Fuku - Omakase and Teppanyaki

"Quality produce, Quality service"

http://thefuku.com

I was blessed to be invited by Milan Rai to dine in Fuku as a guest blogger.  Like the many blog posts that have flooded into Urbanspoon by bloggers, there is a common positive consensus. I will now put in my two cents, this will be a honest post, my opinions will not be influenced regardless of the invite in order to keep to my values and the integrity of my blog.

Few days before I recieved the invite, I was coincidently reading into Fuku in search for a place to take the bf on his bday. He loves japanese so I was contemplating on teppanyaki since we both have never experienced it before. When I think tepanyaki, I think a food show with a big price tag, hence it has always been on the "to do" list and under the authority of my wallet :(

On arrival we were well prepared for the intercom entrance, had I not gotten the information from reading blogposts before, I would've tried yanking the door open. After the intercom was pushed, the door slid open and we were greeted with a warm and welcoming dining area, numerous sake displayed on the wall, lovely soft instrumental music in the background, inviting waiters and a good looking chef HAHA! A+ for environment. We were seated and had a look at the menu which consisted of good, better and BEST which consists of luxurious ingredients like lobster, foie gras and truffles . We were informed that we will be having the better menu. *excited*

Calamari with Herring Roe and Antartic Ice Crab

 

First of 8 courses, simple, fresh and I loved the seaweed crackle giving a good contrast of textures to the dish. They were very  generous with the roe.

Smoked Wagyu, Oyster Tempura, Burdock and School prawn Kakiage

 

This was one of my favourite dishes. I am not a fan of oysters, I don't like the look of them and sometimes chewy but this oyster was big and juicy and so tender, the fact that it was a tempura made it look more appealing. Waygu with a miso sauce was delicious and the prawn kakiage was surprisingly not that hard to eat,  it's just like soft shell crab.

Sashimi

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the sashimi. Sashimi was very fresh and melted in my mouth. I'm normally not a big fan of sashimi but I gobbled this down easily.

I loved the quality of the service. The chef would prepare and present the dish on the bench top in which the waiters will come in and place the dish in front of us all so delicately.

Partridge

 

Never had partridge before but tasted like chicken *how amatuer of me* it being wrapped in crepe reminded me of peking duck, it didn't blow me away, but I still enjoyed it.

Scallop, prawn and crispy prawn head

 

This dish was another one of my favourites. Scallop was volumtious, juicy and perfectly cooked, prawn was well seasoned and also well grilled. Who knew I'd actually enjoy prawn head, it wasn't hard to eat and the chef said it was good for our skin. In that case, good skin is coming my way baby!

What I learnt so far is that tepanyaki is all about working with great produce and simple cooking to keep the natural flavours, in saying that I haven't seen any theatricals and was getting abit disappointed..UNTIL!

The chef started setting things on fire :O!

.........making a volcano

........ Juggling pepper and salt shakers

............... Doing some crazy chopping

............. Pulling out the flesh of the lobster and putting it back into the shell like nothing happened whatsoever

............ Juggling with knives, throwing eggs and cracking it on the knife, as well as picking up an egg yolk and cracking that onto a knife, though there was a couple of failed attempts and a big mess made, it's just all part of the fun.

Now back to the serious stuff..

At this point another chef came to cook, he was wearing a different hat. I think he was not as experienced as the first chef but he was more willing to try out the harder tricks which was entertaining. The experienced chef was left to serve the customers whom ordered the BEST menu. *rich*

Fish of the day

 

I didn't quite enjoy this dish, I found the fish over cooked and a little tough, I also didn't dare to eat the baby octopus, moved it to J's dish, he enjoyed that part. It also took awhile to prepare with the blow torching of the fish and the leaves, not sure if that added flavour to the dish with the torching of the leaves.

Waygu (full blood) sirloin steak. Mayura Station grade 9+, Fried rice with wagyu flavour

 

The chef went around asking everyone how they liked their steak, many chose medium rare. In the end he recommended waygu to be medium to medium well done so the fat can melt away to achieve the full tender steak. From then everybody changed their preferences on their steak. I enjoyed the waygu with the garlic chips, full of flavour. Unfortunately I found the fried rice lacking flavour and some rice was abit hard.

Yuzu cheesecake, chocolate drink and mountain peach

 

I was very excited for dessert and it didn't disappoint. Yuzu cheesecake was creamy and refreshing went well with the chocolate drink. A great end to a wonderful 8 course.

Overall J and I enjoyed our first tepanyaki experience. We can definetly tell that the produce is A grade and they strive for good quality dishes. I highly recommend this place for private parties, it only seats 16 people, but I think the experience would be more fun sharing it with friends and encouraging the chefs to demonstrate more tricks. I'm sure they'll be happy to give them ago knowing that everyone is willing to have some fun. It would definitely be a more interactive dining experience. I believe they have a new WALK-IN menu which I would like to try one day $75, just walk in and make your own menu.