寿海 Restaurant JUKAI — Restaurant in Fujiyoshida

Hirofumi Watanabe-san operated Jukai in New York City for over a decade before moving back to his hometown and reopening the restaurant here.

The newly renovated space has an impressive cellar that holds an impressive selection of wines and sakes, with international labels and some unique local Yamanashi wines (ask for some recommendations from Hiro-san or his wife Ikuyo-san, who is a certified sommelier!).

The food spans a wide spectrum, with New York/international-influenced dishes that are even better in Japan than it was in America due to the better sourcing of local Yamanashi ingredients. The drinking dishes to pair with the wines and sakes are particularly impressive in their range and uniqueness of ingredients. In the winter, their various hot pots and sukiyakis are perfect to go with the specialty fish fin hot sake.

Highly recommended as an integral part of any trip to the...

Came for dinner with my husband in the early evening and first enjoyed the massive cinematic view of Mt. Fuji from their parking space.

We loved chef’s omakase menu, the combination of sashimi, steak and grilled seafood, was amazing with lots of flavour, very sophisticated and impressive for a Japanese restaurant that is hard to find in the suburban areas like Fujiyoshida.

The service was also very good. When we got inside of restaurant at our reservation, the wait staff had our table ready and welcomed us with a tasty cold glass of Japanese ale. The sommelier was trilingual, could speak English and French, and introduced their selection of sake as well as wine. Had a great experience of sake paring.

This place is highly recommend for those who are seeking for hidden gems in Fujiyoshida....

My partner and I shared a vegetable pan with tofu, which was beautifully served in the middle of the table. My partner ordered some meat on the side, which he found excellent, and I had a bowl of rice to go with it. The overall experience was wonderful, as we were able to dine in a small private room just for the two of us. The staff spoke very good English and were extremely attentive. For dessert, we tried the chocolate truffles, which I can highly recommend. Another great advantage was that we could eat a bit later in the evening, since the restaurant doesn’t close as early as many others in the area...