Kessaku Restaurant Review: A Maki Lover's Delight
The south side of the Metro is full of amazing dining choices. There’s not enough time to try them all and come back to my favorites. Luckily, a quick visit to Commercenter gave me a chance to discover KESSAKU
We kicked off our meal with some SALMON BELLY ABURI. The lightly torched slices of fatty salmon melts in your mouth! The creamy fish and the smoky char work so well together. They don’t come cheap though, and I could really bust my wallet if I wanted to indulge in more of these.
Luckily, Kessaku’s version of the humble CALIFORNIA MAKI exceeded expectations. With a generous dollop of kani salad on top, this isn’t your typical entry level roll.
Because I can never get enough maki, my friends and I also enjoyed Kessaku’s SUNSET ROLL. This one is filled with salmon (again, why not? The more the merrier), unagi, cream cheese and cucumber.
The sweet, smoky grilled flavor of the unagi really stands out. Combined with the salmon, tangy cream cheese and the crisp freshness of cucumbers, this was a home run! Hands down my favorite part of the meal.
Because man (or at least most Filipinos) can’t live on maki alone, we also had some rice and other Japanese staples. By rice, I don’t mean just plain Japanese rice though. Of course we had the one that had pieces of angus beef in it. Yum!
The rice went well with the YAKITORI SAMPLE which we shared. It came with a skewer each of chicken thigh w leeks, chicken skin, pork, tuna and of course, the infamous saikoro wagyu cubes.
These were served with yakitori sauce on the side. Sadly, the tuna was served overcooked and dry. Otherwise, the other skewers were cooked to perfection.
We were also served with TORI NAMBANZUKE. I would describe this as Kessaku’s elevated version of the classic chicken karaage. It is reminiscent of salt and pepper ribs from a Chinese restaurant. The breaded thighs are seasoned well and served with a tangy vinaigrette.
Last on the table was the EBI TEMPURA. I had high hopes for this one since it’s a local favorite. Unfortunately the breading was a bit too much and also quite bland. Batter to prawn ratio was completely off. I hope they can improve on their recipe for this dish.
Overall, it was a good meal and I would come back especially for the sushi and maki selections. The place was spacious and the modern Japanese interiors were warm and elegant.
Final rating: 3.5/5
Highlights: Maki and Sushi
Room for improvement: Tempura, tuna Yakitori
See their full menu and other reviews on Zomato: