Kazu Sumi-Yaki

Kazu is a cosy little yakitori joint on the fourth floor of Cuppage Plaza, and is one of my all-time favourite restaurants in Singapore.

If memory serves, the owner-chef once worked at Nanbantei, one of the oldest established yakitori restaurants in Singapore, before striking out on his own many years ago. The fact that Kazu Sumi-Yaki is still packed to the brim night after night, year after year is a strong testament to what Kazu's regulars have known for years - here be good stuff!

The clientele is varied - after-hours execs, actors and actresses, European expatriates, Japanese families, yuppie jet-setters, tai-tais, party puppets, the lot. Of lounging space there's precious little. Even though the lighting is soft and cosy, it's hard to envision a Kazu dinner being romantic by any stretch of the imagination. It's also kind of difficult to feel romanced as the smell of cooking settles into your clothes, so save that nonsense for some other time and just enjoy the food.

Here's what we had for dinner on Sunday night:

Sweet japanese cabbage, served as a complimentary appetizer. Goes well with the brown yakitori dipping sauce (no picture, unfortunately).

Two sticks of shimeji mushroom wrapped with bacon, and two sticks of asparagus wrapped with bacon. Bite into the "heads" end of the mushrooms first; if you try it the other way the "heads" will drop out. :)

Ginkgo nuts, grilled and salted. The skin of the nuts is edible. One of my favourite yakitori/robatayaki items.

Skewered shiitake mushrooms stuffed with minced chicken, and garlic-on-a-stick, nicely browned. Takes the sting out of the garlic but leaves the fragrance.

Grilled eggplant stuffed with minced chicken. Juicy and chewy, it tastes much better than it sounds. :)

We usually have the grilled squid with teriyaki (?) sauce, but decided to try the salt-dipped version this time. Having tried both, I still like the sauce version better.

Two sticks of beef (a mix-up, we ordered beef tendon) and one stick of chicken with plum (ume) paste. The beef turned out to be pretty good anyway.

Chicken meatball (tsukune), dipped in sweet sauce. Like the kind that they sell at Tori-Q, but much better - chunkier and juicier. Another regular favourite. (Truth be told, the best tsukune we've had to date was at GAN-CHAN, a small yakitori joint in Roppongi, Tokyo. But Kazu's version is still pretty darn satisfying.)

Yaki onigiri, or grilled rice ball on a stick. The one in front is smeared with miso paste, while the one at the back is soy-sauce flavoured. You'll like this if you're a fan of slightly burnt rice (fan jiew in Cantonese?).

Four sticks of chicken wings, one stick for each of us. Best candidate for squeezing a lemon slice over. What's a yakitori meal without chicken wings?

Freshly-grilled foie gras, oozing flavour, defining indulgence and promising a cardiac arrest sometime in the future. The fragrant aroma hit the senses hard, long before this dish of sin-on-sticks physically appeared our table. Both sticks were snapped up quickly upon arrival, and seconds followed soon after.

Mochi (rice flour cake?) wrapped with bacon, and grilled slowly until the mochi expands. Somewhat similar to rice crackers, but imagine chewy and sticky instead of crunchy. J and Mom love this stuff so much (so do I, actually!) that we always pre-order to make sure they don't run out.

Small green pimento peppers (shishito), grilled and salted. I like these things. They're not very spicy, which suits me just fine since I don't take to spicy stuff like chilli. Go figure.

They brought the beef tendon after realizing the mix-up with the beef order. Dad says it's great stuff, but I think I'll just take his word for it.

This Japanese sweet potato takes a long time to grill, so it's best ordered right from the start (pre-order recommended). Goes very well with slabs of chilled butter.

Need I say that we like the food?

Service is usually prompt and attentive, but sometimes there's the occasional miss and mix-up with the orders when the place gets too busy. Tea is complimentary, but if you want drinking water you'll have to order it - no freebie there.

Kazu is one place that I absolutely have to recommend to friends. It may not be the best restaurant around, not by a long stretch. But it's definitely a long-run winner to me. Don't miss out!

KAZU SUMI-YAKI
No. 5 Koek Road
#04-05 Cuppage Plaza
Tel: 6734 2492
Open 18:00-23:00
Reservations recommended