Ki-Sho makes a strong comeback with new chef
Veteran kappo chef Taro Takayama gives the long-running Japanese restaurant a fresh lease on life
NEW CHEF
Ki-Sho 29 Scotts Road Singapore 228224 Tel: 9061-6109 Open for lunch and dinner 12 pm to 3 pm; 6:30 pm to 11 pm
[SINGAPORE] Japanese restaurants don’t die – they just change the chef.
That seems to describe Ki-Sho – which sits quietly in its Scotts Road black-and-white bungalow, deflecting everything from pandemics to chef defections to penny-pinching diners the way we swat mosquitoes in its car park.
Ever since its original chef, Kazuhiro Hamamoto, left to go solo in 2021, naysayers have been waiting to read Ki-Sho’s obituary. One day you hear about the next acclaimed chef stepping in. The next – he’s gone. And then another. Then he’s gone too.
You’d think Ki-Sho installed a revolving door with extra-slippery handles, or maybe it’s just been waiting for the right chef to come along.
That one could be Taro Takayama – and we have to say, we hope he sticks.
Takayama is no newbie – he’s well-known as the chef behind his now-shuttered eponymous eatery in the Central Business District. We liked him there, even if we thought his ingredients didn’t do justice to his instinctive, free-wheeling style of kappo cooking.
The fit at Ki-Sho feels a lot better – the food is more streamlined, more restrained yet still very “him”. The ingredients are better, too.
Takayama is a diner’s chef. He’s not the sort to pull out the caviar and the snow crab legs just so he can slap on a premium price. He’s brought down the most expensive omakase at Ki-Sho to S$360 – the ingredients may not be ultra-prime, but the price-quality ratio is very good.
Plus, the man is fun. He speaks very good English and has assimilated enough to understand the local psyche without losing any of his own cultural nuances.
A meal here is produce-driven. As you will see from the way he hauls out trays of oversized botan ebi, monster ise ebi and a hunk of tuna that would cause much financial and physical pain should it drop on someone’s foot.
To start, you’re welcomed with a cup of pure dashi – fish soup for the soul. A peanut-shaped monaka wafer is filled with foie gras mousse – both are palate pleasers that prime you for some serious eating. And drinking, because Takayama has a taste for sake and food pairing. Just leave it to him – his matching is spot-on and the prices are fair.
The fat botan ebi are shelled in front of you and served raw in a dashi jelly, adorned with uni and shavings of myoga for a fresh, gingery finish.
Meanwhile, an assistant is hard at work mixing hamo and eso (eel and lizardfish) into a smooth paste in a mortar and pestle. He slaps and stirs non-stop – so doggedly and almost pitifully – you wonder if he’s doing penance for insulting Takayama’s ancestors in a previous life.
His suffering is our gain, because all that effort yields the lightest, fluffiest, deep-fried fishcake this side of a Tiong Bahru fishball stall. Add a squeeze of sudachi and it’s the best snack ever.
There’s a lineup of sashimi sliced from different blocks of fish – chutoro, aged kue (grouper), and fatty yellowtail from Southeast Hokkaido that has to be slightly dehydrated to release the excess oil. It’s lightly broiled to crisp the skin further – with a bit of imagination, it tastes almost like pork belly.
Takayama’s version of hassun features little canapes slumming it on a carpet of ferns and autumn leaves. It takes moments to demolish a wedge of six-hour-simmered abalone; foie-gras-like monkfish liver; slippery mozuku seaweed nuzzling a blob of uni; chewy slice of mullet roe sprawled on a pebble.
It’s just a prelude to the ise ebi – dropped into a claypot of furiously bubbling miso soup infused with the briny essence of prawn head and lobster shell. The tingle of sansho pepper distracts from the richness.
Takayama is possibly the only one in Singapore serving Tottori wagyu – beef from non-Tajima cattle native to the region. So we get our first taste of it – it’s suitably buttery and melt-in-the-mouth, served shabu-shabu style.
To finish off – or more likely to finish you off with an overdose of food – Takayama serves you sanma donabe. This is the claypot version of a hug – chewy rice and fluffy mackerel in savoury harmony, with enough for onigiri to take home.
Besides musk melon and ice cream for dessert, Takayama’s signature matcha financiers end the meal. They still taste good but are sadly served cold, not freshly baked like before.
It’s no mean feat that Ki-Sho has stayed the course since 2012. Looks like expectations of its impending death have been greatly exaggerated. Takayama is here, and Ki-Sho now has a good shot at shutting down their sceptics – including us – once and for all.
Rating: 7.5
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