Review: Izakaya Kikufuji

Izakaya Kikufuji

Little Tokyo, 2277 Chino Roces Avenue, Legaspi Village, Makati City

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kikufuji

for this year's birthday date, my Mister took me to this Little Tokyo Japanese restaurant in Makati. the place had an authentic Japanese ambiance. the staff wore kimonos and tables were Japanese styled which suggests taking off shoes and seating Indian style or seating by the middle in front of the glass separated cooking area. we arrived at Kikufuji past 8pm expecting the dinner crowd has gone but there was still a long line of waiting diners. i was still stuffed so i didn't mind the wait. i was surprised to see more customers still piling up even after 9pm. just made me think that this place was really famous even with the very little marketing campaigns. come to think of it, they wouldn't be in booky's top dining place in Makati for nothing. it took about 20-30 mins before we were seated.

Overall Satisfaction: 5/5

Promoter Score: 10/10

they do have a full list in the menu most of them in Japanese. being that i just came from another dinner, we ordered only those we knew were the favorites. here's my review of our food orders.

Nihon Sakare Japanese Sake - PHP160 (glass)

the Sake tasted like what its supposed to - alcohol. their "glass" serving came in this cute small bottle with 2 shot glass. i took a swig and knew i can't take anymore being that my energy for the night is already running out. Von enjoyed it though.

Ika Fry - PHP146

their ika fry was one of the better tasting calamari's i've had. i loved that most of their fried food (ika fry included) was served with shredded lettuce and sesame dressing. it was a good balance to the oil from the fried food.

Bacon wrapped mushrooms (Enoki Bacon) - PHP52 per stick

the highlight of my dinner. bacon wrapped mushrooms was amazing! they had 2 bacon wrapped yakitori options - asparagus and mushrooms. we ordered one of each but the asparagus was out of stock so we just ordered the mushroom. i initially thought that the asparagus was the better option but i was proven by the mushroom wrong. it was so tasty and different and delicious and it came cheap! i love love loved every single bite.

Wagyu Sticks (Gin Nan - i think not so sure) - PHP98 per stick

the highlight of Von's dinner. the beef was tender, tasty and you taste the butter and natural fats with every bite. another amazing dish. now that i'm blogging about it, i wish i could have eaten more than i did haha! there's always a reason to come back and eat more.

Spicy Shake Maki - PHP240

As mentioned before, maki is a staple whenever we eat Japanese. this was salmon maki also topped with something crunchy. this is very much comparable with Senju's crazy maki (review here). it tastes as heavenly but for more than half almost a quarter of the price. Senju's was at PHP840 for 10 slices, this is only at PHP240 for 8 slices. good value for money.

there's a lot more in the menu that i'm craving to try. i'd be secretly hoping for a chance to visit Makati soon to be able to go back to this place. Definitely 100 thumbs up.