LocalEatsJapan

Now, this is a bit of a funny/confusing one, so instead of looking up the name of the restaurant, look up the address instead. This will give you the info you need on it.

I say this because the name, “Kokufukueki” is the name of a station that has since been closed down in Hokkaido, so when you look it up in English (or Japanese for that matter), all that comes up is stuff relating to this station. 

But when in actuality, there is actually a restaurant with the same exact name in Fukui Prefecture, located nearly a whole day of travel away by car. 

I would like to think that these two things have some sort of connection to each other, but I was unable to find any info on it. 

There are also a ridiculous number of restaurants in Japan, a lot of which have the same name. So this one might be no different, but If I ever go back I want to ask the owners. 

Speaking of going back, I think I definitely will be one day, as it is only a 10 minute walk from the famous Echizen Daibutsu. 

If you are not familiar with it, it is a buddha statue inside of Daishizan Seidaiji Temple, and it is surrounded by hundreds of smaller Buddha statues that line the walls inside of the building. 

It was by far in the top 3 coolest things I have seen in Japan and it is honestly quite underrated so I highly recommend it.

I recommend it as much as I recommend Kokufueki though, as it was also an insanely good hidden gem. 

It was by total chance that I found the place, and to be honest it doesn’t really look like a restaurant, but I was hungry and knew that a place kind of in the middle of nowhere like this had no reason not to be good. 

When you enter you are greeted with a bar-like layout which kind of reminded me of someone’s house in a way, aside from the fact that there were a bunch of tables both to your left and more to the right down a small set of stairs. The place was quite big. 

The other cool thing is that if you go down the little staircase to the right, there are a few big bookshelves full of manga which you were able to pick out and read at your table! They are all in Japanese, but there was quite a big selection they had, and it is the perfect place to be able to relax and read, not worrying about having to give your seat up to someone else like you may in bigger cities. 

The menu was also not huge, and from what I remember it was only teishoku (set meals) which would make sense because they are only open at lunch time. 

What I do remember fully though, is that all of them were under 1500 yen (minus 1 which was 1800), and the volume of food you got was insane. 

You have the choice of either a rice bowl set, or a set where the main entree was served on a hot skillet where all of them come with either steak or hamburger steak. 

Each set came with a complimentary miso soup and salad (and rice if you ordered a skillet meal).

Everything looked good (the menu was pictures) and so I pondered quite a bit, but in the end I succumbed to my lack of iron and went with the steak and chicken nanban set for 1400 yen. 

Chicken namba for those of you that aren’t familiar with it, is essentially boneless fried chicken thighs or breast topped with a tartar sauce made from eggs and mayonnaise (kewpie of course). It is a really popular dish in Japan, and one of my favourites if I am looking for something comforting – also very easy to make on your own too!

It was very good, and the sauce actually differed in the sense that it was quite runny as opposed to normal. thicker tartar sauces you find in Japan. Think a hollandaise sauce consistency.

The steak was cooked perfectly rare/medium rare (no you don’t have a say in how it comes out cooked), but you can cook it yourself a bit on the hot skillet as well. It was tender and finding steak this cheap in Japan is quite uncommon.

It was a harmonious meal, and certainly covered itself on all bases when it came to nutrition (minus the random french fries that were included in the meal lol).

So either before or after viewing echizen daibutsu, kill two birds with one stone and also come get some excellent food at kokufueki! 

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