Sushi Kou is located at Orchid Hotel, in Tanjong Pagar area which is full of good Japanese and Korean restaurants. It’s also a stones throw from Duxton so after a meal there’s always coffee and desserts waiting.

We were in the mood today for some good Japanese food. Sushi Kou received some good reviews and so I called to reserve a table and happy there was availability. When we arrived at about 12.30pm, we were the only table with another. Then slowly patrons streamed in and by slightly past 1pm, the restaurant was almost full.

They have very reasonably priced set meals, ala carte items and omakase. Omakase prices were $50, $80 or $100. The higher the price the more premium the ingredients. For the $100 set, there is an additional dish of grilled Kagoshima Wagyu beef. We opted for the $100 omakase and we were started with some pickles (daikon, carrot, cucumber) and ichinokura sake then appetizers:
– Prawn, daikon & tobiko, tosatsu sauce
– Salmon belly avocado (vinegar egg yolk sauce)
– Lotus root filled w mustard

The next dish was sashimi. We were given a fresh wasabi to grate on shark skin. Glad we were not served wasabi from powder mixed with water or from a tube. The sashimi slices were so good and they had my favorite hakkaku (sailfin poacher) which looks pretty exotic (picture below the sashimi bowl taken at a restaurant in Tokyo 2 years ago). In the bowl from top left
Ootoro (tuna belly), Hamachi (yellow tail), Simaji (yellow jack), Kuru mutsu (black-bluefish), Hakkaku (sailfin poacher), ika (cuttlefish)

Next up, grilled sanma (pacific saury) which was very fresh. The flesh was smooth and sweet.

Then we had matako tempura. Ooh this was good! Tender tako (octopus) pieces in batter fried to light golden color. Very nice!

The Kagoshima wagyu was next. The chef lovingly grilled the evenly marbled beef which was chilled and served with sliced onions, fried garlic and a brown sauce.

Course 7 was itoyori sakamushi – threadfin bream steamed with sake in a clear broth.

Course 8 – sushi (left to right)
Otoro – tuna belly
Yellow tail belly
Engawa – fluke fin
Saba – blue mackerel
Anago – conger eel
Uni – sea urchin

Lastly for dessert we had sea salt ice cream. Very nice, not too heavy and thick like most ice creams. Not that I do not like rich ice creams, we were stuffed from all the food so was thankful for this version.

Overall food was fresh and prices were reasonable. Service was great, we never had to ask the servers to top up our green tea or sake. They paced the food well, patiently explained every dish and were very friendly. We enjoyed every bit of this meal and will be back again!