Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 61 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 08848
Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar (East-West line)

Rappu is the latest Japanese handroll bar in town, found in a fixed 36-seated spot spanning across two shophouses along Duxton Road.

The interior of the restaurant reeks of a Manhattan style diner, with techno electronic music playing in the background. Looking at the crowd dining on a Wednesday evening, it is befitting of a millenial hangout area. As we did not make prior reservation, the waiting time was 45 minutes. While waiting for our turn, we headed over to Kreams Beer for a drink.

After we were ushered into the restaurant, we still had to wait 5 minutes for the staff to clear and set up the table. Based on a open kitchen concept, each and every action of the sushi chefs is under the scrutiny of the patrons. From scooping the sushi rice to torching the ingredients to making it into a handroll, we could see the whole process of how our food was being made, in front of our eyes.

Rappu claims to be Singapore’s original handroll bar. It is true to a certain extent, because it is one of the few rare bars (or one and only) to offer sake pairings with sushi. While Maki-san is a famous takeaway handroll restaurant which allows you to design your own handroll sushi, over here at Rappu you get to choose sushi from a fixed menu and have the perks of drinking to your heart’s content.

A marble serving plate in the shape of a knife and a pair of wooden chopsticks is all you need for eating here. The menu shows the various types of handrolls available, as well as the drinks selection. The 6 main handrolls available on the menu are Hotate (scallop), kanpachi, salmon, toro, crab and engawa. The hotate that was served as the first handroll was fresh and it paired well with the sake. The salmon and crab were my least favourites because it tasted average, for the crab I expected a more generous portion of crab meat and the use of mayo masked the taste of the crab meat.

A Sake Pairing ($18++) is available and they’re matched with every sushi roll to complement each other. All three of us ordered a set of the sake pairing to go with each of the handrolls.

We ordered the full course that features six different types of handrolls at $36++. It’s quite good value for money, considering that premium ingredients such as engawa and kampachi are used. The 6 pieces of handroll are served one by one, on the special plate made of marble. Since the turnover from eating sushi is quite fast, most people who linger in the restaurant actually stay longer for the drinks.

My favourite was the engawa handroll because it had a charred taste due to the aburi-style that it was cooked, and the slice of fish was torched right in front of us. Engawa has slowly been charting on sushi platters everywhere, and it’s prized for its oily and milky texture. This fluke fin can rack up as much as the perennially-in-demand toro.

There’s also a special High Roller ($28++) roll that packs in Wagyu or toro, uni, caviar, and gold flakes. My friends ordered the toro and uni, which definitely did not disappoint when the dish came with a heaped amount of uni. This opulent roll is definitely a splurge. Nevertheless, it was quite impressive thanks to the creamy uni paired with the rich fatty belly of toro.

Lastly, a small teacup of warm miso clam soup is served at the end of the course to wash everything down. It’s a nice touch and the single piece of Asari calm was plump and juicy.

We were impressed with the service and the vibrance of this handroll bar. While the food left us about 60% full, we were still craving for more and had to look for other food options around the area. Other than the handroll set, there was nothing much left to order on the menu. If you enjoy a fun night out with friends over sake and sushi, do check out Rappu Sushi!