Sushi Senpachi — Restaurant in Fukuoka

鮨仙八 (Sushi Sempachi) - The WORST omakase in my life, with a discriminating sushi master who treats you with disgrace.

If you (as a foreigner) want to have a discriminatory omakase in Fukuoka, this is a must-go.

Weird seating To start with, the seating plan is awkward already. I went there on Sept 3 for dinner with my family. We got seated separately at the right side of the table and at the corner, while some local Japanese customers who came alone were arranged to sit in front of Takashi Nakahara san, the master. Another group of diners from Hong Kong (probably) were also seated at the left side of the table. Got the feeling that they only allowed Japanese customers sit in front of the master.

But that’s fine, as long as the food is good.

But it turned out to be the WORST omakase I have ever had in my life (I have had omakase a few times in Tokyo and Hong Kong).

Sashimi with fish bone Then, when the sashimi was served, it contains fish bone which is too hard to swallow. As this is quite uncommon (and not up to standard for a fancy meal by a Michelin two-starred master, in my view), I first informed an assistant of the master of this situation but I got neither an explanation nor apology. I found it quite unsatisfactory - so I translated my message in Japanese and showed the master the translated message later. Surprisingly, the master went back to the kitchen to talk behind us. Then he just shrug his shoulders and said “sorry” to me, in a frivolous manner. No explanation, again.

No food intro from the master And that’s not the only example of discrimination. Throughout the omakase, the master just kept talking to the Japanese customers sitting in front of him and ignored the foreigners sitting on the left and the right. Basically no introduction about each dish was given by the master in English, although he did in Japanese to local customers. Instead, before each sushi was served, his assistant would just simply give us a card with a few lines about that fish in English. As only one card was given, we, as a family of five, needed to passed the card along among ourselves so we could keep abreast of the flow. Sometimes the card is not updated and we had to ask for it. While the master occasionally might whisper the name of the fish when he gave me the sushi, he didn’t do it for all of our family members. It’s definitely not because he was occupied with the food prep - he was actually spending most of his time talking to certain Japanese customers.

I must say, this is a very disrespectful experience.

And I was not alone. After I left the restaurant, I scrolled down to see comments on this place on Google. I then realized that some other customers made similar remarks re the discriminatory experience they met in this place.

Average food quality Well then you may wonder - setting aside the experience (which I believe is critical for omakase), what about the food? It’s just average to me, unfortunately (disclaimer: not an expert in sushi). Although the fish generally tastes fresh, the sushi rice is over-seasoned. The sourness of the sushi rice is overwhelming and it overpowers other flavours. Some side dishes and the soup are very salty. The tamago is cold.

Conclusion: If you are a foreigner, just save your money, as at least you deserve a master who will not treat you...

First of all, my booking was at 11:00a.m. and we arrived at 11:05 and completely sat down at the restaurant around 11:10a.m. Other 5 customers already started their meal when we sat down. We were late and it was our fault.

However, we finished the meal within an hour as the picture I took after the meal outside the restaurant has a time stamp of 12:06p.m. The meal was supposed to be 90 minutes according to the booking and we ( a group of 5 persons) felt the rush. There were a total of 15 items in the whole lunch set. And there were a few occasions that there were 2 sushi in front of me.

Also, the chef did not even try to talk to us, but he talked to the other customers next to me in Japanese. I'm not sure if it was because we are foreigners. Or he was too busy to catch up with the schedule due to our lateness. The apprentices (or assistance), though, did greet us and shared with us some fish information about the sushi using a tablet. When we got out of the restaurant, the assistance also stood in front of the restaurant to say goodbye.

This restaurant makes sushi rice with red vinegar as we can see the darker rice. It also brought stronger sourness in the sushi than usual. I m not an expert with sushi, but it is not my cup of tea. Having said that, I do like the non-rice part, in particular the shellfish and the prawn, which were full of umami.

The environment was clean, simple, and tidy with a large L-shape Japanese wooden bar top table and 10 seats....

What an exceptional experience!

The chef and apprentices were very kind and attentive. Watching them work with such grace and efficiency was a treat.

The sake list featured mostly Kyushu sake, with I believe one from Yamaguchi and a warm option from Niigata. I am a huge sake nerd and don't see much Kyushu sake in my part of the US. I wanted to taste around the menu a bit but the Kameman junmai was so delicious and paired with everything so so well (especially the hikarimono) that I just got a second glass of that lol. This restaurant was originally in Kumamoto, so I figured I should drink Kumamoto sake with it.

The shari is so different from what I've had before. Approaching the restaurant, we could smell the vinegar from outside and got really excited. The flavor is stronger, and temperature of the rice slightly warmer than I'm used to, but it suited the fish perfectly. Since it's winter, the fat content of the fish is higher, so the acidity from the rice creates beautiful balance. I can't possibly pick a favorite piece, as there were too many stand outs. Saba battera, bafun uni, maguro, ika (the ika!!!!), etc. I could go on. And the oyster risotto made me want to cry, it was so damn good.

I've never left a review for anything before, but I just feel like I had to say...