Fukumoto

We came here on a Friday night and it gets busy with the limited seating. The server was very nice and was able to explain anything on the menu we had questions about. Turns out, we had a lot of questions. The menu looks like three pieces of hand-​written paper with very minimal information. For example, you’ll see «(Kappa) with cucumber». We didn’t know if that was a roll, nigiri, sashimi, etc, and that was the whole menu. Each item has about 2 – 4 words that don’t explain the menu very well. While the server was very happy to explain everything, it made ordering difficult when the menu doesn’t cater to all levels of sushi experience. We didn’t want to take up 15 minutes of her time during rush hour figuring out what to order.
Overall, I loved the atmosphere and the staff, but the sushi itself left us wanting (pieces of snapper still had skin on it, one on the top and one on the side) making it tough to bite through. And the menu issue was inconvenient. For the cost, it wasn’t worth it.

You should not miss homemade TOFU !!
Very rich and deep soy bean flavor !!
Modern, but authentic Japanese, best in town!

Yes, Unilocalers are wise. This really is a great still-​new restaurant.
The staff a friendly and knowledgable and we took their advice on the food and, more importantly, the sake menu.
The plates are small, which means you get to try a range of different things.
In a bit of a Unilocal fail, I don’t remember the name of the most delicious part of the meal. It was a small serving of sashimi and roe and egg on a spoon that we were instructed to take like a shot — a burst of complex flavors!
The yakitori (tiny grilled skewers) were also very good. We tried the beef tongue and the chicken hearts, which were smothered in a rich, spicy sauce. I’d definitely recommend ordering one or two of these dishes to share with your date.
We also tried a specialty sushi roll, which was served with a yummy aioli kinda sauce. My husband was a big fan, but I think that fancy rolls obscure the flavour of the fish.

Good cuts of sushi you don’t get everywhere else like fatty hamachi and fatty salmon. Best thing? No 2 hour wait to get in.
Very attentive wait staff. Kudos to my New Zealand girl! Ate half yakitori and half sushi and feeling very full. Recommend the pork belly and gizzard yakitori. The Masumi daiginjo sake was excellent. Very smooth and not overpowering.

Really good yakitori. You can tell immediately that this is high quality stuff, even with something so simple. The pork belly and chicken thighs were terrific, as expected, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the chicken hearts.
It is a bit pricey (friend and i spent about $ 45 each) and i was actually still a bit hungry afterwards. The mushroom combo tempura was also pretty disappointing and bland.

This place is great– the husband and I went last night. My only complaint was eyerolling divas that wanted to be seated immediately on a Friday night. The place is a tiny neighborhood restaurant and there is going to be a wait; settle down.

Fortunately they will text you when your table is ready so we just popped next door and had a cocktail across the street.
Dinner was fantastic, service was friendly and knowledgeable– we tried several things that we would have overlooked without our servers help– wish we could remember her name!
Thanks Fukumoto for a fun night out with the hubs! Will definitely be back.

Simply the best Japanese restaurant in Austin :)
Food: Omakase is the way to go! There are so many items on the menu and everything sounded so delicious, so we just let the chef pick for us. Lucky for us, Chef Kazu Fukumoto was our sushi chef at the sushi bar! We couldn’t ask for a more perfect night for my husbands birthday. Chef Kazu was so sweet, such a nice and caring man. He talked to us about how he came up with the design, building a restaurant, the food, just all around a wonderful and humble man.
Service: Our waitress, Liberty, was AMAZING! She was very attentive and sweet. Had so much patience with each guest she served and always made eye contact from afar to make sure you were well taken care of. She helped me plan a surprise birthday dessert for my husband and did a terrific job! Thanks Liberty :) The staff (waiters and chefs) are all so well trained. You can tell right away that they take their job seriously. It made me curious how training was because they’re all so attentive!
Atmosphere: The space was larger than I anticipated for a Japanese restaurant on the east side. Lots of tables and seats and a bar area for standing. Lighting was terrific with lots of wood and modern inspiration. They validate parking for 3 hrs in the garage parking in the corazon building located at San Marcos (between 5^th and 6^th). Reservations can only be done with 8+ guests.
Favorite dishes:
Nikumiso Daikon
Chicken Karaage
Chicken Meatball
King Salmon
Kampachi
Blue Fin Tuna
Ocean Trout
Lemongrass Cheesecake (dessert!)

The good: sushi was of the highest quality and freshness.
The bad: gourmet fried chicken app was essentially General Tso’s, dressed up a bit. The fresh seasonal vegetables, which I had sort of imagined as a salad, was a scant plate of okra and bell peppers fixed in a sweet sesame dressing. The service was inattentive at best, and the place was LOUD.
A personal pet peeve: when I ordered «tea,» I was expecting Japanese green tea. what I got was a glass of iced tea, and when I sent it back and asked for hot tea, the default was apparently hibiscus. I even like hibiscus, it’s just not what I expect as the default tea in a Japanese restaurant.

Delicious, delicious! Quick wait at the bar, and then we’re off to EAT.
–pork belly and chicken thigh yakitori were great
–can’t go wrong with a roll: the yellowtail sushi roll on their special menu had a great sauce accompaniment!
–our favorite was the special salmon flight with the sake pairing… each piece tasted better than the last!
–all the veggie tempura were crispy but not overly battered
–unfortunately the pickled vegetables were disappointing. I wanted them to have a stronger vinegary and sour taste (but it didn’t deter from the overall food experience)
–get the kappa-​g, very very refreshing!
Great service — our waiter was a sweetheart and very helpful with the menu. We loved everything he recommended. They also validate up to 3 hours of parking in the garage.
This new sushi restaurant in East Austin definitely deserves all the high praise its been getting!

The Good:
: it’s a local business!
: service is good! the hostess, the bartenders… they are great
: they have a spicy cocktail that is delicious
: the nigiri/​sushi is great! definitely their forte
: cornflake crusted shrimp is tasty
: rolls are good/​dependable
: chicken gizzard, chicken heart, and pork belly yakitori are good
The Bad:
: waiter service can be hit or miss
: the japanese fried chicken (karaage) is fried okay but then they sit it in this wet, sweet sauce that ends up making the outside soggy. gross! last time i checked, fried chicken is supposed to be crispy, not a soggy mess.
: chicken thigh yakitori is overcooked
: not a fan of the bathroom arrangement. you have 2 sides: girls on the left, boys on the right, and sinks in the middle. that sounds great except there are no doors to drown out the sound of peeing, pooping, and flushing anywhere between any of the sections. just curtains. ack.
The Ugly:
: they play THE WORST FREAKING MUSIC IN THE WORLD. i do not want to hear LOUD CLUB MUSIC over my sushi. i don’t want to hear ANY club music period over my sushi. occasionally you hear something good play that is not club music, but that’s the exception and not the norm. seriously, whoever is managing the ambiance with music needs to be fired bc it is god-​awful.
Would I go back? Probably but it’s not high on my go-​to list.
This place is IN (but not entirely enthusiastically).

One of the best meals I’ve ever had, and hands down the best sushi/​Japanese. Sat at the sushi bar and let the owner/​chef choose our meal. It did not disappoint. A highlight of our Austin trip, for sure.

Finally a restaurant in Austin that serves decent yakitori!
I loved their cocktail menu and their daily sushi menu is one of the most exotic and interesting in Austin. It’s comparable to Musashino and made just as well, if not better.
There’s usually seats on the weekdays for smaller groups. Validated parking in the Corazon apartment complex, entrace on San Marcos St across from Brew & Brew.

Finally! A restaurant in Austin that not only serves the best sushi in town but also crafts the best yakitori! The quality and freshness of the fish is unparalleled, and the nigiri/​sashimi pieces are very gracious in portion. Watch out, Uchi and Uchiko — Fukumoto has bested you in food quality and taste, service, and atmosphere!
This place is a new staple on my list for date night, night out with friends, and any casual or celebratory occasion. Parking is free. It’s a short Über ride from downtown and short walk to any bar in East Austin.

Dining with the delightful Ashley S requires a vegetarian state of mind, and I was curious to see what Fukumoto would do using ingredients without a face or a mama. Fukumoto does great.
And our seven plates were straight off the menu: I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the usual cucumber or veggie maki — we are all Muggles here — but the green bean & mushroom tempuras were surprisingly good, and the grilled Shishito peppers were amazing. Props for the unique okra salad and its superb sesame paste dressing. And I thought the miso soup here was remarkably light & airy, without any hint of bonito aftertaste from the dashi. How did they do that? Just get both desserts & check it off the list.
Fukumoto is definitely hip & cool, but understaffed on a busy Thursday night. Our server Sheena was great, but apparently covering half the house and difficult to catch. Both Ashley and I developed an instant crush on our most engaging hostess, a charming young lady who checked up on us and bussed our table. I’ve never seen that before. The crush or the bussing. I’ll be sure to catch her name the next time we’re here.

Fukumoto easily offers some of the best sushi I’ve had in Austin. Juxtaposed across the street from Shangri-​La, this modern restaurant continues the steady march of development eastward. Despite arriving at 7:30pm, we were seated immediately (they do not take reservations). The waitstaff was exceedingly helpful and well-​versed in the menu’s offerings. Their awareness extended to the pacing of new dishes, which were always delivered one after another and promptly removed upon completion.
They offer a wide range of filtered and unfiltered sake in personal glass, 300mL, and 700mL portions. The «glass» is a small cup filled to the brim with sake and was spilled en route to the table every single time. Judging by price, the glass should hold around 75mL but I suspect a larger volume was being poured.
We ordered extensively from the specials menu including the delicious Daily Miso Soup (potato + butter), beautifully-​presented Kaki Furai (fried oysters with Japanese curry mayo), and Spicy Blue Fin Tuna Sushi Rolls (phenomenal spicy aioli).
All of the sushi is priced for a single piece but absolutely worth splurging on. The Fatty Salmon and Mackerel Sushi are some of the best I’ve ever had. They were only upstaged by the Green Tea Fed Red Snapper Sushi which absolutely melted in your mouth.
The yakitori is priced for a single skewer with three to four small pieces of impaled meat. The Pork Belly Yakitori definitely gives some classic Austin pork belly offerings a run for their money (so moist and fatty!). The Gizzard Yakitori was flavorful but definitely suffered from being served after the pork belly.
For dessert we got the deconstructed Lemongrass Cheesecake infused with thyme crumbles and blueberry compote. This is one of the prettiest (and tastiest) dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming. The garnishing flower petals and sprigs of greens made for quite the culinary art.

My friend and I were looking to try something new in Austin and asian, perhaps Japanese? Fukumoto was the clear choice since 1) it is relatively new and 2) it was recommended by eater.
We came here on a weeknight, it was quiet, but I do see it getting more busy when the word gets out of how great this place is!
Ambiance — typical izakaya décor/​feel (dark wooden tables/​structures throughout the restaurant)
Service — very attentive & pleasant (that goes for the hostess & server)
Food — meticulously crafted delicious dishes
Like most izakayas, they have a fresh sheet (specials) that changes daily.
From the fresh sheet we ordered:
Fried Oysters w/​Japanese Curry Mayo — this was probably one of the best fried oysters I have had. They were lightly breaded & fried to perfection. A slightly golden brown crust. Delicious!
Nigiri — Blue Fin Tuna, Green Tea fed Snapper, Hawaiian Amberjack and one more type of fish which I can’t remember. All the fish was fresh, juicy and tasty! However, I would mention that the Green Tea fed Snapper was interesting, but there was no difference in taste compared to «non green-​tea fed snappers»
From the regular menu:
Homemade Tofu — made with cream cheese & tofu, this was very light and refreshing. It was also topped with bonito flakes & nori with a light drizzle of soy sauce. A very different and unique dish.
Today’s Pickles — 3 types of pickles served, the one I didn’t like was the daikon pickles. The other two were great — shibazuke (cucumber & eggplant — purple) & kyurizuke (cucumber — green).
Yakitori — Bacon wrapped asparagus — delicious and flavourful. The chicken gizzard — I didn’t like this one as much because of the texture, but my friend loved it. The chicken meatball w/​quail egg. Very tasty! However, I would not do the quail egg again since I felt like it didn’t add much to the already flavorful meatball.
Overall, a great find in Austin. Every dish was crafted with care and love. I will definitely come back to try the other dishes and looking forward to the fresh sheet that changes daily. Do note that without any alcohol, the bill adds up to about $ 55 – 60 a person.

My friends and I decided to meet up here for a leisurely dinner on a Tuesday evening. We arrived right when they opened and sat at the bar until they started serving at 5pm. They have an extensive sake menu with 3 sake cocktails. I had the fuku-​mule and it was spicy and refreshing! The bartender was so friendly and carried on wonderful conversation with us.
I loved the openness and the dark wood through the restaurant. It made it feel very welcoming and comfortable. Our waitress was exceptional. She answered all our questions about the menu. The menu is served in pieces. There is quite a bit of takitori and sushi along with some rolls and appetizers. We decided to start off with some apps and takitori. My favorites were the porkbelly and chicken meatball. The porkbelly was cooked well and had a lot of flavor. I enjoyed the chicken meatball as it was interesting and fun to eat. Our waitress was attentive throughout our entire dining experience and she explained how to eat certain dishes as they came out. I tried several pieces of sushi — I loved the uni and green tea snapper!
I also had the chicken fried karage which was so perfect we ended up getting a second one for the table! Other big hits at the table were the chicken heats yakitori and king salmon sushi. Everything was super fresh and delicious! I loved that I could see the chef making my food from my table.
The restaurant is in a great location. When I arrived it was easy to find parking on the street, but for future reference there is a parking garage on the west end of that building and they will validate your parking ticket for you up to 3 hours. When we went last week they had only been open for about a week or so and they were working well as a team already. I am sure there are some things they are working out being new and all, but if they are this good already I am excited for my next visit! I will definitely be back with my husband in tow!

Wow. This place is good. I love the yakitori selection.
Oh, parking, the validate parking in the garage on that block for 3 hrs. :)
Yakitori. Yum. They had beef tongue on the day that I went with my fellow Unilocalers. On their regular menu, we tried chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, chicken meatball, wings, pork belly, and asparagus. They were all good. I know gizzards are pretty tough but they removed the tendon part so it was more of a beef heart consistency, maybe a teeny bit tougher. Everything was good. The seasoning on them all were different. I think the hearts were a bit less flavorful than the gizzards but they slice the hearts in half, so they look like hearts. Still good but not spectacular. Pork belly had some tough parts, more meat than fat. The beef tongue was good. It was lightly marinated also so it seems a bit bland to me. The chicken meatball is a must try. I didn’t order by my friend gave me a bite and it was delicious.
Oh, the fried chicken, karaage. I think it was the best besides the Ora King salmon belly. It was so tender and the sauce was delicious.
I tried the cornflake shrimp. It was very crunchy but the flavor was a bit lacking. It came on top of a pink tartar sauce that didn’t really help but was interesting.
I love their scallop nigiri It was delicious. So fresh. I got the seared bonito sashimi, it was a bit fishier than normal for my taste.
The Ora King Salmon belly nigiri. Wow. I had to look up Ora King Salmon. But I had one and I ended up ordering another 2 b/​c it was so good. It just melts in your mouth, the flavor is just magical. I hope they have it more often. It was on their daily special menu I think.
They have only been open for a week now I believe. They are off to a great start. The waitress we had was so knowledgeable and gave us great service. I wish I remembered her name. I was in such a food haze, with all the good food. They only do beer and wine/​sake so they have some special sake cocktails that were delicious.
I can’t wait to come back and have another feast.

We were so excited to try this place that we got there at 4:28 on opening day (FYI they open at 4:30). As we opened the door we are greeted by the smiling faces of all the employees. One thing I did not realize (and it’s not mentioned on the website) but dinner/​food service doesn’t start until 5p so we had to bar it up for the first 30min.
Sushi — We sat sushi bar style which is the way to go in my book. We started off with some uni from Santa Barbara, mackerel, monkfish liver, and hama-​toro. Quality was fresh and portion size of the fish was great. They came with just enough amount of rice which means not too much. The uni was creamy and perfect amount of fresh ocean flavor and that hama-​toro was oh so buttery as it melted in my mouth — definitely could have eaten more.
Yakitori — as for the yakitori… I don’t have anything to compare it to. The one thing I can say is that all the meat was perfectly tender. I’m pretty sure we ordered every option under the yakitori menu. The tongue was shaped in squares on a skewer and so tender — I would have never known. As for the chicken hearts –I’ve had grilled hearts whole before which was hard to swallow as it literally looked like a tiny heart — but Fukumoto’s did a good job tender wise and they also butterflied it on the skewer… you could hardly tell. The chicken meatball yakitori was a surprise as I wouldn’t normally have ordered a meatball, but it was pretty fun to eat. It comes with a raw quail egg which the say to mix up and pour over it. Then! you roll it in a pile of yummy bonito flakes. A must try if you don’t mind eating raw egg.
Corn Flake crusted Shrimp — This is a must and I would have loved to order more and more of these (it only comes with two). I don’t even like cornflakes but it was a perfect crust and crunch on the shrimp. The Japanese tarter was a great touch but I couldn’t tell what was in it. The only part they gave me was the in house made pickles and the rest was secret (trust me I tried).
Ambiance was great, food was great, service was great — what more can I say?

I bought tickets to Chef Fukumoto’s pop-​up sushi dinner earlier this year and have been waiting for his new restaurant to open ever since! The beautifully designed space matches the quality of his incredible cuisine. I love the beautiful dark woodwork making up the décor. The open kitchen makes for an engaging dining experience.
Chef was very hands on, personally engaging each guest. We ordered a couple appetizers, sushi and a some yakitori. Each dish was incredibly delicious and beautifully plated. The organic chicken Tokyo negi sauce was so flavorful and tender. It is perhaps the best fried chicken I have tasted. The generous order of monkfish liver had a lovely ponzu sauce, daikon and scallion that complimented the fish perfectly. The sushi was super fresh, we tried a few pieces of nigiri and a big eye tuna roll. Notably the mackerel really stood out as chef cures and pickles the fish. The scallop nigiri was also a standout. My favorite part of the meal was the yakitori. We ordered the rich pork belly and tender chicken heart. The house made sauce, dipping accompaniments and perfectly cooked (and yay not overcooked meats) made for a mouth-​watering meal.
This is a fabulous restaurant that would be great for a date night or a fun group dinner. I loved all the dishes we tried were delightful and cannot wait dine with them again.