Nakamura — Restaurant in Fukuoka

A feast for the eyes, mouth, and heart.

Chisou Nakamura is a purveyor of high-quality Japanese Kaiseki style cuisine, and they excel at preserving a sense of simplicity all while impressing in flavor.

The food is unvarnished, terrifically simple, and easy to understand. If you are not used to Japanese food it may feel a bit daunting, but there is nothing far flung about any of these dishes, making the overall experience quite approachable.

Awarded 2-Michelin stars in 2019, this restaurant nevertheless feels homey, inviting, and warm. Despite the traditional environment and approach, it seems that the hearty hospitality of Fukuoka is determined to rear its head, and so in spite of this it feels very much like dining at a friend’s home. Perhaps this is not the intended purpose of kaiseki cuisine- but I could not care less when my experience was so thoroughly relaxing.

Now for the food- we are talking about high end, high quality, exceptional stuff. This is cuisine that may not subvert expectations, but it will fulfill them- and this is the point. You are going to dine with somebody who isn’t reinventing the wheel, nor even perfecting it- but making it just so that your experience with the wheel is so seamlessly enjoyable that the exceptional now becomes a new normal. It’s hard to go back after Chisou Nakamura.

Stand outs for me included the Ayu/Sweetfish, a summer delicacy prepared with green peppers and a delicious sauce, the utterly fantastic bite of the eggplant, tamamiso, and spiny lobster with its ever so slightly charred bits, and the home run of a steak topped with grated turnip. Everything on the tray garnished with a small branch was exceptional as well: the karasumi, sushi, and everything else on it. Wow!

Mastery is what we call somebody who can make what they do seem effortless. Chisou Nakamura does this so well that you won’t notice until later.

Oh- the sake selection...

ここは、自分の中で、今、博多で1番美味い懐石を出す店だと思っています✨👍

正式なコースで運ばれてくる品々は、全て、器からお箸に至るまで、店主、女将の心遣いがなされており、味も一級品です✨

庶民の私には、なかなかな額のコース料金ですが、食べた後で後悔したことは1度もありません！笑

皆さんのお財布が許すのであれば、間違いなく、是非おすすめしたい、博多が誇る名店の1つです。

☆は満点の5で、マイナスする点は何もありません。 どうか、変わらずずっと続けて頂...

福岡市に移転する前の北九州のお店のファンでした。（女子会とPTAの食事会等で利用しましたが、器、盛り付けお味も心づくしでいつも皆で感激しながら頂いていました）

行こう行こうと思いつつコロナ禍になってしまい未だに福岡市のお店には行けておりません。が、変わらぬ美味しさなのは間違いないと思いますし移転先でも高評価なのが嬉しくて…。

コロナ禍が明けたら...