As fellow blogger MyFoodSirens very aptly put, there’s no going back to ‘normal’ sushi after dining at artisanal sushi restaurants. But, but… I can’t fly to Japan just because my craving for sushi kick in. And thus, the search for good sushi restaurant (in Singapore) re-commenced. And being one who prefer to explore new eateries, I was determined to sniff out hidden gems. Keke.

And that’s when I got to learn about Kappou Japanese Sushi Tapas Bar. Led by a female head chef too? That got me pretty excited. With that, I contacted Kappou on their Facebook page to make reservation for my next meet up with my IGGF (InstaGram GirlFriend). And one should make reservation at least 2 weeks in advanced. Because Kappou is a small restaurant that could only sit up to 8 people, our first preferred date was not available.

Located in Fortune Centre, it’s a 15 to 18 minutes walk from Bugis MRT station. However, I was slightly shocked to see the entrance door ajar due to their portable air conditioner’s exhaust pipe upon arrival. Hmm…

With no physical menu, the staff started us off by explaining they only offered omakase at Kappou. Between $68, $98 and $128, my IGGF and I decided to go with $128. And with that, we started our $128 omakase dinner with:-

1) Dish #1 (above) – Fried dumpling skin and pâté made with kinki fish liver, cream cheese, wasabi and miso.

2) Dish #2 (above) – Homemade tofu with shrimp (ebi), served in dashi with yuzu skin.

3) Dish #3 (above) – Mascarpone cheese with fruits.

4) Dish #4 (above) – Abalone. Really tender and good. But it was a very, very small slice. And we were told the abalone was steamed for 4 hours with sake, carrot and kelp before it’s further soaked in the same pot of water previously used to boil clams.

5) Dish #5 (above) – Sashimi. Unfortunately, head chef Aeron Choo mentioned a Japanese (fish) name which was a first for us. Yes, even to my IGGF. Head chef Aeron further shared its English name is big scale flatfish.

6) Dish #6 (above) – Sushi assortment of lean tuna (akami), medium fatty tuna (chutoro), slightly torched snapper (tai), a fish from the family of yellowtail (although my IGGF and I thought it was mackerel), and abalone liver. For the lean tuna, we were told by head chef Aeron that it’s very soft as it’s from topmost part of the dark cut slab triangle; Chiai or 血合い. Odd, I thought meat nearer to bloodline was more muscular and thus tougher. But my real gripe was that the lean tuna was sliced too thinly. When I picked the sushi up my fingers, the tuna tore into 2 pieces. In fact, I was very disappointed with the sushi leg of our course. I couldn’t even say the sushi served at Kappou is size XS. The amount of sushi rice (shari) used was way too little. It was a very bad ratio of rice to topping (neta). Wanting to taste the rice better especially when we were told 3 blends of rice were used, My IGGF and I requested for more sushi rice. Unfortunately, we were a little too late; Head chef Aeron was already preparing our last sushi which was abalone liver wrapped around a ball of sushi rice.

7) Dish #7 (above) – Rice, sea urchin and salmon roe. A very small portion too.

8) Dish #8 – And when head chef Aeron passed us our rice bowls (bara chirashi don), she mentioned it was prepared with additional rice. I guess it’s from our previous request for more rice in our sushi. And for the toppings, 2 types of fish (1 cooked and the other raw), bonito flakes, fried shrimp, salted fish roe, seaweed, pickled radish and sesame seeds were used. It was a pretty good combination.

9) Dish #9 (above) – Oden.

10) Dish #10 (above) – Dessert was matcha cake, creme brulee styled sponge cake served with red bean and sea-salt ice cream, and dehydrated sweet potato.

11) Dish #11, Complimentary (above) – My IGGF and I were still hungry after finishing the full course of our dinner. The fact that my IGGF was not full was worrying because she’s a small eater. And because head chef Aeron came up to us (and other diners) at different times to say “If you are still hungry, you must let me know okay? I cannot let you go home hungry”, my IGGF and I waited to be asked the golden question of “Are you still hungry?” after we finished our dessert. We sure did wait long as head chef Aeron and her one and only staff were busy. And we were served a bowl of ‘porridge risotto’ as termed by head chef Aeron. Meant to be a cold dish, we were told this was pressure-cooked for 3 days in fish broth before it’s cooked again as al dente.

Would I recommend Kappou Japanese Sushi Tapas Bar? A firm no.

Don’t be deceived by my pictures as they don’t truly show how ridiculously small the portions at Kappou were. Irregardless of the price, no course meal should leave the diners hungry. Something is certainly wrong when I overheard every diners saying they were still hungry. Honestly, I can’t imagine how more hungry my IGGF and I would be if our rice bowls (dish #8) were not upsized.

And even though head chef Aeron mentioned we shouldn’t be shy in letting her know that we were still hungry, the set up of the restaurant doesn’t exactly encourage interaction. In a way, I felt like we were begging for our food. So no, I definitely won’t recommend Kappou.