Japanese-Style Cake Shop Kki Sweets Opens Cool New Restaurant With No Signboard

Kki first opened in 2009 in a shophouse along Ann Sian Hill and quickly won fans with their light-as-air mousse cakes inspired by the likes of Japanese pastry legends Hidemi Sugino and Sadaharu Aoki. High rentals forced them to close the store in 2013, and a year later, they re-opened at School Of The Arts (SOTA).

In hindsight, Delphine says that SOTA’s location was too obscure and unable to draw the foot traffic that the store needed to survive. It closed in 2017, after which the couple began working with gourmet grocer and cafe The Providore as it debuted its sprawling new flagship in the basement of Downtown Gallery. They’ve spent the last three years setting up its pastry central kitchen and training young pastry chefs in the production of cakes for four other outlets.

Having their own store was always in the pipeline since it’s their passion and they have a loyal customer base. But if there’s one thing the couple has learnt from their almost 10 years in the cake business, it’s that the business isn’t sustainable as just a restaurant. “On the back end, you really have to push things out in order to fund the passion,” says Kenneth. So the couple are working towards a line of edible Singapore souvenirs to sell to the world. Watch this space for details.

This new restaurant at Seah Street was scheduled to open in January. “But it was a bit tricky because this used to be a retail space so we had to apply for a change of use and go back and forth between URA and SLA,” he explains. “And then after renovations, as we were waiting for our NEA license, the Circuit Breaker hit. Thankfully, the kitchen was up and running, so I used that time to really refine our offerings.”

Minimalist chic and Spartan — there’s no signage, no cake display, nor pictures of cakes on the menu. The almost 1,000-square-foot space — formerly occupied by Taiwanese pineapple cake makers Sunny Hills, who used it as their office, storeroom and pop-up venue (their retail store remains open next door) — is tricked out in elegant Japanese style. A long white high table runs through the dining area, which is paved in polished concrete and lined with a navy wall. Slender plants grow from beneath part of the table to break the monotony of its length and serve as natural partitions between customers.

Think of this as Kki (pronounced “cakey”) all grown up. “We thought that this should be different from our two previous stores,” explains Delphine, 43, referring to their former cake shop models where patrons choose their cakes from a glass counter before sitting down to eat. “We wanted this to be more of an experience so we now function like a restaurant. We make the cakes a la minute, so we have better control over the desserts.”

“With this format, we can offer more components and textures, and more delicate fruits on the plate,” adds Ken. “For example, in the past we couldn’t put a tuile (a thin baked wafer) on a cake because it would have gone soft straight away. Now we can do things like that and have a lot more to play around with.”

Thanks to safe distancing imperatives, the space, which was designed to seat 24 people, now seats up to 14 diners at a time. And dessert is by reservations only, so don’t expect to rock up to the no-signboard entrance on a whim and be given a place. The restaurant, which opens on 29 July, is already fully booked for the next fortnight, as the couple had reached out earlier to their longtime regulars.

“With the limited capacity, we want people to be comfortable and not have to queue outside,” explains Ken. “At the same time, this [accepting reservations only] also helps us to prepare better because we know how many people are going to come in.”

Delphine is quick to add that this new model helps eliminate plenty of waste. “When you have a cake display, you have to make a lot so that the display looks nice. But if you don’t sell them all, you have to throw whatever’s left at the end of the day. [But because we don't waste food], we can now give people better quality [ingredients].”

To start, there are eight cakes or entremets and three plated desserts. “The menu will change every couple of months,” says Delphine. In true Kki style, each is petite and ethereally delicate, and calls for a Zen-like resolve to savour them deliberately and slowly. We got a preview of some of their specialities.

That concrete plant pot looks so real that we try to lift it with our fingers. The fact that it is cold and soft shocks us into realising that it is an expertly shaped black sesame mousse. Inside that woodsy-flavoured black sesame pot are layers of yuzu cremeux (a smooth French pudding), crisp matcha and white chocolate rice krispies, and bittersweet chocolate soil. We love the varying textures and the fact that the yuzu cremeaux provides a lovely brightness to the deeper flavours of sesame and cocoa.

A pretty pink grapefruit mousse set on a layer of soft, mint sponge hides neat pockets of lychee mousse and grapefruit jelly. At first bite, the tart-bitterness of the grapefruit practically shocks the palate, but it quickly gives way to the soft flavour of lychee and the sweet grapefruit jelly within. The mint in the sponge gets lost in all that fruitiness, but somehow manages to temper the grapefruit’s acerbic edge so that the various flavours harmonise gently by the third forkful. Like edible magic!

A strong tea like Earl Grey can often overwhelm a dessert component, especially when it is mixed with milk or cream. But here, there is no trace of the tea’s tannic qualities in the mousse, just its resonant bergamot flavour that makes a lovely pairing with the sweet pieces of poached pear spiked with lemon and Pear William liquor within. The crisp shards of almost savoury hazelnut tuiles give this dessert a nice contrast of flavours and textures.

This multi-component plated dessert would fit right in at a highfaluting Michelin-starred restaurant, what with its complex mix of carrot mousse, almond crackling (made by “frying” almond sorbet in liquid nitrogen), orange sorbet and meringue set on a disc of ginger panna cotta. A zingy, refreshing dessert reminiscent of a perky ginger and carrot cold pressed juice.

A beautiful, calming space to stop in and linger over a dessert or four (they’re all so light, it’s hard not to just inhale them in three bites). To signify a new start, Kenneth and his team have created an entirely new menu, so don’t expect to find old signatures like their white chocolate and mango Antoinette. That said, Kki’s sweets remain as sophisticated as ever. Kenneth’s unimpeachable technique and eye for balance have only gotten better with time, as his plated desserts will attest. Given the quality and amount of work that goes into each exquisite creation, prices are pretty reasonable. To go with the cakes is a small selection of teas by Japanese brand Lupicia and pour over coffee using beans from Tiong Hoe Specialty Coffee, the oldest coffee roaster in Singapore.

Kki Sweets is at #01-01, 3 Seah St. S188379. Whatsapp 9799 2668 for reservations. Open daily except Mon & Tue. 11am-7pm Wed-Sat; 11am-5pm Sun. Last orders at 6pm & 4pm. https://www.kki-sweets.com/

Photos: Kelvin Chia