Ki-Sho makes a strong comeback with new chef

Veteran kappo chef Taro Takayama gives the long-running Japanese restaurant a fresh lease on life

Japanese restaurants don’t die – they just change the chef. That seems to describe Ki-Sho – which sits quietly in its Scotts Road black-and-white bungalow, deflecting everything from pandemics to chef defections to penny-pinching diners the way we swat mosquitoes in its car park.

Ever since its original chef, Kazuhiro Hamamoto, left to go solo in 2021, naysayers have been waiting to read Ki-Sho’s obituary. One day you hear about the next acclaimed chef stepping in. The next – he’s gone. And then another. Then he’s gone too.

You’d think Ki-Sho installed a revolving door with extra-slippery handles, or maybe it’s just been waiting for the right chef to come along. Takayama is a diner’s chef. He’s not the sort to pull out the caviar and the snow crab legs just so he can slap on a premium price. He’s brought down the most expensive omakase at Ki-Sho to S$360 – the ingredients may not be ultra-prime, but the price-quality ratio is very good.

Plus, the man is fun. He speaks very good English and has assimilated enough to understand the local psyche without losing any of his own cultural nuances.

A meal here is produce-driven. As you will see from the way he hauls out trays of oversized botan ebi, monster ise ebi and a hunk of tuna that would cause much financial and physical pain should it drop on someone’s foot. Read the full article at The Business Times.