Kushigin, Cuppage Plaza

Kushigin (5 Koek Road, #01-01, Cuppage Plaza) is an izakaya styled eatery similar to Kazu that specializes in charcoal grilled stuff. The decor looked like a small traditional Japanese restaurant but the music that they were playing ranged from retro pop to stuff from the 70s. Audio and visuals not so aligned. Kinda puts me off synch with the ambience. Where this place paled in comparison with Kazu, was the lack of variety. This was especially apparent for the charcoal grilled items. That being said, it wasn't implied that their quality was likewise lacking. In fact, I thought the grills from Kushigin were as good. Judging from the crowd, this seemed to be another one of the good eating places in Cuppage Plaza.

The menu has a selection of the "standard" fare of Japanese restaurants like tempuras, sashimis, bentos - along with a selection of grilled meats and vegetables which was that I was more interested in. There's nothing exotic here but the food quality was unquestionable.

garlic pork with leek

This tasted much better than it looked. The hot grilled pork was literally dripping with juices and oils while dressed in nothing more than salt and pepper.

oyster wrapped in bacon

An old favourite - nothing much needs to be further said about bacon blanketed oysters.

garlic rice

Their garlic rice was more subtle with the garlic flavour but it came with fried garlic chips which were really fragrant.

tanaka rice

This tasted like salted vegetable fried rice. Quite similar to the garlic rice. With preserved vegetables.

chicken with stuffed with plum and mint leaves

grilled chicken heart (bottom)/mushroom stuffed with minced chicken

beef in black bean sauce

This beef skewers were the least tasty of the lot. Reason was the black bean sauce which I found to be excessively salty and had a very strong ginger flavour. The result was overwhelming and made the meat unidentifiable. Am pretty sure that I would have enjoyed this much more without the sauce.

shishamo

The shishamo looked dry on the surface but were actually quite juicy. I am guessing that now was not the season for them since they weren't as pregnant with eggs as I would have liked. But still is good. Juicy good.

shishito pepper

These Japanese peppers looked like green chilli. The skill of grill managed to preserve some of the moisture in them while keeping the exterior dry. The flavour was new to me. I thought they were pretty good.

lady's finger

Bacon wrapped tomato and cheese with mint

I had no idea why the addition of mint leaves would enhance the flavour of this skewer. I personally felt that it would have tasted better without them. More cheese would have been welcomed.

lamb chops

These chops were good. The meat was served scorching hot, dripping with oil from the fat and it was one of the best lambs I've had so well done. Not something we could eat a lot of at a go because of excessive fat - which would be quietly killing us behind greasy smile as we gnawed the meat off the bone.

Kushigin was good, undeniably so in the department of grills. Because of variety, my vote would go to Kazu in terms of preference. But the quest for grills is not yet done. More awaits.