Epicurean Group’s new Japanese restaurant transformed an awkward mezzanine space into an establishment that leaves much to be desired
After the much-hyped but short-lived opening of Terroirs Parisien with French master chef Yannick Alleno, Epicurean Group was quick to transform the space into Kakure, a luxury Japanese restaurant that aims to be all-rounded by offering everything from sushi to teppanyaki.
We entered the mezzanine where Kakure’s entrance is, pacing through a dimly-lit corridor, passing a well-stocked whisky bar on one side. The end of the corridor revealed an expansive wood-lined dining space, with the main dining room on one side and a 12-seat sushi bar on the other. Soft lighting gave the restaurant warm ambiance, although an occasional whiff of post-renovation mixed with rice vinegar circulated throughout the 3,000 square foot room.
The menu highlights traditional Japanese dishes with a contemporary twist in presentation and execution, and we began our meal with the crabmeat monaka, where miniature wafer shells were filled with crabmeat. Arrived in fours and semi-covered, these petite nibbles were crisp and crabmeat was well-seasoned, although the foie gras cream cheese was a bit excessive.
Cold somen noodles in tomato soup with Hokkaido snow crabmeat and salmon roe arrived much earlier than our sushi and main courses. Presented in a small bowl adjacent to a glass vessel of tomato soup, the somen noodles were ice-cold but the tomato soup was at room temperature. The soup, or more like canned tomato puree, was lacking seasoning and the flakes of crabmeat were there adding neither flavour nor texture to the dish.