Sushi Kyuu By Shunsui

I always find it very exciting to visit a restaurant for their Omakase as you get surprises from the Chef depending on what they put on the menu. A good Omakase restaurant changes its menu daily, depending on the best ingredients available on a particular day. As an average working class, I cannot afford Omakase as often as I like, so when I saw a promotion for Omakase at Sushi Kyuu, I quickly got my friends together for a meal

Located at Orchard Plaza; a hidden gem for many good Japanese restaurants, Sushi Kyuu occupies a corner shop space on level 3

The restaurant is small and cosy with half the space dedicated to the sushi counter bar. The counter seats are the more popular seats for Omakase as you get to experience the step-by-step making of the dishes by the Chef and you will be served each dish individually the moment it is completed. Unfortunately, for us, we only managed to get a table at the side which is not at the sushi bar so we pretty much missed out on the action

We initially wanted to book lunch for the SGD 99 (exclude tax) Omakase set but it was not available so we went for the next best course at SGD 129 (excludes tax). When we arrived, the table was already immaculately set with the menu on the right, a cold towel for wiping your hands, quality wooden chopsticks on a traditional Japanese holder and a pretty ceramic cup placed in the middle

We started the course with Shirako in Ponzu sauce and a dashi soup made with a Siphon brewing. Shirako, called milt, are sperm sacs typically harvested from cod, and sometimes from anglerfish, salmon, squid and pufferfish. As our server was speaking quite softly, we didn’t get which fish this sac was from but we were definitely intrigued by the brain-looking outlook. In terms of taste, the sac was creamy and light tasting, it was smooth and squishy almost like a creamy oyster but a lot more bland tasting. The flavour of the dish was mostly from the Ponzu sauce which was mildly salty with a nice tangy flavour

As for the Dashi, since it was served to us at the table, we did not see how it was brewed with the Siphon brewer. Used by baristas to brew coffee, the use of the Siphon brew is to produce better grade and better-tasting coffee so I’m not sure if making Dashi the same way makes a superior dashi. When I tasted the dashi, the taste is very clean and defined with a strong umami flavour without the murky layer of soup dregs

The next dish served was the 3 kinds of sashimi which we also lost track of what fishes were served but the quality of the fishes were of a good grade and extremely fresh. The cut of the fish was good and in the perfect size so you can have a clear taste of the texture and flavour of the fish

The chawanmushi was served in a small pretty blue porcelain container and there was kelp topping the chawanmushi. The egg was very smooth and soft and the kelp added on a very natural saltiness from the sea

After the Chawanmushi, we lost track of what was served as they were served on a platter and not individually since we were seated away from the Chef’s counter. From the menu, we did have sushi chu-toro, o-toro, Uni, maki rolls, aji, katsuo, an unagi sandwich and seasonal pickles. Just like the sashimi, the sushi did not disappoint as the ratio of the rice to fish slice is perfect. You can taste the texture and sweetness of the fish coupled with the vinegary warm rice and it was not too filling so you can easily finish all the sushi.

Out of the splendid showcase of sushi, 2 items really won my heart and it is the katsuo which is the skipjack tuna and the seasonal pickles. The katsuo was extremely flavourful with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and it has a nice deep umami taste as you savour it in your mouth. The katsuo is rare outside of Japan as the flesh quickly spoils once the fish dies and Katsuo flesh must be extremely fresh when used for sushi and sashimi because the delicate flesh degrades quickly. This is the first time I have ever tried the katsuo sushi. The seasonal pickles were crunchy and flavourful with a great balance between sweet, savoury and sourish so it was great to eat in between sushi to prepare your stomach for more food

The next item was the overflowing Ikura rice which was served in these mini cups. The servers will ask if you like to have the big or small sizes. These were the small sizes as the big size is served in small bowl which is about double the size of these cups

For the full experience, the Chef actually brought the cups of rice and a box of Ikura to our table and started to chant in Japanese as they scoop the Ikura into the rice cups. They were scooping the Ikura non-stop until each cup was overflowing with them and only left the table when the entire box was used up. For Ikura lovers, this is really a treat as you get endless eggs popping in your mouth with umami goodness. As the Ikura were all very fresh, there was a nice sweetness to them so you can easily eat them without rice

For dessert, we had ice cream and you could choose between green tea or vanilla with honey. I went for the vanilla one and the honey was perfect with a tinge of natural sweetness paired with the creamy and smooth ice cream

Overall, the meal at Sushi Kyuu was great with a quite affordable price tag of SGD 129 and there were many different types of sushi I tried which are not easily available in other restaurants. The service staff were overall quite friendly and attentive although they would all quite soft soften so we could not make out the dishes that were served. The only advice is to book for the counter seats as sitting at the side table really takes half the fun away from an Omakase session

Address: 238841, Orchard Rd, 150号, Orchard Plaza, #03-55

Operating hours: 6 pm to 11 pm ( closed on Mon)