The word neta is borrowed from the language of the craft. In sushi, it names the ingredient placed atop the rice — but the word itself is older than that, and quieter.
It begins with tane 種, the Japanese word for ingredient. Reversed, in the tradition of togo 倒語 — a coded language used by craftsmen and merchants in the Edo period — it became neta. Words were intentionally restructured as a way of speaking within the trade, a private shorthand that held meaning for those who knew how to listen.
Most of those words have since been lost. Neta is one of the few that endured, carrying its inversion forward from colloquial shorthand into the language of the craft itself.
We named this place after an ingredient — because that is where we begin.
At Neta, we are interested in what things are made of, and where they come from. The fish in the counter, the rice behind it, the hands that caught, grew, and moved them here. As much as possible, we strive to serve up a connection to a place, a practice, or a person.
By day, we are a grocer with some ready to eat takeaway bowls — a neighbourhood kitchen and a place to shop for ingredients worth cooking with. By night, we slow down into a small bites bar, where the same attention to sourcing finds its way onto a plate and into a glass.
Located in the heart of the Telok Kurau neighbourhood, in the east of Singapore, we look forward to serving you soon!