Fukumimi Shinjuku — Restaurant in Tokyo

*menu available in Japanese / English / Chinese *you have to climb some stairs to reach the restaurant

Went there on the weekend to meet a friend who travelled to Japan. Food was averagely good but a bit overpriced, which was understandable for its location. However the service was disappointing and personally I'll pay no second visit.

I reserved a kotatsu table (which is a semi-private space) on their online system. When I arrived on time, I was told that the kotatsu table is not available because they have given it to someone else. I was given the choice of waiting for another 20 min to be seated so I gave in to regular table. Later I found out that they had changed my booking to "regular table" in their online system only 20 min prior to my booking. What's the point of the choice of seats if finally I'm assigned to whatever they like?

Up until the above, I had been communicating in Japanese with the staff and experienced no difficulty at all. When I asked the staff where my friend could place her suitcase, the staff suddenly realized that I am a foreigner and switched to speaking in English, which was not a problem as long as he felt comfortable, but unfortunately he was not.

Then the same staff took our order of drinks. My pregnant friend wanted a non-alcoholic lemon soda, so I pointed to the menu while emphasizing we want a non-alcoholic one, but still he placed the wrong order. Luckily we were able to correct him.

Never order the grilled fish if you don't wanna put yourself in an embarrassing...

Let’s start with the positive item: the yakitori were good, both chicken and beef. Not the best we had in Japan, but solid.

Here the list of the negative things: The service was really embarrassing bad, apart from few waiters that were really trying their best. We had to wait ages before even getting some drinks that also came at first wrong. To tell the truth, we also had the very unpleasant feeling to be kind of discriminated since the only western in the restaurant…eventually the food came quite late and as soon as I started being upset. The place was noisy and so complicated to talk within the table. Not recommended for children. The place was full of smoke from the live kitchen: ventilation was perhaps “on leave”. Price was too high, particularly with such an underperforming service. In addition, service charge of 550 yen per person, that should include some crackers and a kind of Philadelphia cheese, is tough to digest when you did not get a real service: a shame that they eventually kept it in the bill.

I cannot recommend this place as my overall experience...

Food selection was great and it was very delicious! They had a variety of dishes and skewers. I wouldn’t say it’s the best skewers but they were definitely delicious and the highlight to us was the mackerel and other izakaya dishes and choices which was delicious.

Service was attentive! From entry to table and after and they provided with a musical instrument if you’re sitting in an area that is out of their view. Play it to get their attention. The staff were charismatic and made us feel comfortable with even entertainment at time.

The atmosphere was packed, very lively area with mostly locals and maybe one or two tables of tourist. Only thing I felt tough to deal with was space and a lot of smoke but not something to choke about. It was still a positive izakaya experience.

Overall the price is a little bit steep but the value you get on it is on the better side compared to many.

I’d recommend booking and reserving ahead. Place is very...