Restaurant Sola (Fukuoka, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

Restaurant Sola is a highly rated French-Japanese fusion restaurant in Bayside Place Hakata, right next to Fukuoka Tower. The restaurant is helmed by owner-chef Hiroki Yoshitake, who is celebrated for his innovative approach to contemporary French cuisine utilizing Japanese produce.

In 2010, Chef Yoshitake co-founded the original Restaurant Sola in Paris and earned his first Michelin star just 15 months after opening.

When we arrived, we were immediately escorted to the deepest part of the dining room.

I would’ve loved to sit at the counter table to get a close look at the chefs working behind the scenes. 

But with this guy around, it was virtually impossible to enjoy a meal here without disturbing other guests (thus the table furthest away from everyone). 

Restaurant Sola serves only one omakase menu per night. Before we had a chance to take in the restaurant’s surroundings, a beautiful set of amuse-bouches was already set in front of us.

Turnip — (Poached?) Turnip with water squid noodles. Crunchy with clean, bright flavors. Delicious!

Jerusalem artichoke — Jerusalem artichoke espuma with oxtail ragout.

Butternut — butternut squash cream tart with shaved parmesan cheese.

Salmon caviar — Ikura stick with delicate avocado cream finished off with a yuzu dressing.

Salmon — A further amuse bouche of smoked salmon and celery root tart was next. This was

smoked with cherry blossom so the flavors were unsurprisingly fragrant and beautifully smoky.

Yellowtail — Thin slices of slightly cooked yellowtail fillet, decorated with yam (山藥), radish vines, tonburi, and perilla flowers on top. The textures were exciting and well balanced, highlighted by the crunch from the yam alongside the buttery richness of the fish.

We were offered a slice of pumpkin foccacia, with ricotta cheese spread and olive oil served on the side. The foccacia wasn't bad but I thought the ricotta cheese did very little to elevate the flavors of the bread.

Shrimp — A chilled mix of Japanese shrimp, king crab meat and squid, nicely topped with a cloud of seafood consommé jelly flavored with saffron. I thought there was a hint of shiso in play as well.

This was an amazing dish though I couldn’t help thinking that if the seafood were served warm, the contrast in temperature with the ice-cold consommé jelly might have been even more striking.

Scallop — A perfectly seared Hokkaido scallop rests on a velvety potato cream, accompanied by earthy mushrooms and a rich scallop jus, then elegantly crowned with premium French Ossetra caviar. A masterfully balanced symphony of deep umami flavors.

Conger eel — Deep-fried conger eel stuffed with smoked foie gras, with small broccolini on the side. 

There was a hint of ginger for some extra heat, building on the numbing sensation of sancho pepper.

Puffer fish — It was an omakase menu so obviously, we didn't see this coming. What really stood out for me was that it featured two ingredients I generally don’t like: blowfish (河豚) and shirako (白子).

The pan-seared puffer fish was served on a bed of shirako and white onion purée, finished with brown butter sauce and buttery spinach. Despite not being a fan of either component, I thought the puffer fillet was executed reasonably well. Its aromatic finish came through clearly in both aroma and taste. The shirako was less fishy than I expected thanks to the white onion, but it was still a little too rich for the balancing act with the puffer fish.

Beef — The charcoal-grilled Kagoshima brown rice beef (玄米黑牛) was nicely complemented by the sweetness of lily bulb, savory bamboo shoots, subtle spiciness of the egg yolk mustard sauce. My only complaint was the sweet-and-sour sabayon sauce that didn’t match well with the beef.

Pear — Our pre-dessert was pear panna cotta, fresh pear cubes, lemon jelly and verbena sorbet served in a delicate pear soup. Wonderfully refreshing and great as a palate cleanser.

Chestnut — A scoop of milk ice-cream resting on multiple layers of chestnut cream and fresh persimmon compote, separated by coffee tuile.

I was expecting something lighter and refreshing, but it ended up being a bit heavier. 

Some cookies as our lone migrandises tonight but we were stuffed at this point anyways. That was an incredible amount of food in just two hours especially with me having to take the extra beef from mom and little nugget.

The driving part of our trip starts early tomorrow morning so we quickly settled the bill and headed back to the hotel to get our packing done. It was raining a bit, so I wasn’t able to take a photo with Fukuoka Tower before leaving Bayside Place Hakata.

I could clearly see Chef Yoshitake’s talent and creativity in every course tonight. It’s too bad Fukuoka still hasn’t received its Michelin Guide listing yet — otherwise, Restaurant Sola would have a strong chance of earning an easy spot on the list.

Food Rating: 7.6/10

Price: ￥￥￥￥

Address: C-bld-2F, Bayside Place Hakata, 13-6, Chikko-honmachi, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, 812-0021 Japan

Tel: +81 (0)92-409-0830

Website: https://sola-factory.com/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (Sat), 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)