Tuesday, January 15, 2008

64. Restaurant Review: Fu-chi-ku-chi Dining Cafe' and Bar

Fu-chi-ku-chi is one of those places you’d never notice if you didn’t really look for it. That would be a shame.

Located on the 4th floor of a building on Shimokita’s South Exit main street, it is necessary to take a small elevator up to the café. Upon exiting the elevator, you are immediately looking out over a covered, partially open-air dining area - very nice! There are four tables outside, as well as a counter with bout six seats.

Inside the walls are concrete with beige paint and wood accents, with a Southeast Asian feel. There is a collection of odd sofas, lounge chairs, and tables; as well as a long bar counter. One wall is covered with CD’s, DVD’s, and books. Another has music videos playing on a big screen TV. There is a DJ booth too, although it is not in use during the day. Japanese Pop was playing on the TV when I was there. It was a group I had never heard of, and surprisingly, it was pretty decent.

The lunch menu has 6 items on it, all 700 - 750 yen. The choices are: a tomato, basil, and mozzarella pasta, chicken coconut curry, rice omelet, mushroom cream risotto, Japanese-style hamburger, or mentaiko (fish egg) cream pasta.

They all come with a small salad, and for 100 yen each, customers can add a lunch drink or lunch soup. For an extra 200 yen, the lunch dessert.

I started with the lunch soup - bacon slices and diced onion in a light buttery cream base. It was quite flavorful. The salad was lettuce and vegetables in a tomato sauce dressing. I was also given toasted slices of French bread. My main dish was the tomato pasta, it was very tasty.

A nice touch was that every table was given its own bottle of water for re-fills. The staff was shy, but friendly. The menu has photos but no English.


Also during the day there is a ‘Café Set’ which includes dessert and a drink for 500 - 550 yen.


Shimokitazawa South Exit, 3 minute walk down the main street 4th floor, above clothing store.
Pass am/pm and ‘Reco Fan’ on your left, the next building.

Phone: 03-5433-2191

Closed on Mondays.
Lunch & Café: 12:00 - 18:00
Dinner & Bar: 18:00 - 2:00am

http://www.fu-chi-ku-chi.jp/