on Instagram as a stand and dining izakaya, and that hybrid is exactly how it works. The Peak, writing about it in April 2026 as a new kid on the block in Shenton Way, noted that you can tuck in to beef liver sashimi while standing at the bar counter, and that seats are of course available too. Counter places, a small terrace and regular tables sit side by side, so standing is a choice rather than a rule.

The kitchen is led by Naoki Kaiyama, a chef born in Yokohama in Kanagawa who goes by the nicknames Kai-chan and Kaisan with regulars. The menu leans on nikomi, the Japanese word for slow-simmered dishes, which the restaurant calls its signature. Its earliest posts and printed menus date from February 2026, which makes it one of the younger Japanese counters in the business district and one still building its after-work crowd.

Look for a three-colour sign on the ground floor of 76 Shenton: a green panel reading Deep Tanjong Pagar, a centre panel with 253 nikomi, and a red panel with the stand and dining slogan. Inside, a glass-topped counter displays jars of pickles and condiments next to small gold figurines, and the back wall is pale wood panelling covered with hand-chalked blackboards. One board lists the dishes of the day, another the rotating drink deals.

The blackboards matter more than the printed menu. The tapas page itself tells guests to check the black board, and the board is where the day's small plates and drink specials appear. Tableware is a mix of blue glazed and patterned Japanese plates, and tables that order monja get a tabletop Iwatani gas grill. If you are standing, take a place near the counter where you can read the boards and still catch the staff's eye.

Start with the dish that made the standing format famous here. The beef liver sashimi is S$18 on both the printed menu and the restaurant's own February 2026 Instagram post, and it is the plate The Peak singled out. Add the wagyu yukhoe at S$23.90 if you want a second raw dish, or three pieces of chicken karaage at S$8.90 for something you can eat with one hand and a glass in the other.

For quick bites between rounds, the tapas list runs in three price tiers of S$4.90, S$8.90 and S$13.90, and teppanyaki skewers start at S$2.90. Ume suisho, a cool plum-dressed small plate, is S$8.90 and works well with a highball. This is the part of the menu built for the counter: small, cheap, fast and easy to share with the person standing next to you after work.

An honest call: do not order a full hot pot if you plan to stay on your feet. The meat hot pot with shellfish broth at S$39 and the chicken spicy miso motsunabe at S$29 are table dishes, simmered slowly and meant for two or more people sitting down. Save them for a night when you book seats, and stick to sashimi, skewers and karaage when the counter is the plan.

Monja, the loose, griddled Tokyo cousin of okonomiyaki, is cooked at your table on the Iwatani grill. The mentaiko mochi cheese premium monja is S$25 for a medium and S$35 for a large, while the seafood, Mexican taco-style and tantan mochi versions come in large only at S$35. It is the one dish here that properly needs a seat, a group and some patience while the batter crisps on the plate.

Nikomi 253 also opens at lunch on weekdays. Onigiri are S$3.90 each, an onigiri set is S$12, and a ginger shoyu ramen is S$12.80. In October 2026 the restaurant posted a lunch special set at S$16++ with half an Atka mackerel, two pieces of fried chicken, mentaiko and half a seasoned egg. That set is the cheapest way to see the room before deciding whether to come back for evening drinks.

Drinks rotate by spirit on the blackboard, and the published drink prices are not on the menu, so read the board when you arrive. Corkage is spelled out: S$50 for a 720 ml bottle, with a one-for-one free offer, and S$100 for hard liquor and 1.8 litre bottles. Payment is by PayNow or cash, with cash accepted for bills under S$200, so do not arrive expecting to tap a credit card.

The restaurant pitches itself for everything from a casual after-work drink with colleagues to a relaxed dinner date, and a Google-based guide describes it as quieter and more intimate than a typical izakaya, good for small groups or low-key dates. That makes early evening the sweet spot: arrive around 5 pm when the dinner service starts and the counter has room, before the towers empty and groups settle in.

Plan B is easy in this part of town. If the counter is full, Amoy Street Food Centre is roughly 670 metres away, a two-storey hawker centre where you can eat cheaply and come back later. Maxwell Food Centre at the corner of Maxwell Road and South Bridge Road is under a kilometre away, and Lau Pa Sat, first built as a fish market in 1824, is also within walking distance.

Before dinner, walk 190 metres to Keramat Habib Noh, the mausoleum built in 1890 over the tomb of a revered Muslim teacher, which sits on a small rise above the traffic. Continue past International Plaza at 10 Anson Road to Guoco Tower, the 290-metre skyscraper that is currently the tallest building in Singapore, and finish at the Singapore Conference Hall, the first post-colonial building gazetted as a national monument and home of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

Address: 76 Shenton Way, #01-04/05, Singapore 079119. Nearest MRT: Prince Edward Road on the Circle Line, which opened on 12 July 2026, with Exit 1 about 40 metres away in a straight line; Tanjong Pagar Exit C is about 320 metres away. Groups larger than eight should call that number to book. Both published hours listings show the restaurant closed on Sunday.

The two published schedules differ. The restaurant's JointRestaurant listing shows weekday lunch from 12 pm to 2 pm and dinner from 5 pm to 10 pm, with Saturday from 4 pm to 10 pm. The Google listing, updated in October 2026, shows dinner until 11 pm from Monday to Saturday. Standing at the counter needs no booking, payment is PayNow or cash under S$200, and the blackboards carry the day's drinks.