Kyoto-style dining at Kappo Kaji

NEW RESTAURANT

Kappo Kaji 442 Orchard Road #01-16 Claymore Connect Singapore 238879 Tel: 8028-3508 Open for lunch and dinner daily: 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm; 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm

WHEN you make a dinner reservation at Kappo Kaji and they say the chef only starts serving everyone together at 7 pm, ask if he means Japanese or Singapore time. If it was the former, it would be 7 pm. But in Singapore it means at least 7.15 pm, give or take a few minutes to go to the toilet first.

If you follow Japanese custom and arrive before 7 pm, be prepared to become intimately familiar with every corner of the restaurant - the faux hinoki counter, textured earthen walls, the stone hearth from which a crackling fire burns, sending lazy sparks floating up into the exhaust above. We've almost finished counting the leaves on the patterned wall by the time the remaining 6 seats are filled and we're finally presented with a platter of artfully arranged ingredients that will form our S$380 (now S$398) omakase for the evening.

Chef Kaji Mitsuyoshi delivers kappo cuisine with a Kyoto accent, which means he throws in a few kaiseki elements in a generally safe and predictable menu with no major highs or lows.

With previous stints in Shinji and Masaaki, he's had a roundabout route to this maiden venture of his, with a couple of false starts in between. He's personable if a little reserved, but happy to tell you about the quality of the wild kombu from Kyoto that he uses to make his dashi.

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He makes a pretty good jelly with this dashi, flavoured with white shoyu and combined with prawns, tender eggplant and uni for a refreshing cold starter. He offers a fat Miyagi oyster as a top-up option, which is also good for its fleshy brininess rather than a cloying creaminess.

In fact, his starters are perhaps the best part of the meal, including meaty hairy crab in a savoury sweet miso sauce with chopped gingko for texture. Shiro ebi tossed in egg yolk and topped with caviar, paired with hirame sashimi garnished with dried bachiko or dried sea cucumber innards and flakes of snow salt, keep up the interest.

Things get a little middling as a show of smoked katsuo doesn't live up to the hype of being paraded across the room. When your share arrives, it tastes pretty ho-hum even with a tangy ponzu sauce. If anything, your attention is diverted by rowdy diners on the other end of the counter who either know each other or make friends really easily between the clear plastic shields placed between each pair. By the end of the evening we learn all about their family businesses and go-karting adventures in Malaysia while we watch the chef cram dried grass and straggly flowers into a flower pot for our hassun.

Typical of kaiseki meals where presentation is key, we do get a pretty arrangement of snacks including sesame sauce-topped spinach, creamy ankimo deep fried in a vermicelli crust, yam fritter, braised octopus and slippery pacific saury garnished with grated ginger and spring onions.

Service is attentive, with our lady server ready to swoop down and replace dropped napkins or present cutlery even before you know you need it to dig into dry-ish deep fried belt fish set upon sushi rice. A maguro bomb gets more points for effort than taste - a fat maki stuffed with three types of tuna and uni. Pretty and pleasant, but the tuna is pretty average.

Still, there's plenty of variety to be had, as the chef packs in even more courses including crunchy deep-fried amadei contrasted against a lily bulb sauce and a shower of truffle shavings. Next up, a shabu of grouper slices lowered into a broth of dashi thickened with sweet white miso and a mild spicy kick of yuzu kosho is a comforting precursor to the rice dish.

Our territorial instincts kick in when the matsutake rice appears in a large communal claypot, duly violated by some violent close-up sniffing by noses that do not belong to us. If there's one rule that Kappo Kaji ought to live by, it's "don't touch our rice". By the time our bowl comes to us with a side of omi beef sukiyaki, we're almost traumatised.

A runny champagne jelly with grapes and nashi do not mollify us, although a chewy daifuku filled with orange segments and red beans almost lifts our mood.

Despite its odd dining practices, Kappo Kaji is promising enough, with a hard-working team that needs a bit more finesse given the pricing. Let us eat when we want, and in the peace that we need, and we'll be back.

Rating: 6.5

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN

10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average

Our review policy: The Business Times pays for all meals at restaurants reviewed on this page. Unless specified, the writer does not accept hosted meals prior to the review's publication.