Kazu Sumiyaki at Cuppage Plaza (Charcoal grill)

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charcoal grill, cuppage plaza, foie gras, grill, japanese, kazu, lamb chop, pork balls, restaurant review, restaurants, singapore, skewers, sumiyaki, yakitori

This is one of my favourite charcoal grill restaurants. Mainly because of its foie gras skewers and its pork and apple skewers. I’d make the trip there just for those! The restaurant is located in Cuppage plaza, home to many a dodgy karaoke bars with girls bursting in their in skimpy clothing hanging about the entrances. Despite that there are a couple of good restaurants here, I’ve yet to try them out but I will do that one day. 

A couple of peeks at the menu. I highly recommend the Tontoro Ringo fatty pork apple skewer! The pork belly was pretty normal to me.

I also highly recommend the foie gras! I’d order 4 skewers just for myself ;p

They will serve you this for free the first round… however you will find that this sweet cabbage with a little lemon and dunked in that delicious miso based sauce, would have been quickly gobbled up. And then you’d have no choice but to order another portion. It is that addictive. I’m seriously considering replacing an entire meal with this cabbage and miso sauce alone.

If I’m not mistaken, these are the foie gras skewers. Beautifully grilled, dripping with delicious fat and seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper, these babies are well seared and hot. Good crust to the outside that gives way to the creamy rich goodness on the inside. It is almost falling off the skewer so be careful when you pick them up.

SGD 6.50 a skewer? I’m so sold on this!

Grilled chicken wing, not bad. Nothing much to say on this one as it was average to me. 

From left to right, pork belly, beef balls (i think), pork balls, and finally the amazing fatty pork and apple skewers. The pork belly skewer was good albeit slightly chewy, same with the balls, had a little too much resistance that day. The fatty pork and apples were perfection. The apples’ sweetness intensified after being grilled and lend so much depth and flavour to the fatty. When eaten together, they form a perfect harmony in the mouth, that of the natural sweetness of the apple and the briny oily fatty pork. 

This is a tamago dish. I was expecting the usual sweet tamago that you find in all Japanese restaurants, but somehow we got this. I’m not sure if we ordered wrongly, but it wasn’t great. I did not like the slimy sauce that was poured over the egg, it was just a major distraction for me.

More of that cabbage! And fresh uni sashimi. Expensive but so fresh and good!

Asparagus wrapped with bacon. It wasn’t bad, but I just never understood the combination. I always found the asparagus taste too strong for the bacon, or the bacon too salty. Why does the bacon in SIngapore and Malaysia taste so salty T_____T The ones in UK taste so good~

More pork belly and fatty pork with apple. So tantalizingly juicy.

Mentaiko chicken skewer. I did not taste mentaiko and the chicken was tough. Not a good choice. The chicken liver at the side was better, if you’re a chicken liver lover you’d probably like this. 

The lamb was good as well, grilled to perfection, juicy yet not bloody, with the right amount of fat and seasoning to ensure a good balance of texture and flavour in each bite.

I’m not a lover of squid, I always find it tough and rubbery and not good to eat. Grilled squid just doesn’t do it for me. I prefer calamari!

Some radish dish with meat. Clean tasting and simple, as if it is a kind of home cooked dish? Comes in a base made of dashi.

Another dashi based dish, this time its beancurd skin topped with slightly charred uni. Skip this dish and just order uni sashimi 😉From left to right: I think this is chicken/pork, Chicken skin, chicken liver

All of these were good, the chicken skin nice and crispy. Perhaps a little more char on the chicken liver would have made it a lot better.

One thing I have to say about the service, it’s pretty bad. Also, I would recommend making reservations, especially during weekends, its always packed full! There’s usually a queue as well. If you can, try to avoid weekends, the service is really bad during weekends. Servers forget your orders, they don’t respond to your calls for them, food is slow, even the bill is slow. And their tempers are not at their best. They would also try to make you leave by a certain time if they are trying to seat other customers. I’d sit there longer just to annoy them (the inner demon in me is unleashed).

Go during the weekdays and you’ll enjoy the food a lot better 😉

*edit: New post on Kazu Sumiyaki (Aug 2018)

Kazu Sumiyaki restaurant,

#04-05 Cuppage plaza

5 Koek Rd  Singapore 228796

+65 6734 2492

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