Counterstrike at Kazu

The title of this post meant that I struck Kazu again. Reservations were made at approximately 2.30pm and we were told that there were only seats at the counter left on a Thursday night. Being seated at the counter also meant that I get to gawk at the sizzling grill, see what comes off the grill and get to ask about what I cannot identify.


It was inevitable for me, having eaten at both Kazu and Kushigin to make comparisons on their food since their focus were both on charcoal grills. After tonight, Kazu remains the undisputed king because, it edged Kushigin out in terms of quality and beats them hands down in variety. I lamented over the loss of the short neck clams and anglerfish liver from their menu which I had originally intended to make home in my stomach tonight. The crab and pumpkin croquette had also been replaced by the crab and corn.

pumpkin with chicken miso

This was a minced chicken in miso sauce over cooked pumpkin. Nothing fancy but if you like pumpkin, it's kind nice.

oyster rice (seasonal)

This was basically rice infused with oyster flavour and some bits of vegetables. The portions were quite small, so it didn't fill up very much. Tasted a lot like yam rice. My only gripe with this was that there were very little real oysters. I counted only one. Would have been good to have a couple more in there. This wasn't featured on the menu as it's seasonal.

beef tongue

mushroom in pork belly

tuna with miso

squid tentacles

chicken hearts

minced chicken in japanese pepper

forgotten fish with miso

stuffed lotus root

apple and pork

bacon with prawn and scallop

Amazing stuff. The scallops and prawns were deceptively juicy as with all the other grills in this place.

foie gras of course

shishamo

Did I say deceptively juicy before? Here's another one.

lamb chop

Kazu serves a mean lamb chop. This topped the one I had at Kushigin which I had thought was pretty damned good already. Sizzling hot meat, fat wrapped with char marks and pink juicy meat near the bone, one would be surprised at how many other places that serve lamb don't do lamb chops this good.

japanese sweet potato

These grilled sweet potatoes were delicious. Even more so with the butter which you could rub over and let melt into the potato which was already nicely flavoured. I ended up eating the whole thing, skin and all.

bbq tiramisu

This seems to be a signature tiramisu of Kazu. The reason as explained by the server why it was called bbq tiramisu was because the top of the mascarpone was scorched to create a bit of char before the cocoa powder is sprinkled on the surface. The result was a smoky fragrance that paired with the bitter (and choke inducing) cocoa and the sweet mascapone cream.

the score cup