Kikuya Restaurant, Fukuoka

Can't read chinese nor Japanese but JS said this is Kikuya, House of Kiku and apparently Kiku is the name of flower. This is something like a surname of a family. Izzit?? or he's just pulling my leg.

This restaurant was an accidental discovery. We were walking down the famous street with Yatai. Yatai is the pride of Fukuoka, basically stalls that were assembled by the designated area around town along the roads. We were checking out the Yatai and most served either yakitori, noodles, cooked dishes and loads of other food. However our dearie friend Chef Ota who owns the famous Sumika in Subang Jaya already informed us don't waste time on Yatai, just go to a proper shop/restaurant to dine. Well after all Chef Ota is from Kyushu, so we heed his advise on our sleeves.

And so we ended up at this yummy restaurant by the name of Kikuya.


Aiks are we the only one? hehehehe wat a beautiful curved Table Counter with stainless steel cooking top. Later we realised, we WERE EARLY hahahahaha.


Really sharp utensils  - kids do not touch!!!! and of coz I had to refrain fr touching esp with my itchy fingers...hehehehehe


First thing first....Kirin to quench our thirst. Hehehehehe

Appetizer of a really yummy roots served with sweet miso.
The english spoken here is really minimum like 1%? hehehehe.....but I guess that's enuff to get by to order yummy food :)))))))

a medley of appetizer. We ordered the special set and it came with a lot of side dishes. Guess we were really hungry huh?

Kikuya has been running for more than 50 years passed down from the previous generation. The concept has remained this way where fresh food is prepared right under your nose.

Some fresh salad with crispy mini baby anchovies. It looked so simple but the taste is so yummy. Citrus-sy, juicy, tangy and well balanced.

Finally the "actions" begin~~~~~with some really delicate oil.

Later we were informed that these were not just simply normal every garlic....it's one of the best one with a very beautiful nutty almond flavour. Judging from how he handled these delicately sliced garlic, u'll know it's highly prized.

As we were watching the garlic browned, we were served this delicate yummy broth of toufu skin, deep sea fish, mushrooms and brocollini.

Some salt elevated the profile of this nutty garlic...
JS couldn't resist and started eating them like chips
-_-"

Next we were presented with 3 different dipping sauce/pepper for our meat.

Something very RARE. I've never eaten any teppan this way.
A huge slice of bread....it's really big...not ur standard size.

At the bottom was emblazed with the name of the restaurant.

Next the lovely ladies in kimonos put bibs on us...She even used a thick napkin to cover my handbag. >.< such attention to details.

sizzles~~~~~~~~ssssssssssstttttttttttttttttttttttttt

There's a separate dipping sauce for the fish....basil and lime sauce.

Squid!!! u'll be surprised at how good squids are in Fukuoka. Apparently it's because of the water..as in its source....Sea produce had to work really hard bcoz the water channel moves so fast between the sea of Japan and Korea.

Our really friendly and cute chef/attendant.

some herbs and spices added more yumminess to this already sweet squid.

the highly prized garlic chips

and our really juicy squids finally landed on the bread...

Japanese sweet potatoes, another great produce from the island of Kyushu and really really sweet white onions. Are u salivating yet?

Pickled Lotus roots. They eat a lot of lotus roots here

This was wat we've been waiting for!!!! our thick huge slab of Kuroge Wagyu from Saga. Saga beef is also highly prized and placed among the top breed of Matsuzaka and Kobe.

The marbling was so amazing. We have to agree that Saga has got a better beef flavour compared to Kobe.

Some more vege to line the stomach :P

Mozarella cheese powder

Surprisingly it was really good combo, the cheese was crispy on the underside.

Guess wat are these :))))))))))))))
Beef FAT!!!!! which was earlier removed from the thick slab. It's been fried to really crispy mini pop corn liked.

Cha Gohan!!!

Fried Rice can never be better than this!!! it has the Wok-Hei, al dente-ness and flavour. We happily whacked this big mountain of rice, with all of its crispy beef fats as toppings.

When pickled is served, u know it's almost the end of the meal. Fukuoka is also famous for their high quality mentaiko. It's so good that we have mentai every morning for breakfast. Oh well when you are here u gotta eat and do wat the locals eat/do.

Our really stained bread, was lifted off our plate....I was so shame shame but JS's slice was even more dirty and messy!!!!

I was already full up to my nose, but when our stained messy dirty bread was served with a drizzle of honey...I couldn't resist. The bread has basically soaked up most of the juice from the beef and grilled vegetables. It's so yummy!!! and crispy!!!!

The red miso soup was full of mini baby clams, almost half of the bowl. U don't really eat them, it just lend some flavours to the soup. Not just some, I must say it's fully loaded with flavours :))

Simple desserts of not so simple strawberries. Strawberries in Kyushu is BIG BUSINESS!!!! It's so huge, sweet and juicy with a very very and extremely intense strawberry taste and flavour. It's almost like eating pure strawberry essence.

another dessert of huge red beans with japanese rice cakes. This one was complimentary coz we bought the chef beer...hahahaha.

I felt so glutonnie and FAT after that. Chef politely obliged for a pic. :D

The happiest boy after tummy being filled to the brim. This place was so good we returned the following week :)))

Frankly I am so hungry looking at my own pics..kekekekeke. Highly recommended and it cost about 10,000 yen per person.

Kikuya Restaurant
1-3-15, Nakasu Hakata-Ku,
Fukuoka City, Japan.
Tel: +81 92 291 2542
http://www.nakasukikuya.com/english/index.html