Quietly Splendid

My husband booked Kamo, our favourite Japanese restaurant in Brussels for my 32th birthday (ooops, did I just say how old I am). Although I was perfectly content with the choice, I felt slightly underwhelmed with the predictability of the choice. I comforted myself with the thought of ‘well 32 is not a special age, so the good old Kamo will just do fine for the occasion’.

Only there’s nothing insignificant about Kamo. With one Michelin star firmly engraved, it attracts a gung-ho clientele, both Japanese and non-Japanese alike. Often so fully-booked that at times reservation telephones are not even picked up and its website is but newly established, somewhat an oddity among today’s omni-channel cum present restaurants.

Similarly low-key is the soft-spoken chef/owner, Kamo. His calmness and modesty almost makes many ultra-egoistic chefs look fool-hardy.

As usual, we seated in the bar seat facing the open kitchen only inches away. Watching the squad of Kamo cook is as therapeutic as Zen.

Starter came with 5 dainty dishes that pay tribute to seasonality, quality ingredients and umami, which in my opinion are essences to Japanese cooking. I also loved the single-mindedness of the cooking: each dish features one protagonist with all the other ingredients doing their best to emphasis the deliciousness of the main ingredient: Monkfish liver with soy sauce, green vegetables in Dashi (fish stock), eel tempura, Iberian pork with ginger and vinegar.

Followed by elegantly presented Sashimi: melting salmon, sensual squid, tangy yellow tail but none are overwhelmingly fatty or buttery that may hijack the attention of the entire meal.

Main course is Saumon D’Isigny in sweet and sour source. So deep-flavoured that we felt a rejuvenated emotion towards Salmon.

And here’s the sweet ending: a neatly-arranged dessert board specially prepared for the birthday girl: I let the homemade Chestnut ice-cream and mocha pudding melt slowly in my mouth, feeling the harmonious combination coiled my palette.

Once again I’ve been reminded of the wonderfulness of this place. Quietly splendid, perhaps just like the age of 32?!