FuGaKyu Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Brookline

Under new management & I believe it.

I'm leaving my old review below to underline the stark change in service standards at this restaurant. It's hard to build a good reputation and easy to lose one. I had a heart breaking bad service experience at FuGaKyu. I reserved a table for 8 to take my family out after my daughter's high school graduation. I picked FuGaKyu mostly based on the stellar service I had experienced there. On the door there's a sign indicating they are under new management. Sadly, my experience reflected this change.

After a reasonable brief wait my party was seated. The server introduced herself and offered hot towels. After taking our drink an appetizer order she disappeared. Our apps arrived. The server did not. Finally I asked the back waiter/runner to get our server so we could place our entree orders. He came back and said "she was too busy" but that he could take our order. He did so fairly smoothly. I asked about our drink order & he went to get them. The sake was not opened or poured tableside which had been the previous standard.

When our entrees arrived so did our server. Who auctioned off our food "who got the spicy tuna roll?". No apology or acknowledgement for disappearing. No coordination with the back waiter. There was a mandatory tip added to our bill since we were a large party. I'm OK with that. I'm not OK with no apology. A manager should have been sent to the table at the first sign of trouble. On my previous visits managers were continuously walking the floor ensuring everything was OK. This was not the case in this visit.

The food was the same quality and presentation as my former experiences. The atmosphere is still quiet and relaxing.

It is extremely unlikely that I will ever return to this restaurant.

--- old review --- Great meal, great service, wonderfully relaxing atmosphere.

Can't think of a single negative from this experience. What a great restaurant. Very nice selection of vegetarian sushi. Excellent gyoza. The rice was clearly amazing. Impeccable service. Well laid out sake menu for a neophyte like me.

The whole...

Let's start off with the good. We called and asked how long was the wait. They said about 1.5 hrs. We were meeting in the area anyway so we went in to check in person and a table is ready. And only 4 of the 5 in the party were there. Very cool and we appreciate it.

The seating area was very dim. These old eyes had trouble reading the menu as did everyone in my party. It was nice to be in a little "room"... Basically a divider provided privacy. However, later another party took the next table over and it was just super loud.

We ordered a bunch of apps...chicken karaage, agedashi tofu, spicy seafood salad and one from the specials menu - dungeoness crab set (seafood salad with crab, 1 piece of crab sushi and 1 crab claw). The tofu was the next out those. The crab set was expensive at $30 for the portion, even for FuGaKyu standards.

We got the Matsu platter which was 72 pieces and a few orders of sashimi. So the Matsu platter came out served in a plastic tray with some dry ice and a light for a smoke effect. I have to say it looked pretty cool at first. Then after eating a couple pieces of sushi, that novelty worn off fast! The bottom of the tray was filled with warm water which made the sushi warm. Chilled or room temperature, that's fine but a warm serving plate for sushi is a terrible idea. The rest of the sushi came in a smaller plate, also with dry ice on the side but plate was room temp.

We still trust the sushi was fresh and finished it all. I did mention to the waiter that the tray warmed up the sushi but I understand he can't do anything about it. He said that's for the dry ice. We got tiramisu for dessert and that was alright too.

The not so fun part, the bill came out to be over $100 per person. Food itself and the waiter was ok. The warm tray for sushi was weird. In the end, it was a pricey dinner for just an OK experience. We won't be coming back anytime soon. And as we were leaving, of course the waiter was bringing out sushi to another table on that warm...

Taking a step into Fugakyu is like stepping into Japan (or at least, what I imagine Japan to be like). I mean, the only thing there to remind me I was actually in America was the flat screen TV with the basketball game on. The look of the restaurant is really alluring with the wooden touches and the bamboo accents. We dined on the second floor next to their private rooms. We took a peek in the private dining rooms out of curiosity after seeing all these people take off their shoes before entering. They actually have tables that are closer to the ground so you sit on the floor to dine.

I basically recommend Fugakyu for everything but their sushi. Go for their appetizer and entree offerings. The food and dining experience was overall pretty decent. I wasn't a fan of some of the sushi rolls but really enjoyed some of the menu items. We loved the Miso Yaki which is a grilled Chilean sea bass marinated with sweet miso. It was the definition of melt in your mouth. We also really liked the Sashimi Taco Trio. It was a nice fusion dish that came with a tuna, salmon and crabmeat tacos using a gyoza skin as the taco shell. The Kara Age which is essentially Japanese popcorn chicken was tasty and juicy. The Sashimi Combo was pretty standard - nothing to rave about but also nothing to complain about in regards to the quality of sashimi.

Some of the food we ordered our waiter actually accidentally left off. We also got a salmon skin roll when we ordered the spicy salmon roll...we were fortunate that management here is pretty good and basically let us keep the roll did not charge us for it. Still, we weren't a fan as it was super salty. The spicy salmon maki was just OK as well. I tasted more tempura crumbs than actual salmon. The Louisiana maki we thought would be interesting because of the fried crawfish but the Cajun mayo was overly tart and did not accent the fried crawfish well. I normally like spider maki but Fugakyu's spider maki was just OK...I wouldn't...