All the action’s at the counter at Kozakura
An intimate experience where the chef is centre of attention
We know one of the signs of a good Japanese restaurant is a Japanese chef in the kitchen or at the sushi bar. They’ve been trained as if they would be working with nuclear material.
At Kozakura, a Japanese restaurant in Gastown, the chef is Keith Allison — not the typical Japanese name, right? But no cause for a detour. Allison was born in Japan (Sapporo) and his Japanese mom instilled a thing for cooking in her son. (His Canadian dad is the one who bestowed the Anglo name.)
“Mom was a very good cook and has worked in restaurants,” Allison says. When the family first moved to Canada in 1988, she cooked at Tojo’s and he remembers his brother’s birthday party there. “I was four or five, my brother was six and Tojo taught us how to make sushi,” says Allison, who cooked with his mother as a youngster.
Kozakura is a transformation of Notturno, which was an Italian restaurant until owner/chef Bill Robitaille lost his bar manager/bartender. He decided to rebrand. “I have always admired Japanese history and culture from the day when I read James Clavell’s Shogun when I was a teen and I really love the cuisine,” says Robitaille, who is backup to Allison in the kitchen.
Allison previously cooked at the Dan Japanese and Sea Monstr sushi restaurants. Now he is focusing on kappo-style Japanese cuisine since he feels there are enough sushi and izakaya spots in Vancouver (although I’d beg to differ that there’s enough really good sushi).
Kappo meals are usually eaten at the counter, while interacting with the chef. It’s like a loose form of Kyoto’s very formal kaiseki cuisine or a more stylized izakaya. “Everything has to make sense on a dish,” Allison says, explaining kappo. “There’s no garnish that doesn’t matter. It has to make sense in flavouring and colouring.”
Like kaiseki, Allison sticks to seasonal local ingredients, although some seafood is from Japan or New Zealand. At one time, the Japanese ingredients were local to him, I suppose, if you stretch that word beyond its limit. In Japan, kappos are insider places with regulars spreading the word, but of course that’s not the case in Gastown. In kaiseki style, it’s best to opt for omakase, where you put yourself in the chef’s hands to create your meal ($45, $60, $75 or $90). And if you wish, you can go even more extravagant if you give him a day’s notice.
I had a kaiseki dinner in Kyoto and found it hushed and stiffly formal, although the presentations were beautiful and the service elegant. Kappo, I find, is more relaxed and fun.
Allison goes partway to beautiful with more rustic presentations on dishes he purchased in Japan. Good-quality seafood is central to Japanese restaurants, so I began with a small order of Allison’s daily sashimi plate ($15 for small and $25 for large) and the red tuna, sea bream and horse mackerel were excellent.
A salad of raw and cooked vegetables ($8) is very “kappa” — Allison’s had grilled onion rings and peppers and raw greens, radish and baby carrots with leaves among other vegetables.
Chawanmushi ($6), a custard with dashi flavouring, was busier than usual — bits of chicken thigh and shiitake mushrooms, side stripe shrimp, yuzu peel and a slice of Burgundy truffle on top. I like a simple chawanmushi, but I can’t complain — it was delicious.
Chazuke is as satisfying as ramen in cold weather and Allison does one with dashi poured over rice and topping with house-braised sea eel and finely sliced nori on top ($10). Good job!
The dinner menu is seafood heavy, but there’s Japanese meatballs with mushrooms and onsen egg (cooked to the temperature of a onsen hot spring); there’s braised pork belly with daikon and rare rib-eye steak. We tried the latter, which he calls sanshou steak ($12) after the peppercorns he uses for the sauce. The steak, seared rare, sits over grilled sweet potato.
Kozakura (which means little cherry blossom) is like the start of something new, says Allison. “We based the menu off that ideology.”
The restaurant is open for lunch with a less formal menu — bento boxes, donburi, sashimi salad. Add an onsen egg to the donburi for another $1.
The drinks list is heavy on premium sake and whisky with two red and two white wines and three beers — two local and Sapporo Premium.