One of my most favorite things to do in Jakartown is to hunt for good restaurants in the city. Luckily, there is no shortage of them.

Most of my friends would rather meet me in Bali because, well, it’s the most popular place in Indonesia. I always ask them to come and visit Jakarta and I will be more than glad to host them. However, Bali always wins.

Jakarta seems to be an acquired taste, what with the traffic and its inevitable comparison to Bali, at least for foreigners. For those who discover the city, they’d soon happily find out that apart from art and culture, Jakarta boasts of a plenitude of restaurants specializing in different kinds of cuisine.

One time, when Arshad and I were chatting over lunch, we were debating about our ranking of our favorite restaurants here in Jakarta. We came to a similar conclusion when it comes to our number one: Fujin Teppanyaki and Japanese Whisky in Senopati.

Why Fujin? For everything that I want in a restaurant-bar, Fujin checks out:

1.  Great alcohol – Japanese whisky! 
2.  Good food
3. Awesome customer service 
4. Bar area where I can comfortably eat and drink 
5. Cozy ambience

We’ve been to Fujin so many times that we’ve also managed to try a lot of the food on the menu.

While waiting for our main course, I normally like to start with edamame with black truffle oil and some crunchy fried garlic on top. I pair it with Ume Crush, my go-to high ball cocktail: whisky based with choya classic, ume fruit, toppped with ginger ale. I eat the ume fruit after downing the glass! 😀

Arshad, on the other hand, favors the Horse Neck more: whisky with fresh lemon juice topped with ginger ale. Honestly, I don’t mind having both. They’re refreshing and light.

Apparently, high ball was created after the end of World War II during the economic recovery of Japan. Whisky based with soda water is bang for the buck if you want to save money and if you want your whisky to go a long way. Eventually, high ball became an art from to the Japanese. It’s a refreshing drink best paired with appetizers as the subtle alcohol and light flavor open up the palate before the main course.

The average high ball in Fujin is priced around Rp90k, with Rp130k as the most expensive. Not bad, if you ask me.

When we are with friends or we are up for some celebration, the lineup of Japanese whisky in Fujin is something to look forward to! Ever since I got introduced to whiskey, I did favor the Japanese ones and Fujin allowed me to sample several of them. I normally default to Yamazaki and Hibiki, but thanks to Fujin, I got to sample more variety and got introduced to Suntory whisky, Black Nikka and Nikka Coffee Grain, which are also now ensconced comfortably in our whisky library at home.

 

Okay, now I have to talk about the food. Although the creature of habit in me defaults to my usual favorites, I managed to try a lot in the menu, considering our frequency of visit.

For salad and appetizers, I recommend the Japanese mushroom salad (Rp65k) with grilled enoki, shimeji and shiitake mushrooms served on mixed salad and vegetable dressing paired with salmon carpaccio (Rp90k), which are fresh salmon slices with onions and garlic soy dressing. Salmon carpaccio is part of the Japanese tapas menu and there’s a long list of them that I admittedly have not tried. More reasons to visit again!

In another one of our high ball sessions, we also ordered the mentaiko potato cheese pizza (Rp75k for small, Rp150k for large), again part of the tapas menu. It’s a bed of savory crepes topped with shrimp, mentaiko, potato and melted mozzarella cheese. It was okay but I wasn’t a big fan of the potatoes – they were too big and chunky for my liking – but this is a matter of preference.

The age tofu mentaiko salad (Rp65k) is also a good choice, which I alternate with the Japanese mushroom salad. With fried tofu and seaweed, it has the same base of mixed salad with mentaiko dressing.

My comfort food in Fujin is the seafood okonomiyaki : Japanese savory pancake with seafood, topped with a drizzle of mayonnaise and bonito flakes. At Rp95k, this one alone with my edamame appetizer fills me up already.

Arshad has also come up with his favorite lunch-dinner combination: medium rare Meltique Saikoro steak (Rp260k) which are beef cube steak with assorted vegetables and mushrooms on top flavored with Fujin’s signature sauce and Teppanyaki garlic rice (Rp35k for small, Rp60k for large), which is a simple Teppan-fried rice with garlic chips and butter sho-yu.

Although I don’t eat a lot of rice, the Teppan-fried rice is so garlicky and flavorful that I actually steal some of it from Arshad, paired with my mushrooms and vegetables.

The salmon teriyaki with mushrooms (Rp140k) and creamy mentaiko angel hair pasta with foie gras (Rp195k) are also to-die-for, although I’ve stopped eating poultry a long time ago so I content myself with the angel hair pasta.

A few months ago, we got an invitation from Fujin to a Sunday brunch event, wherein they partnered with Common Ground coffee to offer a one-time brunch menu. Apart from the reliable goodness of Common Ground coffee, Fujin concocted several brunch cokctails and created a special brunch menu for the occasion.

Arshad ordered the fried chicken with waffles and I ordered breakfast toast with salmon and salad, both of which were absolutely amazing!

I definitely hope Fujin will host another one of its Sunday brunches as I do want to try more the food (and drinks!) on their brunch menu.

As pathetic as it may sound, despite the long list of food that we tasted in Fujin, we’ve only managed to try one dessert: matcha creme brulee (Rp55k). Solid glazed sugar on top meets creamy green tea creme brulee inside when you crack it. So yes, definitely coming back for more.

Aside from the food and alcohol, what sets Fujin apart is the customer service. All the waiters and bartenders are friendly and accommodating. It’s been a habit of mine to sit on bar stools and eat at the bar because I love watching bartenders mix and prepare the drinks. The bartenders engage us with the usual banter (in Bahasa!) but at the same time, they’re very attentive with what the customers need: additional napkins, hand towels, chili powder, what have you.

Arshad and I actually concurred that it’s one of the main reasons why we keep on coming back: good, personalized customer service.

Considering that Fujin is our number one restaurant, it definitely deserves a 5-star rating. It’s one of the places that we highly recommend to friends and visitors in Jakarta. At the same time, it’s where we bring our guests whenever they visit us in the city.

Fujin location and contact details: