Japanese sushi roll sensation RAPPU wraps a fun omakase dining experience around what was supposed to be simple convenience food.
For a while, it was impossible to get into RAPPU. First opened during the pandemic, the speciality Japanese hand roll sushi bar on Duxton Road often saw snaking queues waiting impatiently for a chance at their elevated makizushi.
Hand rolls, you ask? That’s right, that particular variation of sushi that sees ingredients and vinegared rice laid onto a sheet of toasted seaweed and then tightly wound using a bamboo mat into a roll and usually sliced into bite-sized pieces.
Some versions are left slightly open-faced, or sometimes shaped into cones known as temaki.
What makes RAPPU irreverently special is that it takes what was originally designed for on-the-go eating that you normally find in konbinis (convenience stores) all across Japan, and wrapping an entire gastrobar experience around it. Imagine a modern yet dystopian izakaya but built around a horseshoe-shaped bar counter, throbbing with gangster rap (because RAPPU, wrap, rap, geddit?) and hip hop.
It’s vibey and convivial, and you easily see why it draws a more youthful crowd.
Your dining experience here is built almost entirely around a curated omakase tasting menu; you choose between original ‘Tengo’, spicy ‘Jigo’ or a vegan set option, each of which brings forth a succession of six different hand rolls.
Every one of the six from the non-vegetarian sets features a different main fish or seafood ingredient; you have hotate (scallop), akami (tuna), sake (salmon), toro (fatty tuna), kani (crab), and engawa (flounder). Offerings can change, according to season and availability.
For those who love their rolled sushi, RAPPU is epicurean heaven. RAPPU celebrates both the classic fully-rolled versions but also the open-faced ones, the latter of which, I painfully admit, makes for more difficult eating but are far more Instagram-friendly with its ingredients displayed in open glory.
But you’ll want to eat them relatively quickly, as the toasted seaweed tends to turn soggy quickly.
We loved every one of them we tried, although the succulent flame-broiled fatty flounder fin emerged our favourite of the lot. We did prefer those from the ‘Jigo’ set, as the spice – either from chilli, chilli oil, sansho pepper, togarashi, or yuzu kosho – helped cut through the richness of the fish or seafood.
It can get a bit monotonous biting into sushi rolls after a while, so we do highly recommend ordering some appetisers on the side to shake things up a bit. The torched edamame, for example, flavoured with shio kombu and truffle oil, or the extremely addictive crispy lotus root chips for some crunch.
Or, if you’re really hungry, some spicy grilled yellowtail collar.
You’ll want to also order the optional – but very affordable – sake pairing flight, featuring rotating seasonal sakes that help the sushi rolls go down easier. There’s even a kombucha pairing if you’re not big into sake.
Sushi hand roll concepts aren’t exactly new, but RAPPU has made it its own. Four years down the road it still draws the crowd, except this time a reservation system is in place to manage eager customers.
[Photo credits: @danielgoh]
RAPPU
Address 52 Duxton Rd, Singapore 089516 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 6pm to 10.30pm on Mondays; 11.45am to 2.30pm and 6pm to 10.30pm Tuesdays to Thursdays and Sundays; 11.45am to 2.30pm and 6pm to 12am Fridays and Saturdays
Web www.rappu.sg
Facebook RAPPU.SG
Instagram @rappu.sg
Reservations book here
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