Fukuichi Japanese Dining : Singapore Restaurant Review
Japanese Cuisine slightly tweaked to the local palate.
After the successful opening of Fukuichi Japanese Dining (Fukuichi) at Triple One Somerset, Fukuichi decides to step up their game to open their second outlet at Hotel Chancellor.
Many of you may not actually know this hotel (although we must admit the name does sound kinda dodgy) but it is actually nestled in the heart of Orchard Road amongst other better known hotels such as Concorde Hotel and Holiday Inn Singapore.
The 90-seater Japanese dining restaurant boasts a sushi bar as well as a private tatami room which can comfortably sit 8 people. The decor is more modern and casual with high ceilings and light wood furniture.
Fukuichi offers a relatively wide menu selection of sake and shochu by the bottle. We were offered their house pour cold sake ($18++) as our pre-dinner drinks. The house pour sake was smooth and easy to drink, we reckon ladies may enjoy this blend of sake as it is not too dry and has a slight tinge of fruity after taste.
The restaurant is currently offering a 1-for-1 promotion till 30 Sep 2015 on selected sake and shochu bottles (while stocks last) to celebrate their new outlet’s grand opening.
Kani Tofu ($7) is a housemade crab stick beancurd with century egg sauce. The tofu was smooth like silk and with the infusion of the crab stick within the tofu; it was a perfect blend of both creaminess and sweetness on the palate.
The taste of the tofu was further enhanced with their in-house century egg sauce; which was not overly pungent and neither was the sauce too thick. We really enjoyed this cold appetizer although we did wish if the crab infusion was real crab meat instead.
Ebi Teppanyaki ($25). This dish needs no further introduction and explanation as its exactly how it looks – simply, grilled prawns teppanyaki style. For the benefit of those who do not know what teppanyaki is, it is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses a flat iron griddle to cook food.
There is simply no way this dish can go wrong especially since the prawns were fresh, juicy, grilled well and topped with mentaiko sauce. Do bite into the prawn heads (they are not there just for decoration), the heads were crunchy yet still oozing with prawn brain juice – super yummy we must say!
Gyuniku Fagura Sauce ($38). Grilled Australian beef cubes with the chef’s specialty goose liver (foie gras) sauce. Essentially the sauce is foie gras hand grated and mixed with mirin and sake.
The foie gras taste was not very apparent and distinctive at first bite, we could only decipher the taste after having at least more than 3 pieces of beef. The beef was very tender however the dish did not sit very well with us because overall it was a tad too oily for our liking for both the sauce and the beef cubes. Aesthetically it is also not very appetising to the eye.
XO sauce Chawan Mushi ($14). The chef was feeling kinda generous and decided to treat us to an added bonus appetizer dish. Honestly we really do not know anybody who does not like chawan mushi (even kids as young as 2 years old loves chawan mushi).
This has to be my personal second most favourite dish at this tasting (first being the Ebi) although Sarah our photographer commented that she may not be willing to part with $14 just to have this steamed egg dish.
It may be slightly on the pricey side but I liked the myriad of flavours swirling in the mouth – think fresh seafood like prawn, scallop and ikura (salmon roe) together with dried scallops; combined with finely chopped lemon grass and Japanese mitsuba leaf (a minty flavoured type of herb) on top of eggs steamed till silky and soft in a fluffy light essence like version of XO sauce – hmm kinda heavenly don’t cha think? Do try this chawan mushi and see if you agree with me.
Fukuichi Teishoku 8 mini courses set ($30++ till 30th Sep 2015). This set is nothing spectacular but it does serve its purpose of filling the tummy. It has all the usual fares such as prawn tempura, sashimi, sushi and grilled salmon fish.
The sashimi grade is pretty normal although we do think the raw sashimi were not very well thawed. Slight tinge of icyness in the middle of the sashimi especially for the maguro (tuna). The squid nigiri sushi was way too chewy and hence difficult to swallow. Not very impressive nigiri sushi especially since the rice was slightly over cooked and too lumpy.
Ice-cream (made in house) – Strawberry & mango, Mochi, Goma, Yuzu and Matcha flavours. We really enjoyed the mochi and yuzu ice-cream. Matcha and goma ice-cream are always safe to order at any decent Japanese restaurants. We do not recommend to order the strawberry and mango ice-cream as the fruity flavours were too artificial tasting.
Fukuichi does serve up an array of lunch and dinner sets. From now till 30th September 2015, diners get to enjoy some special lunch and dinner promotions at Fukuichi Hotel Chancellor. So what’s our honest verdict you may be asking now? Will we be back for more?
Well, the restaurant does have to improve on some of their dishes especially since they are facing some stiff competition from small but fantastic Japanese restaurants and eateries at Cuppage Plaza which is just a stone throw away. Having said that, I may still want to head back to try their grilled silver cod fish with cod roe sauce set ($28).
Expected Damage: $35 – $60 per pax
Fukuichi Japanese Dining: 28 Cavenagh Road #01-05, Hotel Chancellor, Singapore 229635 | Tel : 6737 0788 | Website | Operating Hours: Lunch (12pm – 3pm) Dinner (6pm to midnight)
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