Ichigo Ichie – new location, safe cooking at this Japanese kappo

NEW RESTAURANT

Ichigo Ichie #01-16/17 Claymore Connect 442 Orchard Road Singapore 238879 Tel: 9018 2897 Open for lunch and dinner Tues to Sat: 12 pm to 2:30 pm; 7 pm to 10:30 pm

GIVEN that practically every Singaporean and their distant relative has been to Japan and back – maybe even as many times as Scoot flies to Tokyo – Japanese restaurants here in town are suffering a severe case of “we’re not so special anymore”.

Gone are the days when they had us at “made in Japan”.  Now, “not as good as Japan” is the more likely refrain you’ll hear between chomps of sushi or donabe. 

But where you can’t beat the seven-hour flight from Toyosu market you can make up for it with your own brand of omotenashi or hospitality. Of which Ichigo Ichie chef Akane Eno had in spades in 2019 when she started out with a weekly popup at Sushi Kimura in addition to her day job as sidekick to head chef Tomoo Kimura. 

At the time, Ichigo Ichie was exactly as the words are translated, “one life, one moment”. She was younger, passionate and energetic, and the food followed. A rare find as a trained sushi chef who couldn’t penetrate the shaven-head male chef club, she made her mark with her own kappo restaurant originally in Robertson Quay before moving to the more accessible Claymore Connect in Orchard Road. 

But five years has seen a sea change in Eno’s cooking style and energy level. She’s more confident and mature, but at the same time, less involved in the food. Once a hands-on chef who could grill and chat with you at the same time, she now relies on a whole team to prep, cook and serve. 

They’re perfectly efficient (sometimes to the point that they always seem to be at your elbows), just that they’re not Eno – who is synonymous with Ichigo Ichie. 

Not that she isn’t still at the centre of things – but she’s focused more on diners who order the special S$428 dinner menu. When we’re there, two Japanese-speaking guests command most of her attention, although she does come over to make us a refreshing rice-free hand roll of fat firefly squid, cucumber sticks and shredded ginger flower as part of the sashimi course. 

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That’s part of the entry level S$350 dinner menu, which is a pretty hefty nine-course that fills you up but ultimately leaves you unsatisfied, like the final episode of Korean drama Queen of Tears.

The menu has a tea focus, so there’s a little show and tell about the different kinds of Japanese, Chinese and even lemongrass teas that are worked into the dishes or after the meal. 

For a start, there’s a tart roselle tea jelly that garnishes a cold combo of grilled penshell, lotus root and burdock, which needs something more than acidity to grab your interest.

We fancy the abalone croquette a lot though – you get chunky bits of shellfish padding up the bechamel filling within the deep fried crust, with an intense liver sauce that deserves to be smeared over this hot snack for full enjoyment. A tempura of taranome – a bitter spring vegetable – is the perfect foil. 

But our brain freaks out at the sight of a wonton in our clear dashi soup, even if it’s filled with Japanese snow crab. Did they let a wantan mee hawker loose in the kitchen, is it too much hassle to do a proper fluffy, pearly-white crab dumpling? This screams shortcut, not clever Asian influence. The grilled asparagus that crowds the lacklustre dashi is good though. 

Sashimi-wise, marinated maguro with a dab of relish made with Indian mustard and chrysanthemum leaves is a nice touch, as is the homemade kombu chilli paste on the otherwise limp seared raw tachiuo or belt fish.

In a case of fixing something that ain’t broke, the somen in cold prawn broth we loved before has been reduced into an overpowering dipping sauce smothering the delicate noodles. We eat it only for the ice creamy bafun uni and thick prawns.

The rest of the menu plods along in a decent if ho-hum manner. Amadei with super crispy scales and piping hot flesh that still lets off steam when you cut into it; thin wagyu slices rolled over bamboo shoot and a donabe of unagi with seaweed-looking Dong Ding oolong leaves to satisfy the menu’s tea quota. 

Dessert is the only slight eye-opener – a mix of genmaicha ice cream, shoyu jelly which tastes vaguely herbal but not salty, and mango sounds like the result of an over-caffeinated brainwave, but it sort of works. 

Time – and now being in a shopping centre environment (taking over from the former Kappo Kaji) has turned Ichigo Ichie into a garden-variety kappo rather than a chef’s personal statement. “One life, one moment” may still hold, but like life, it slows down eventually. 

Rating: 6.5