Fuku soft opening - teppanyaki degustation

It felt like a secret underground party when we arrived at Fuku’s entrance in Mosman Park. We approached a closed frosted glass door and after pressing the bell, burger boy and I had a quick look around the corner to make sure we were really at the entrance and not at the back entrance/kitchen entry. The lantern outside was off and a few moments later the door slided open for us and we were greeted by Fuku’s staff and taken to our seats.

burger boy and I were excited to be invited to Fuku’s soft opening and I was even more excited as I haven’t experienced a teppanyaki restaurant before. I was in such awe watching the chef crack an egg that I dropped on my then new white iPhone 5 in my sauce 😉 I then had to gracefully fish it out, pretending I didn’t find the stickiness annoying before subtlety making my way to the much talked about bathroom to wash the sauce off.

Fuku’s sake wall featured around 500 bottles (half of which have been exclusively imported by the owner Brett), it was impressive and my bro who went to Fuku the night before couldn’t stop raving about the $500 sake he was luckily shouted by one of the generous Fuku guests.

We had a good chat to Fuku owner Brett, who also owns Tsunami next door, about all things sake and how his reservation system was inspired by Momofuku Ko which just takes online reservations. So yep, Fuku is changing the Perth restaurant scene and does not have a phone - there are set seating times and you can only book via their website www.restaurant-fuku.com or take the chance and hope that the lantern outside is amber to indicate that there are seats available.

Fuku has 3 menus, ‘good’, ‘better’ & ‘best’ (see below). Fuku put on the better menu (9 courses) for us at the soft opening with the matching wine option - so what we had would have costed $235 per person.

The setting was intimate with only limited seating (16) and it was entertaining to watch Fuku’s chef cook our meals. The beautiful art that surrounded us added to the experience and it was wonderful to be able to enjoy my first teppanyaki experience with fellow Perth food bloggers: Perth Food Engineers, Perth Munchkin, The Food Pornographer, Love for Peaches, Sprinkling of Spice and of course with my burger boy.

When asked if we had any dietary requirements I did say I didn’t eat any raw foods. Yep I am fussy and no I don’t eat sashimi 😉 I did try salmon sashimi when I was a kid, but it’s something about the texture that doesn’t go down well with me (literally). But hey, never know one day it could change just like my switch from my preference from white to red wine this year. Fuku were very accommodating, they cooked my sashimi for me

burger boy unlike fussy me had his sashimi the way it should be eaten 😉 and loved his tuna, salmon and snapper…

Of the small morsels which were served, my favourite was the lobster and avocado salad which was creamy and tangy. I don’t usually have my beef as rare as featured below but I ate it gracefully 😉 and yep I do have a childhood quail phobia story which has prevented me from eating quail for over 10 years until my Fuku visit (story for another time). Thanks Fuku for breaking that void for me 😉

burger boy’s version of the small morsels which has shell fish…

My small morsels which has the shell fish replaced with a cooked quail

I really enjoyed the Japanese scallop, they were fresh and plump…

The courses kept coming over 2 hours.

This was the Quail twice cooked with pomegranate sauce which burger boy enjoyed, I can’t comment on taste as I don’t eat Quail…

Prawn, scallop and shell fish…as most of you guys know, I freak out when I see or visualise a part of an animal on my plate. Safe to say I removed the shell fish from my plate pretty quickly. The prawn and scallop was glazed with sea urchin butter which I found intriguing to watch and eat.

Fuku’s chef was really cooking with fire…made for awesome entertainment!

Swordfish and radish was served with ginger on top and miso sauce…

I ordered my wagyu sirloin steak grade 7 well done, it was really tender and I enjoyed this dish.

The fried rice which was cooked with wagyu fat was a bit oily for my liking but a great filler nevertheless…

I was more than happy with my white wine but got envious when Sprinkling of Spice’s partner ordered a mango granita which was unlimited at the fixed price of $10 - I had to have one. It was very refreshing, sweet and balanced the savoury flavours of our dishes…

Before joining Fuku’s sister co Tsunami as head chef, Tetsuya Sakamoto (featured below torching our layered cake) worked in Nobu Melbourne making sushi for the rich & famous including Nicole Kidman and Matt Damon, and also in Dubai’s modern Japanese restaurant ‘Bang/Mirai’.

For dessert we were served Genmaicha pannacotta (rice pudding with white rice tea syrup), Japanese Baumkuchen (layered cake) and mountain peach with kinako (soybean and icing sugar)…

What I enjoyed most about Fuku was the theatrical dining experience. Being the sister company of the much talked about Tsunami, I didn’t expect anything but quality and my expectations were exceeded. I must say, I don’t usually goto degustations as I’m fussy with my food and don’t generally eat everything on my plate so dinner at Fuku really did push my eating boundaries (my first introduction to degustations was at Amuse for their special dessert degustation). Thank you Brett and the Fuku team for having burger boy and I. Fuku is definitely worth going to for a special occasion - there’s nothing like it here in Perth. Be sure to check out the marble art as featured behind the chefs if you do go, Brett tells us it was pretty hard to get through the doors 😉