Sushi is everyone’s favorite. revolving Sushi especially is very popular among family or youth, because of their reasonable but tasty Sushi. Kappa Sushi (かっぱ寿司) is one of the four biggest revolving Sushi chains of Japan.
As introduced in the article Is Kura Sushi Halal? and Is Sushiro Halal?, so far none of the revolving sushi is Halal, and unfortunately so is the Kappa Sushi.
First of all, do you know what is Kappa? It is a Japanese old monster or ghost, which was believed to live around river or pond. He has a human body with a plate on top of his head, enticing people to jump to the water. Kappa Sushi is named because of the plate that this ghost has.
The feature of Kappa Sushi can be seen how they prepare their fish in the kitchen. The fish is frozen, but each fish has different way of defrosting, carefully seeing the feature of fish. The fish is also cut in the kitchen to ensure the quality, because if fish is made ready way too early, the quality will be a lot worse.
What is interesting is that all Kappa Sushi is served without Wasabi. This is to aim more family customers with kids, who are usually not good at eating Wasabi. This can make the making procedure simpler, too.
So, Is Kappa Sushi Halal?
Unfortunately, Kappa Sushi is not genuinely Halal, however, risk of contamination with pork seems lower than other Sushi restaurants.
Looking at their official website, there is allergen list. According to this list, Sushi in Kappa Sushi is not so much contaminated by meat products.
Credit: https://www.kappasushi.jp/
Yellow highlighted is Beef, Chicken, Pork and Gelatin. As you can see, most of them do not contain meat-derived products as their ingredients. Of course, kitchen and utensils are not separated, but it is good to know that at least there are Sushi that have no meat-derived ingredients.
However, the biggest concern for Sushi is their usage of alcohol. We have contacted Kappa Sushi and clarified their seasonings.
What about their Sushi vinegar and soy sauce?
The answer was not a good one. Both soy sauce and vinegar used for rice contain a tiny portion of alcohol, which can problem for some Muslims.
It is said that the percentage of residual alcohol is about 0.5％ for soy sauce, which is the maximum percentage that can be halal defined by Halal Certificate Authority. These vinegar and soy sauce are not used to intoxicate someone, but this information should be shared among Muslims.
Credit: https://mognavi.jp/assessment/5294833
The label clearly says “alcohol.”
Also, their Miso soup also contains alcohol.
In conclusion.
Although Kappa Sushi cannot be a genuine Halal meal, the risk of contamination with meat or pork seems better than other revolving Sushi chains. If you can accept the residual alcohol in their Sushi rice, Kappa Sushi may be your choice.
By carrying your own Halal soy sauce, the situation will be even better. We hope you can judge whether Kappa Sushi is Halal or not, by using this knowledge.
