Happy birthday Ward!!
To celebrate, we went to a very cool restaurant only a 3 minute walk from our house: Fujiya 1935. This restaurant has three michelin stars, the most starred food we’ve ever had so we were really looking forward to it. And was it worth it? Do those stars really mean something? YES ;-) This was, by far, the most delicious, artistic, beautiful designed and prepared food we have ever eaten, and on top of that this restaurant was one of the most atmospheric and fun place we’ve been. Sounds like I’m exaggerating, but maybe if I show the pictures you can get an idea of what it was like :-)
When you enter, you are led to a waiting room while they prepare your table. In this beautifully zen designed room you are served a delicious warm yuzu (citrus) tea, to neutralize your tastebuds!
When you’ve finished your drink, you are led past the kitchen and announced to the cook “Mister Lindhout has arrived!” while all the kitchenstaff welcomes you. Hahaha that’s cool isn’t it? The dining room is up the stairs, also in a very zen-like style, with white walls and wooden tables. Let the lunch begin!
The theme of the lunch was this time of the year. the period when it’s still winter but here and there you can see new green leaves and flowerbuds appear through the snow.
First they served a set of three kinds of amuses to eat with your hand. A pair of radishes on a glass plate on earth, to be dipped in wasabi-sauce, two cheeseballs in a casket and two warm fluffy chestnut cakes with cream.
We then ate some freshly baked bread kept in a box with a hot stone inside to keep them warm!
The next dish looked so beautiful, like snow with new flowers popping up to welcome spring :-) it was a foam cake with all kinds of herbs, on top of oysters. It tasted as spectacular as it looked!!
Next was a lovely little fish, herbs, potato and tomato hotpot. The fish was soooooo smooth and the flavors of the oil was fantastic. And again it looked so beautiful!
Next was the pasta. This pasta was topped with fresh brown mushrooms and in the middle stuffed with truffles, so you had to mix it up before eating. The flavors were so pure and strong, it was fantastic!!!
Next was the main course, Iberian pork with a collection of many different kinds of onions! Woooooooooooooooooow not only does it look amazing, the pork was soooooooooooo tasty combined with the different onion flavors… I’m getting hungry again haha.
Ward also enjoyed this dish very much ;-)
Aaa time for desert! Two types! First was a beautiful plate with all kinds of berries coated in sugar. The little iceman was made of cheesefoam!
I almost don’t want to eat it, so beautiful!
And second desert was a beautifully sculpted rose made from apple with chestnut icecream. It was so tasty that I exclaimed “Ooo wat lekker!!” and even though it was in Dutch the waitress knew what I meant and thanked me for the compliment hahaha.
And finally, an espresso.
I can fully understand why this restaurant received three michelin stars. It’s a combination of ofcourse, delicious foods, but also a very high level of artistic design. All plates looked amazing, really fitting the idea of spring coming after winter, while the ingredients were unique and tasting so well together. But also, the atmosphere in the restaurant was amazing! We thought it might be “stiff”, (it’s an expensive restaurant after all), but not at all! The waitress was a very sweet and talkative girl, making conversations, asking us about our time in Japan, making jokes, explaining the food etc etc. Everyone was really relaxed, making you feel so at ease and welcome. We actually thought that in atmosphere, this was one of the nicest restaurants we’ve ever been to.
We definitely will go back someday for dinner sometime!!!