Fugu is a must-have for visitors to Yamaguchi in the winter. It can be had as sashimi that is light but has delicious flavors that spread the more one chews into it. It goes well with ponzu sauce, can be had as a blowfish stew with rice and vegetable porridge and delicious broth, or as creamy cod roe added to hot sake with grilled fish fins. Here are 5 recommended restaurants that are elegant and arouse a desire to travel, where guests can enjoy fugu cuisine that is a bit luxurious and completely worth eating.
Shimonoseki - Fugu Kaiseki garden
Rediscover the charms of tiger fugu in Shimonoseki with these traditional and new sensation Kaiseki courses.
Fugu Kaiseki Garden is located 4 minutes by car from JR Shimonoseki Station. Here, guests can enjoy high-quality tiger fugu caught in Shimonoseki while gazing at a garden in an elegant Japanese-style house constructed during the Showa Era. They offer the orthodox Tiger Fugu Course as well as the Flamed Fugu Course, which is especially recommended for fugu connoisseurs. They serve original dish after dish that shows the new charms of Shimonoseki fugu.
As the name indicates, the seasonal scenery of the garden is one of the joys of this restaurant. They have five private rooms on the spacious premises, and guests can gaze at the garden from each one. Casual-style seats are available in the spacious tatami seating areas where guests can experience the chic of Japanese construction, and consideration is taken into providing a space where one can relax naturally. Both the cuisine and restaurant space feature a lively spirit that incorporates new sensations while valuing tradition.
Fugu kaiseki garden
Access: 20 minutes walk from Shimonoseki Station
Karato - Fuku cuisine / Seasonal cuisine Shunrakukan
Enjoy fugu cuisine and get intoxicated on local sake in this relieving and quiet space.
Located a 1-minute walk from Karato bus stop. Fugu Cuisine/SSeasonal Cuisine Shunrakukan lets guests enjoy fugu cuisine courses and individual items while comfortably drinking sake in their counter seats and refined Japanese-style private rooms. The restaurant's best dish is the highly recommended Fukumehari Sushi. This dish has a lot of effort poured into it and can't be tasted anywhere else. It is prepared with a mix of various ingredients along with the miso-soaked fugu.
1F has counter seats and 1 private room, and 2F has 3 private rooms. The proprietress and staff offer warm customer service, and the restaurant has a relaxing atmosphere for solo guests. For sake sake, they have a collection of carefully selected local sake from all over Japan, with a particular focus on Yamaguchi sake. They also serve Japanese sake, which goes well with the food. The Sake Tasting Set is recommended for guests who want to try Yamaguchi brand sake along with fugu.
Fugu Cuisine / Seasonal Cuisine Shunrakukan
Ube Shinkawa - Kappo Myotoku
The luxury of enjoying Fugu Courses in high class Japanese restaurants throughout the city.
Located a 5-minute walk from Ube-Shinkawa Station on the JR lines, Kappo Myotoku is one of the best kappo restaurants in the city, where guests can fully enjoy seasonal seafood with the greatest care taken with its domestic-made ingredients, especially their natural foods. With the Fugu Course, customers can enjoy a course constructed with foods stocked that very day, including fried blowfish, nigirizushi, fugu sashimi, fugu stew, and hot sake with grilled fish fins. They can also look forward to the rice and vegetable porridge served at the end. Guests can get their fill of the broth to the last drop, as it's packed with the delicious flavors of fugu.
One can't tell just by looking inside the restaurant from the simple exterior, but take one step into this restaurant, and an extraordinary and extremely luxurious space spreads out before guests. 1F has seats at an elegant counter made with a board of plain wood, and 2F has counter seats that can be reserved, which are in a tatami seating style to enjoy the delicious sushi. They also have private rooms for small groups and a banquet hall. This restaurant is perfect for visiting on special days with that special someone, including for celebrations and anniversaries.
Kappo MYOTOKU
Access: 5 minutes walk from Ube Shinkawa Station
Shimonoseki - Fukudokoro Sakai
Learn about fugu and master the art of connoisseurship at a restaurant run by a long-standing fugu wholesaler in Shimonoseki.
Fukudokoro Sakai is located around 5 minutes by car from Shimonoseki Station on the JR lines. It is a fugu restaurant run on the 2F of a fugu wholesaler that has been around for over 80 years since its founding. This restaurant is extremely appealing as it lets guests enjoy both natural and cultivated tiger fugu stocked by the careful judgement of a long-standing wholesaler at fair prices. Guests can also enjoy the standard Fugu Stew like a connoisseur, as the meat is added after enjoying the creaminess of the boiled cod roe in the beginning.
The restaurant is located on 2F of a long-standing wholesaler and is a space where one can feel old-home-style elegance and peace of mind. Besides the spacious tatami seating where guests can sit and relax on tatami, they also have table seats and private rooms. The tatami seating area is also decorated with the traditional folk craft "Fukuchochin," which originated in this restaurant. When the food is served, staff use these Fukuchochin crats to explain the cuts.
Fukudokoro Sakai
Access: 20 minutes walk from Shimonoseki Station
Shimonoseki - Ryotei Ryokan Mimosuso-gawa Bekkan
Enjoy the beauty and delicious flavors of Fugu Sashimi Cuisine which clearly shows traditional skill.
Located 8 minutes by car from JR Shimonoseki Station. Ryotei Ryokan Mimosuso-gawa Bekkan lets guests enjoy Kaiseki cuisine that uses seafood directly shipped from Karato Fish Market in Shimonoseki. Their Fugu Sashimi Cuisine, which upholds traditional cooking methods, uses aged fugu stocked through the best brokers in Shimonoseki, which is aged in accordance with the serving time. It is arranged so beautifully that it looks like it is painted on the large dish. Guests can enjoy the delicious flavors that increase the more they bite into them.
The building interior lets guests feel the dignified atmosphere of a restaurant and inn that has been around for over 70 years since its founding. Guests can enjoy just the food, and the restaurant also has private rooms that are suitable for a wide range of situations, including table seats, private rooms with sunken kotatsu seats, and private rooms for groups (reservation is required by the day before). Private rooms incur a separate service charge. They have a rich variety of alcohol that includes Japanese sake as well as a packed lineup of wine that reflects the desires of guests.
