Fukuzuka — Restaurant in Tokyo

A truly memorable tasting experience!

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the omakase course prepared by Chef Fukuzuka on our final night of our latest trip to Japan. It was a satisfying conclusion to our culinary adventures throughout the country, and we were extremely impressed with the techniques and scientific precision of each course.

You will likely recognize most of the seafood served as they are part of many omakase courses in Japan, but the biggest differences here are the quality of the fish (for example, we've never had abalone that was so tender) and the taste combinations.

The entire meal is executed to specific temperatures and the progression of nigiris makes you appreciate the uniqueness of each bite. The chef is a master of taste as he even serves small pallette cleansers at the best times during the meal.

To cap it all off, we were presented with one of the best tamagoyaki we've had anywhere in the world. The layers of eggs cooked to different temperatures was truly impressive and delicious.

The service was impeccable, with great sake recommendations throughout the night, and the space was elegantly decorated.

We only found out about this place through our hotel concierge, and it is destined to be more popular over the coming years. We certainly hope to return and wish all the success that is inevitably coming to this...

So, I had the pleasure of a 2.5h omakase with a master sushi chef. That, I've done before, but the trick yesterday was that I was the only diner. It was booked in advance and was the best sushi experience of my life.

Not only the 19 courses of wonderful sashimi, nigiri, and one maki, but also the fact that this master explained every one of his decisions - the temperature of each piece of fish, which part of the fish was the source, the temperature of the rice used for that fish, the different vinegars used with the rice for that fish, etc. We relied on his limited English and my highly limited Japanese to communicate, until he brought out this neat little device that would translate everything each of us said. I want one of those, now. It allowed us to go from barely communicating to laughing, telling jokes, and enlivening the whole event.

In Japanese, edomae, as in edomae sushi, means in front of (Tokyo) Bay and dates to the early 1800s. Here, each intricacy and detail of chef Fukuzuka's edomae susi was optimized, amplified and explained in front of me.

This place is difficult to find and feels almost like you are climbing the stairs to someone's home, but the seven seat restaurant is as clean, pristine, and refined as it gets in the world of sushi. I highly recommend a visit if you are in Tokyo. Bookable on OpenTable...

This place was recommended by a local. It was a bit out of the way for me - on the eastern side of Shinjuku, but it didn't disappoint! I do remember it was hard to find because they didn't have a big sign outside. Also, you have to walk up the stairs to get to the entrance. They kept the door closed for temperature purposes.

I was able to get a reservation for lunch less than four days prior. Maybe it's not as popular to have omakase for lunch on a Sunday? I wanted to add an additional person to the reservation on Saturday but was not able to do it online. When we asked the chef about it, he explained that they need time to prep ingredients. Understandable.

The sushi bar could seat maybe six people, but it appeared that this meal would only be myself and my husband. There was a lady who spoke really nice English. She was very helpful with explaining things, like the menu, because the chef didn't speak much English. The meal felt so intimate and quiet because of this.

The food was delicious. It was really great to watch the dishes be prepared right in front of us! It was an interesting experience for me. There were at least 14 items (can't remember all of them), and he would show us cards with the dish name.

The omakase lunch was ¥71,753 for...