I may have mentioned in 2022 that it felt like the year of Omakase. It would seem that in 2023, the trend hasn't let up and there are more openings on the way. Bright and early after the new year, I saw an ad for the newly opened Fumiki's Sushi Kappo, located in Robertson Village, near QEII. After seeing a few photos of their offerings, I was intrigued. I did however wait until it was Dr L's birthday before booking, to ensure that we had a sufficient reason to go. A word of note, they only take bookings by way of email, and the email is prone to fall into the spam folder. As of Feb 2023, bookings are relatively easy to come by. A further note, there are a considerable amount of rules stated on their website and you definitely need to get across them before committing to a booking.
For those of you who may ask, why I decided to go to Fumiki's before trying out the other openings in town (Sushi Room or Komeyui), I am undoubtedly a sucker for traditional cooking and when I saw the open kitchen kappo setup, I knew I had to go.
The drinks menu was largely sake based and we didn't see anything we were particularly interested in. Unlike Black Door or Katsuya, we weren't given complimentary still water but rather had tap. It was regularly topped up by our friendly waitress.
I loved sitting on the bench and we were able to appreciate Chef Fumiki's work during the night.
Starting off the meal was a dish of red clam with seasonal vegetables and a light vinegarette, garnished with a string of sea grapes. Light and refreshing, the veggies were fresh and crunchy. The flavours struck a good tone and it balanced well with the chewy red clam. Although tasty, I would say that it was a little underwhelming for a first course, and I had expected that at this price point the first course would have blown me away more.
Second course was a Queensland Cod soup with beetroot and king pearl mushroom in a light dashi base. Having been to Katsuya and Black Door now, I can say that one of my favourite places to be in the world is on a sushi counter engulfed by aromas of dashi. Unfortunately this was not the case tonight. The dashi was tasty but the room didn't smell of it like I've experienced in other places. As for the soup, I enjoyed the firmness and sweetness of the cod, but found the dish to be overwhelmingly sweet when carrots and beetroot were added.
Next course was the far more exciting sashimi of the day. We had red clam, seared king george whiting, snapper and kinmedai. It was served with a small amount of sashimi soy sauce and some freshly grated wasabi. My favourites would have been the kinmedai which was very sweet, although the skin was a bit chewy, and the snapper which was refreshing and crisp. I wish there would have been a bit more soy sauce though, and although non-traditional, Dr L was fairly put off with being told that he couldn't mix his wasabi with his soy sauce.
Our next dish was a classic, chawanmushi with spanner crab and house cured salmon pearls. You can't really go wrong with chawanmushi and the texture was silky smooth. There was a generous amount of crab to go with the egg, but again I wish the dashi was more fragrant.
The next course was one of the most intriguing to me. I had seen this on a few photos before I went. Described as Foie Gras of the ocean by chef, this was a piece of monkfish liver, served with a light ponzu. Compared to foie gras, the taste was a bit lighter and it was a bit less creamy. It did come with the same powdery texture of foie gras and this was expertly cut into with the light ponzu. In my opinion, although similar, it's no substitute for foie gras.
Moving onto the nigiri courses, to the left we have Kinmedai and to the right we have Kingfish. Again, I really enjoyed the fresh sweetness of kinmedai, which was contrasted by the chewiness of its skin. As a regular consumer of kingfish, this was smooth but firm. Both pieces were done well and the rice texture was also on point with a smooth finish.
The scallop nigiri was a highlight for quite a few in our group. It was fresh and plump. Lightly seared it was seasoned with a pinch of salt and a dash of lemon to highlight its sweetness. The prawn though was a let down for most of us because it was well cooked to the point of being a bit tough, and it tasted more or less like the salt water cooked prawns you can buy in bulk from the shops.
The next two took a little while coming, due to technical difficulties (I presume with the rice cooker, given context), and it was around 20 minutes before the next two pieces were served. Chef was gracious throughout the waiting period and made conversation with us about his extensive experience at some very notable restaurants locally and abroad. Anyway, the wait was worth it, because the next two pieces were my favourites of the night, toro and scampi. The toro was rich and buttery, I would have preferred it a bit more chilled but it was rich and creamy with a melt in your mouth texture. I also loved the umami of the caviar on top. The scampi wasn't buttery but it had a refreshing sweet taste and a crunchy texture, it paired well with the scampi caviar on top.
Next rounds were the mackerel nigiri and uni nigiri. The mackerel was alright for me, it was quite strong flavoured, potent and topped with a thin slice of kombu for an even bigger hit. What wasn't ideal though was that a friend of mine found a bone in his fish, which really detracted from his experience. We also had an uni ship, the uni was a bit wet though, but didn't have an overly fishy taste to it and it did have a creamy custard texture to it.
The uni was also found in our next hand roll, Chef said that it was the first time he made it. It was essentially a negitoro mixed with a small amount of pickles and minced sea urchin, enveloped in some hand made nori. The nori was fragrant and delicious, but the minced uni was quite wet and sloppy, which detracted from my enjoyment of the negitoro sadly. Our last nigiri of the night was Anago, a salt water eel. Compared to it's fresh water cousin, Unagi, it is lighter in fat and lighter in taste, making for a more delicate and refined flavour. This was seared and lightly doused with soy sauce before serving. I really enjoyed this piece and it's probably the first time I've been able to enjoy it in Brisbane.
Rounding off with a miso soup with some locally grown mushrooms, this was light and wholesome but I would still have enjoyed a more fragrant dashi smell.
Our dessert for the evening was Kuzumochi, expertly made by Chef Fumiki with a side of genmaicha. The Kuzumochi was slippery and chewy, topped with some brown sugar syrup. It was light and crunchy, making for a delicious summery dessert. The genmaicha was also fragrant and strong, pairing well with the dessert.
Overall we had a good time at Fumikis. As you will have read above, there were a few solid hits as well as a few misses. I appreciated Chef's remarks that he likes to purchase local seasonal ingredients to demonstrate the skill of his cooking, however given the price point and other options available at that range which are far superior, so I don't think that I will be back unless there are improvements made. Having said that, I am a firm believer that Brisbane needs far more Japanese food and omakase and if you don't want to wait for a booking at other places, Fumiki's is still worth going to for an omakase experience.
Price Range: $220pp as of February 2023, to rise to $245 in March 2023 and onwards
Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 9/10
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