"We decided to visit Fukuoka for a special birthday meal. Admittedly we are not loyal customers to the restaurant but having visited the restaurant a few times over the years and both loving Japanese food , we were willing to go here again. From the minute we arrived, it was noticeable that it was quiet. Of course this was to be expected as it was a Sunday night. On the other hand by 8:40 pm, and aside from the odd person coming in for a takeaway, we were the only ones left in the restaurant. Perhaps this wouldn’t have been so bad if the BGM hadn’t been faint, or at least we had been positioned with some level or privacy instead of being overlooked by the staff on duty behind the counter. Our waiter for the evening arrived at the table asking if he could take our orders for drinks. We did so, only to find out that the plum wine, our original choice, had sold out for the evening. Slightly disappointed though not overly fazed, we picked something else from the menu. Our waiter was admittedly attentive and polite. However aside from serving our food , he wasn 't willing to particularly engage in a friendly conversation or at least create a welcoming atmosphere towards the only two customers eating in the restaurant . As we waited for the drinks, we looked through the menu and picked out our food choices. It took nearly ten minutes for our drinks to arrive. Of course from where we were seated, we could see and understand that our waiter had to take a phone call in between grabbing our drinks. We ordered our starters consisting of what should’ve been chicken karaage and pumpkin croquettes, as well as our mains; two bento boxes. One which was chicken teriyaki and another which was beef. The awkward atmosphere intensified after our starters arrived within fifteen minutes. The waiter had mixed up our order of pumpkin croquettes for prawn tempura. We weren 't willing to cause a fuss and so we kept quiet about the wrong starter. As it happens, the tempura prawns were by all honest confessions, okay. My mother cannot eat seafood and so she stuck to her order of chicken karaage. Having eaten karaage at several Japanese restaurants in the past and even often having made Karaage from scratch, she was disappointed by her starter. Trying a piece for myself, I couldn’t help but agree with her. The chicken was similar to a frozen nugget rather than having a soft and crumbling texture, and whilst the spicy mayo was certainly nice, it did little to disguise the bland batter used. Within less than five minutes of our starters arriving, we were shocked that our main courses had arrived. Of course while we did understand that the restaurant would be closing in around an hour and the kitchen wanted to complete any outstanding orders, we unsurprisingly felt rushed. Our mains were decent though not exceptional. Thankfully we had a rough idea what was being served in the bento boxes. However we did both observe after leaving the restaurant that the waiter had not at least explained what made up their bento boxes, or even double-checked if we had any food allergies after taking our order. Perhaps the best parts of the bento boxes were the teriyaki meats and beansprouts, alongside the pickled ginger. However aside from these sections of the bento box, the rest of the meal was unimpressively adequate. Our rice portions were generous but soggy and while the hosmaki rolls comprised of cucumber and salmon were generous also, they were worryingly bland, chewy and difficult to digest. My mother had to politely take a big gulp of her drink in order to avoid spitting it out after trying one of the cucumber hosmaki rolls. After our main meal we decided to go for dessert comprised of two seperate orders of mochi ice cream; a mixed plate- consisting of coconut, mango what should 've been raspberry from the menu though presumably substituted , toasted sesame and then a small plate of green tea ice cream mochi in order to share between us. Aside from the teriyaki and the beansprouts, the ice cream mochi was arguably one of the best parts of the overall meal. However it is fair to say that with all things considered for two drinks one non-alcoholic and one alcoholic , two starters, two mains and two desserts, our meal was certainly not worth the extortionate bill for average service and an ' 'okay ' ' meal which lasted less than 50 minutes."
Beef Teriyaki
