In Japanese, the word fuku means happy. You’ll probably feel that way when you visit Mossie Park’s new omakase and teppanyaki restaurant by the same name.
Why? Well, first of all, because they let you in. You’re one of just 16 guests dining that evening.
The restaurant’s limited bar-style seating means that everyone has a front row seat to all of the seafood-slicing, egg-cracking, blowtorch-searing action. But it doesn’t come easy, bookings are only taken online and with a $50 deposit. In place of a telephone is a cryptic messaging system that requires a drive-by to decipher: if the lantern by the door is amber, there are seats available. Makes you miss the olden days of telephones.
The décor ought to make you pretty happy, too. Plush carpeting, floor-to-ceiling racks of illuminated sake bottles, swivelling bamboo seats and a gorgeous kitchen-long glass splashback printed with Hokusai reproductions. Not a dime was spared in this fit-out.
But what is most happiness-inspiring is the food. Chef Tetsuya Sakamoto heads the kitchen, building on his experience working at Bang Mira! Dubai and Nobu Melbourne. The style of cooking is omakase (degustation) and teppanyaki (cooked with heat). Diners choose from three set menus – good, better or best – and sit back to watch the chefs theatrically whip dishes using only the best of ingredients like beef from Mayura Station in South Australia, Quail from the Hunter Valley, Kurobuta pork from Byron Bay, Tuna from Port Lincoln and Fremantle and prawns from Shark Bay.
If none of that has any effect on your happy-o-metre, this surely will: the ladies’ room has a veritable throne of a toilet complete a dozen buttons controlling the seat temperature, bidet pressure and fan strength.
There’s even a button claiming to offer a “massage”. Oh, my.
Great: Sleek decor and fantastic seafood
Not so Great: No telephone
This place looks incredible. Cannot wait to try!
You should try it. Let us know when you do!
Looks delicious! I’ll need to add it to my places to eat at
hehe yes the bathroom was very Japan-like
and Chef Tetsuya Sakamoto was so entertaining that my poor phone ended up in my sauce!