Edomae Omakase Pop-up

Blackpink and botan ebi. 

They might have little to nothing in common, but at Capital Kitchen’s latest Edomae Omakase pop-up, you can groove to the chart-topping hits of the Korean girl group while chowing down on a sweet sliver of shrimp sushi. 

The immersive Japanese dining experience is the latest novel offering to take over the dance floors of Zouk, in a time when nightclubs are still not allowed to operate. Themed tunes, from hip hop to electronic dance music, are served from the speakers while the bar-turned-sushi counter doles out dishes made from seasonal catch. 

Helming the makeshift kitchen is chef Ryoichi Nakatani (previously from Sushi Ayumu at Mandarin Gallery), who specialises in traditional Edomae-style sushi where the fish typically comes cured, marinated, or seared. He turns seafood sourced from Toyosu Fish Market into a 12-course dinner affair ($250). 

The meal might start with meaty grilled scallops, sandwiched between seaweed like a rice cracker; and a skewer of tender firefly squid dressed with soy sauce. Two cooked dishes quickly followed: monkfish liver simmered in red wine, and Spanish mackerel crowned with uni. Much like the upbeat tracks from Dua Lipa and Jason Derulo playing in the background, the pace of the meal felt faster than usual, transitioning almost too quickly from course to course. 

Luckily, the sushi course offers a treat for the eyes – and tongue. Trout, almost melt-in-the-mouth, gets a kiss of smoke from the grill, then topped with a cherry blossom bud for a hint of salt; while botan ebi is lavished with glistening yellow tobiko. The main highlight is the Small Bowl, a befitting visual metaphor where chirashi comes served in a martini glass. Laying atop rice are prized ingredients: uni, ikura, freshly picked Hokkaido hairy crab, yellow tobiko, and caviar. “Like cocktail sushi,” jokes chef Ryoichi. 

Shortly, the meal winds down to the final piece: a toro-taku-maki, hand roll filled with a winning combination of tuna, Takuan pickles, and shiso leaf. A bowl of Japanese clam soup warms the belly, and a dainty bowl of fruits from Kyushu with sake jelly marks an end to the dinner. And if a meal here left you craving for an encore, know that plans are already in the works for chef Ryoichi to open a space of his own – one that combines the concept of a bar with an omakase restaurant.