The flavour of the season seems to be Japanese and there's a new place in town to have it - Fuji, situated on the ever busy Chamiers Road. Once inside the restaurant, the noise of traffic is shut out and a sense of calm envelops the visitor.
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| The serene Japanese style dining area |
The vestibule-like entrance has wooden slats decorated with artificial flora that demarcate the private dining rooms on one side. On the other side is a large room with low tables and cushions to sit on with a space below for your feet to rest. Earthy tones on the walls and floor and the dark brown of tables, cushions and pillars are in contrast to the white napkins placed at each seat. You have to take off your footwear if you want to dine in this room. We opted to sit in one of the PDRs, not because of the no footwear requirement but because for those not accustomed to sitting on the floor, it would be quite a contortionist's act to manoeuvre oneself into position!
This is Fuji's second restaurant in India and we met the team that promotes it where we learnt that one of the partners is the owner of 40 restaurants in Japan!
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| Spinach; dashimaki tamago; sunagimo |
Fortunately for us, our tasting menu had been preselected to showcase Fuji's specialities. We started with an appetiser trio of fried chicken gizzard - sunagimo, dashimaki tamago and spinach. The tamago was excellent - juicy, slightly sweet and well made. The spinach had merely been blanched with a sprinkling of sesame seeds on it.
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| Seafood sashimi platter |
A platter of sashimi was served next - slices of salmon, red snapper and squid. The wasabi added the necessary kick, along with the palate cleansing pickled ginger.
Steamed fish with bamboo shoots and spring onions looked pretty as a picture. The fish had been rolled into shape but I wasn't too keen on it as it tasted ...well... fishy but the sauce was delicious.The bamboo shoots provided a lovely textural contrast.
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| Nothing like munching on a bowl of edamame to pass the time |
The stand out dish for me was chicken karashi yaki - grilled chicken with miso and mustard. Tender, juicy slices of chargrilled chicken with the hint of miso and a dab of mildly pungent yellow mustard. Simply sublime!
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| Tempura |
My basket of tempura had prawns, squid, capsicum, eggplant and pumpkin. The coating was crisp but if you do order it, remember to eat it fast as it loses its crispness the longer it sits around.
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| Nigiri sushi platter |
We had Fuji's nigiri sushi that included a roll with salmon, and rice topped with salmon, squid and prawn. There was also an interesting little roll stuffed with a preserved plum paste. The sushi was ok but the toppings kept falling off the rolls while being dipped into the sauce.
Fuji has plenty of options for vegetarians. Every dish we were served had a vegetarian version as well.
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| Nasu dengaku - fried eggplant with miso and sesame seed paste |
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| Sauce bowl and soya sauce jar |
The food is light on the stomach as a good Japanese meal should be. Our bowls of green tea were replenished periodically. Incidentally, we opted for the hot version.
Fuji is a good place to dine at if you're unfamiliar with Japanese food as the flavours are mild enough. The service crew was kind enough to explain the dishes as they were being served. Portions are just right. I loved the tableware which is imported from Japan and the lacquer bowls which were used for serving green tea and soup.
A meal for 2 would cost approximately 2500/++.
Call 044 42112511 for reservations.
Looks Enticing!!! Should try it sometime soon :)
ReplyDeleteLook forward to your take on it.
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