Best Restaurant of 2008 contender
Telephone: 076 254457
Open: 4.30pm-11pm daily, but call the restaurant. They close on one different day every month.
Style: Japanese grill
Price range: Mid-range for Japanese. sea eel and avocado (180 baht) salmon maki (120 baht) tekka maki tuna (100 baht) salmon roe with radish (220 baht) fresh red snapper (150 baht) octopus (150 baht) nigiri tuna (90 baht) salmon (110 baht) fish roe (90 baht) beef family set (420 baht) karubi (180 baht) shitake yaki (80 baht) kimuchi soup (90 baht) egg soup (70 baht) seaweed soup (70 baht) black sake (350 baht) green tea (30 baht) large Singha beer (80 baht) Asahi (180 baht) Black Label (1300 baht.)
Specialty: bbq grill at the table, especially Kobe beef.
What Phuketwan says: A little wasabi up your nose makes a pleasant change from tingling chili lips. We love Japanese. For years, lunch with a good friend was often at the Koku, a restaurant all about lunch boxes and bamboo matting. Then Koku, not far from Rajaphat University, closed. Now it has returned as an evening restaurant. The new approach seems to be extremely popular because a steady stream of Thai families followed us through the door, even though the restaurant is not in a mall or attached to a large retail outlet. It's DIY in that you cook your own food on a griller in the centre of the table. The griller is surrounded by water and the extractor fan seems to take care of the heat. The grey laminated rectangles that stand out from the dark walls under spotlights look just like concrete, but probably come at much greater cost. Precisely why anyone would spend money on a restaurant then spoil the atmosphere by hanging a television set from the ceiling is beyond us. But soap operas seem to be an essential ingedient in any restaurant in Thailand. This one is no exception. Fortunately the menu more than makes up for the indiscretions of the decorators. Beef, pork, bacon . . . we grilled contentedly, mixing the meat with rolls dipped in wasabi, and adding a bowl of rice. Perhaps it had been a too long between Japanese but the meal seemed especially flavorsome. The beef especially was excellent. Here's to your sparkling sinuses.
How to find it: In the row of shops towards the Samkong intersection from the Tesco Lotus supermarket intersection.
Parking: Outside the restaurant, or at the rear.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
Telephone: 076 254457
Open: 4.30pm-11pm daily, but call the restaurant. They close on one different day every month.
Style: Japanese grill
Price range: Mid-range for Japanese. sea eel and avocado (180 baht) salmon maki (120 baht) tekka maki tuna (100 baht) salmon roe with radish (220 baht) fresh red snapper (150 baht) octopus (150 baht) nigiri tuna (90 baht) salmon (110 baht) fish roe (90 baht) beef family set (420 baht) karubi (180 baht) shitake yaki (80 baht) kimuchi soup (90 baht) egg soup (70 baht) seaweed soup (70 baht) black sake (350 baht) green tea (30 baht) large Singha beer (80 baht) Asahi (180 baht) Black Label (1300 baht.)
Specialty: bbq grill at the table, especially Kobe beef.
What Phuketwan says: A little wasabi up your nose makes a pleasant change from tingling chili lips. We love Japanese. For years, lunch with a good friend was often at the Koku, a restaurant all about lunch boxes and bamboo matting. Then Koku, not far from Rajaphat University, closed. Now it has returned as an evening restaurant. The new approach seems to be extremely popular because a steady stream of Thai families followed us through the door, even though the restaurant is not in a mall or attached to a large retail outlet. It's DIY in that you cook your own food on a griller in the centre of the table. The griller is surrounded by water and the extractor fan seems to take care of the heat. The grey laminated rectangles that stand out from the dark walls under spotlights look just like concrete, but probably come at much greater cost. Precisely why anyone would spend money on a restaurant then spoil the atmosphere by hanging a television set from the ceiling is beyond us. But soap operas seem to be an essential ingedient in any restaurant in Thailand. This one is no exception. Fortunately the menu more than makes up for the indiscretions of the decorators. Beef, pork, bacon . . . we grilled contentedly, mixing the meat with rolls dipped in wasabi, and adding a bowl of rice. Perhaps it had been a too long between Japanese but the meal seemed especially flavorsome. The beef especially was excellent. Here's to your sparkling sinuses.
How to find it: In the row of shops towards the Samkong intersection from the Tesco Lotus supermarket intersection.
Parking: Outside the restaurant, or at the rear.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
