Maison de Fujii (Okinawa, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

As I have written in a previous post, we were pleasantly surprised to find two pretty decent French restaurants in Okinawa this time. That was two more than what we've expected! The second one of the two was a small French restaurant called Maison de Fujii, which I thought was the slightly better one (comparing to La Table de Paradis).

Tucked away in a quiet street near Ichigin Dori in Kumoji, Maison de Fujii (メゾン ド フジイ) is one of the best kept secret in the dining scene of Okinawa.

While the restaurant is decorated like a modern French cottage on the outside, the interior takes more of a contemporary approach.



Inside Maison de Fujii, each table is labeled by a major street from a Paris arrondissement.



There are 3 set menus served at dinner time, each with a slight difference in the number of courses (3-course at ¥4,000, 4-course at ¥5,800 and degustation menu at ¥7,000). The 4-course set was what we ended up picking.

For a small and unassuming French restaurant on the side streets in Naha, they sure know a thing or two about the art of plating. Their plating techniques were already at full display early with our amuse bouche - amberjack with seasonal vegetables, Japanese mandarin, mandarin sauce and pepper seed. Not bad at all (5/10).

There was nothing special about their bread but the special dipping sauce made with anchovy, black olives and capers was quite a treat.
 


Dinner officially kicked off with the house specialty - seafood and vegetable terrine with basil and tomato sauce. What a beautifully presented dish it was!

I really like all the different ingredients including fish, crab, shrimp, scallop, carrot, broccoli, corn, baby spinach, cucumber, seaweed and ladies' finger (okra) squeezed tightly together with a thin strap of cabbage. The basil and tomato sauce provided just enough acidity to maintain a nice balance with the flavors from the seafood and vegetables (6.5/10).
 

 
But my favorite dish of the evening turned out to be the next dish - a pan seared foie gras with a light and foamy potato cream and truffle sauce. I had to admit that the truffle sauce was a tad too dominant but putting the potato cream with the pan seared foie gras was a clever idea with those two working superbly together as a team. Well done (7/10).


 
Unfortunately, the momentum didn't carry over to our main course. Our slow cooked Okinawan pork with red wine and mustard was slightly disappointing, especially the texture (very chewy) (4.5/10). 
 

 
Dessert happened to be a simple coconut mousse with pistachio oil and expresso sauce. Tasted much better than it looked (5/10).
 


Instead of a traditional petite fours, the kitchen offered us a little chocolate truffle with Okinawan brown sugar.



Located right next door is Le Petit Fujii, the bistro version of Maison de Fujii. Looks like they are sharing the same open kitchen with the food being prepared by the very same team.







Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 2 Chome-10-19 Kumoji, Naha, Okinawa 900-0015, Japan
沖縄県那覇市久茂地2丁目10-19 １階
Closest Monorail Station: Miebashi
Tel: +81 098-862-0312
Website: www.fujiikouhou.ti-da.net