Hailing from Hokkaido, 108 Matcha Saro (named after the building number in Asahikawa, Hokkaido where its first shop opened in 2013) has made a name for itself as a dessert shop selling matcha-based obanyaki, warabi mochi, soft-serve ice cream and beverages in Japan and Taiwan. But at its first franchised branch brought in by AC Hesed (they reintroduced llaollao to Singapore last June) in Singapore — a spacious takeaway kiosk at the refurbished basement of Suntec City — curious shoppers stand in line mostly for its freshly made obanyaki, a round Japanese pancake-like snack with sweet fillings like red bean paste and custard. It might have been the enticing aroma of the batter cooking in the pan or the perfect discs skilfully crafted by 43-year-old Masato Yamamoto, chief executive officer (CEO) of 108 Matcha Saro, but the store’s obanyaki were already selling like hot cakes when we dropped by less than a week post-launch. Another outlet will open later this month at Changi Airport Terminal 3.

The first 108 Matcha Saro was founded by a group of friends staying in the same building where they opened the first shop in 2013. They subsequently approached Yamamoto-san who used to work in the matcha dessert department of a high-end supermarket chain after relocating to Taiwan in 2005. He introduced the brand to Taiwan in 2014 and it became so popular with the Taiwanese, it’s now more well-known in Taiwan than Japan.

The matcha dessert brand now has three other branches in Taipei and three more in Japan – Sapporo, Yokohama, and Tokyo respectively. After training a team to run the Singapore franchise, Yamamoto-san returned to Taiwan and has no plans to station any staff from Japan or Taiwan here. Thankfully, his apprentices seem to have picked up the tricks of the trade quite quickly — their obanyaki were almost as immaculate as their master’s when we visited.

Inspired by the architecture of traditional Japanese tea houses and their surrounding gardens, three-week-old 108 Matcha Saro attempts to evoke a similar simplicity and tranquillity of the Japanese tea ceremony through the use of dark wood, metal and ceiling foliage. There are no seats, but there is a small bronze-hued standing bar near the soft-serve dispenser. The most interesting sections of the kiosk are the warabi mochi and obanyaki stations, which are strategically placed side by side — like a windowed display — to showcase the preparation and cooking processes of these two yummy Japanese snacks.

It’s mesmerising to watch the obanyaki cooks expertly squeezing the matcha and/or plain batter into the moulds of the almost 2m-long obanyaki pan, placing just the right amount of filling in the still-wet batter, skilfully flipping the obanyaki (without spillage) at the perfect moment, and finally branding each cake with 108 Matcha Saro’s logo. It’s an art form.

No wonder we caught Yamamoto-san looking disapprovingly at the mess Class 95 DJ Yasminne Cheng (in black above) made as she gamely tried her hand at making obanyaki during our hosted tasting.

Uji Matcha is widely regarded as one of the best matcha in the world, and it’s used in 108 Matcha Saro’s food and drinks. The bright green powder here is made from tencha — shade-grown green tea leaves that have been steamed, dried and stone-ground. The lack of direct sunlight stimulates increased chlorophyll production, resulting in the vibrant green hue associated with only the finest matcha. Meanwhile, the red beans used are from Pingtung, Wandan, which accounts for 75 percent of Taiwan’s red bean production. Although smaller in size than Japan’s famous adzuki beans, Pingtung’s red beans are said to have a richer flavour profile.

There are five varieties of obanyaki made on-site daily: Red Bean Paste & Matcha Dough ($2.90); Red Bean Paste & Original Dough ($2.90); Matcha Custard & Original Dough ($2.90); Custard & Original Dough ($2.90); and Red Bean Paste with Warabi Mochi & Matcha Dough ($3.90). The brand has also created a limited edition Double-Choc Obanyaki ($3.50) just to celebrate the opening of the Singapore branch. This creation combines matcha dough with a filling of chocolate-flavoured custard and melted Valrhona Caraibe 66% Dark Chocolate.

Also handmade fresh every day is 108 Matcha Saro’s warabi mochi: cool, melt-in-the-mouth nuggets of jelly-like mochi made from bracken starch and matcha, then generously dusted with mildly bittersweet matcha powder and/or nutty kinako (sweet toasted soybean flour). A cup of eight pieces costs just $4.90, while a quaint wooden box of 24 pieces (matcha, kinako, or half of each flavour) will set you back $12.90. The warabi mochi is cooked in-store every morning, placed in the refrigerator to cool, and then rolled into a sheet. When ready to be served, the jiggly rectangles are sprinkled liberally with matcha or kinako powder and cut into bite-sized pieces. The sprinkling and cutting are done at the warabi mochi station in full view of customers.

Rounding up the menu is a selection of Hokkaido soft-serve cones in matcha and/or hojicha flavours, soft-serve parfaits with freshly made toppings like warabi mochi, white mochi, brown sugar jelly, matcha jelly, and red bean paste, and a wide variety of hot and cold drinks infused with matcha or hojicha.

The best showcase for Uji Matcha’s creamy vegetal notes, the matcha custard in this obanyaki was a good balance of bitter and sweet. When eaten warm, the pastry is crisp on the outside; toasty, chewy and moist on the inside.

Warm, vanilla-tinged custard nestled within a moist, chewy shell, this makes for an extremely satisfying teatime snack.

When infused with matcha, the pastry seems to become stodgier and less moist. A warabi mochi nugget in the filling lends a fun, chewy texture to the cake, and melds well with the sweet red bean paste.

Soft, chewy and cool even when left at room temperature, the warabi mochi here has matcha blended into the bracken starch which gives it more depth. We prefer the kinako-covered ones as the nutty powder better complements the grassy bitterness of the matcha-infused pillows. Not bad.

You get a huge swirl of matcha soft-serve with the full works: warabi mochi, white mochi (sticky glutinous rice flour balls), Okinawan brown sugar jelly, matcha jelly, and red bean paste. The toppings were well-made, but the soft serve was a let-down. The taste of matcha was overpowered by the sweetness and milkiness of the ice cream. We felt jelak after a few mouthfuls.

We had our iced matcha latte with full-cream milk, but we like that they offer a soy milk option for lactose-intolerant customers at no extra charge. Best drunk unsweetened for a burst of grassy matcha flavour. Pretty good.

This beverage comes sweetened but not unpleasantly so. A simple, comforting drink that highlights the matcha.

Yes, it’s a matcha joint. But oddly enough, we found our favourites among their non-matcha options, like the Custard & Original Dough obanyaki. That isn’t to say that the matcha items at 108 Matcha Saro are bad — it’s just that many of their matcha desserts are too light-handed with the aromatic Japanese green tea used and too generous with other ingredients like milk and sugar. However, their obanyaki might be one of the best we’ve had in Singapore, when eaten fresh of course.

108 Matcha Saro is at 3 Temasek Boulevard, #B1-K5 Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983. Open daily 10am to 10pm. Last orders at closing. www.facebook.com/108matchasarosg/

PHOTOS: 108 Matcha Saro, Justina Tan & Mark Lee