One trip to Matsuri is all it takes to get your Japanese vocab going!

Start by saying “Itadakimasu” (I humbly receive this meal) and end with “Gochisousama” (Thank you for the food).

In between the two, order the Edamame as starter, or boiled green soybeans, which is much yummier than it sounds, and then the Ama Ebi, which literally translates into sweet shrimps. Or the Hiyayakko, which sounds like something you’d say along with a martial arts step but it’s really just simple chilled tofu with toppings.

And if you can’t pronounce moriawase, which you might have to use if you’re ordering an “assortment” of sushi or sashimi, then look at the dead fish happily wrapped in rice and think in Bengali, morey--haanshe, and you’ll be just fine.

Jokes apart, Matsuri serves some serious Japanese food. No surprise, because it is K House Food India’s second serve after Fuji (which is Aoi’s new name), the four-month-old restaurant on Sarat Bose Road that has been seeing a “full house on weekday lunches and weekend dinners” according to MD Palash Banerjee.

Matsuri, the 60-seater restaurant located on the fourth floor of Forum (opposite Cafe Mezzuna), is gearing up for a February 28 opening. “The response to Fuji has been fantabulous. That’s why we opened another Japanese restaurant in Calcutta,” says Banerjee, over the phone from Mumbai, where he is opening Fuji on Linking Road.

Is he surprised that Calcutta has taken so well to Japanese food? “I suppose it has to do with the staples of rice and fish, common to both,” he says, adding that the customers are a mix of “well-travelled” and “new to Japanese”.

Open from noon to 3pm (lunch); 6pm to 10pm (dinner), a meal for two would cost Rs 2,500-plus.

Karo Christine Kumar
Pictures: Rashbehari Das