Shackfuyu

Yum! Salmon bento for lunch was a big flavour explosion. Recommended my team to have lunch here as I’ve had dinner previously which was pretty epic. They were both not disappointed. We all had the salmon bento and the staff were very accommodating to our 45min time limit. Salmon was perfectly flaky and moist. I loved the yuzu Mayo dip. The rice was al dente and dotted with mushrooms and other extras… Much like a stir fry. And the taco. Wow! Pretty spicy and chewy. I was worried it would break apart in my hand as there was so much filling but it held its own. Love this place, so glad it became permanent and is a worthy addition to Old Compton Street. If you’re wary of strong flavours and spicy food, choose a lighter menu option but otherwise, two thumbs up for shackfuyu.

Food was passable. Nothing great to be honest, but not bad either. Tapas style eclectic blend mostly. Ok wine selection and decent service. I was very disappointed that they absolutely refused to allow you to take leftovers home, despite having a restaurant and alcohol license. Quite a shame to waste food. Silly policy that can be easily rectified.

I can certainly recommend Shackfuyu: their food can be described as Western food, done Japanese style. Very good and very tasty. We were kinda lazy, so we just went for the tasting menu, which gives a nice overview of what they have to offer. For the price of £30, — this is a real good value, as it is plenty. You get around 8 dishes to share plus a dessert. All dishes were real flavor bombs. It wasn’t the most refined cuisine, but it delivered on big flavors. The atmosphere was really cool with loud rock music. Service was great as well: very friendly and efficient.

I finaaaaally have ticked off Shackfuyu from my must try list. And the conclusion of my experience: you MUST try.
The place itself is decorated nicely with good lighting over the tables. On entry you are greeted and shown to your table. At the front of the restaurant is the bar, in the middle there are plenty of round tables in booths for 6 people, then at the back there are a few high benches with backless chairs and then tables of 2. These tables are a little odd however as you sit next to the person rather than opposite.
The waiter came over and explained the concept — Japenese tapas so all dishes are made to share — and then gave us time to peruse the menu, which isn’t big but has plenty of choice. We knew we were going to get some plates which I had read about from other reviews however we also had some questions as to what some dishes were. The waiters are all very friendly, patient, attentive and had no problem explaining some of the dishes I wasn’t sure about and then also offering his opinion when asked. In the end we went for the Gini Hendrix cocktail and nagaiita beer (quite sweet but a little different) and then 5 dishes. They recommend 4 – 5 between 2 with the idea you can always order more but we were starving so went straight in for 5! The dishes come out as and when they’re ready so first up the rabbit doughnuts arrived which I thought were fantastic however bf wasn’t so keen and I agree they weren’t really in keeping with the rest of the menu. Out next came the sweet potato fries and prawn toast — again both yuuuuummy. Next up was my absolute fav and the most expensive dish we ordered: wagyu beef which came in a hot stone bowl with caramelised onions and mushrooms. It cooked itself in front of you and the smell was divine. The taste was equally good — a must if you’re willing to splash out. Finally the aubergine came out which was a massive dish for the price and you’d never believe you could make aubergine taste so good. It was covered in a sticky bbq sauce with small crisp balls on top adding another awesome texture — another definite must. If you like fish (which I don’t) there were some impressive looking dishes which came out. And still there are more meat dishes which we didn’t get which I am dying to go back and try — lamb ribs, pork cheeks and rice & beef to name a few.
For dessert we got the famous one and only dessert on the menu: French toast with matcha soft serve ice cream. It was amazing! And of course I got a photo for Instagram!
Overall we had a fantastic meal with good service and came away so so full. I would probably give it a 9*/10 as the bill did come to a rather pricey amount but am definitely going back and recommend you do too!

Good food and fun atmosphere.
Had various starters and mains. Favourites included the imo fries, the chicken wings. The mains were very good — the iberico pork and the beef in the hot stone pot. Also the rice in the stone pot is a must have. We shared the dessert, really really good and unique. A perfect finish for the dinner.

I liked my meal here. It’s not the best or most authentic Izakaya in London, but it is not bad at all.
— I loooved the scallop sashimi and the fried monkfish cheeks.
— The nasu (aubergine) was also delicious, and easier to eat than most places as it was already chopped up.
— The beef, bibimbap dish was yummy too.
— The kale, cucumber and crack dressing* was good, but that was down to the dressing.
I guess the main problem was that it was so busy that we had to wait about 40mins for a table. I’d bump it up to 4 stars if it was slightly easier to get a table. I’m just not a fan of having to wait around to eat in the «cool» places.
*One of friends calls the gorgeous sesame salad dressing «crack dressing» because it is just soooo good. Once I brought a MASSIVE bottle of it back from Japan. While we were in the airport (just before customs) I checked to see if my «bottle of crack» had leaked in my luggage, and then shouted over to my husband, «yay the crack is all safe.» Oops. He was really pissed off with me. Anyway, just try the sesame dressing whenever you get the chance. It’s *that* good.

YES!!! I like this place, now you can even reserve a table!
And the food is good too! I liked the octopus tacos, full of octopus, just clumsy to eat. Monkfish cheeks were crunchy, flavourful and yummy.
Beef tartare had too much egg to meat ratio, in other words, more meat required! Loved the crackers it came with.
Sweet potato fries were the best I’ve tried and I don’t even like them! The sauce they come with was something else, in fact, all dips were great.
Salmon bun was good chicken bun was stupid spicy, covered with hot sauce with kimchee. Seriously. No. Can’t taste the chicken!
The dessert was amaaaazing! Hot egg toast, excellent match flavoured ice-​cream.
Good service too. Would love to go back and try the rest of the menu.

I was so excited about going to Shackfuyu. Dishes inspired by Oriental flavours creating fusion dishes such as the infamous French toast topped with grated roasted soy beans served with matcha soft whipped icecream.
But sadly many of the dishes was so drowned with miso or salt that it made some of the dishes really uncomfortable to eat unless washed down with lots of water. But what is the fun in that?
Starting with the kale and cucumber in sesame sauce. I wish I could taste the freshness and the flavours of the cucumber but sadly the dish was so salty it masked everything. I wasn’t so keen on the kale in the first place being too rough on the tongue and maybe would have stuck with spinach leaves or blanched French beans for a softer texture.
The Korean wings were a better choice. Lightly crisp on the outside whilst keeping the chicken succulent and juicy in the inside. The flavours were also balanced. Not too overwhelming. A lovely dish to get your fingers messy with.
Prawn toast masquerading as okonomiyaki could have been an amazing creation if I could scope off some of the sauce. Generous with the prawns it was juicy and bouncy yet crispy at the same time. The texture was perfect even with the sauce to add that creaminess but sadly it was just so overpowering the flavours of the prawns were lost in there.
I was shocked how I was expected to eat the aubergine on its own. At this point I had already went through 3 cups of water and wished they served bowls of plain boiled rice to take some of the salt away. Don’t get me wrong I love the combination of different miso. I enjoy the sweetness and the saltiness but it just wasn’t balanced. It was far more on the salty side than anything else. It only needed half the miso that was in there and definitely no more seaweed to make it more salty.
Saving the day was my favourite dish of the evening, the hamachi Kama. Lovely flakey soft meat from the collar of a yellowtail, just lightly seasoned and grilled. Served with a lemon which I gently squeeze over the collar brought out the amazing freshness and flavours of the yellowtail. Highly highly recommend!
Back on the road to high blood pressure was the hot stone rice. Why ruin a dish that had so much potential by drowning it in miso. The texture was brilliant with the beef, the mushrooms, raw egg and other vegetables. I can just make out how the flavours could have blended in my mouth. If I could only taste it. Water please!
Putting thar aside I found a dish I would come back for, the sukiyaki style wagyu picanha. If they had ruin such a high quality piece of beef I think I would have sulked all night. Luckily they didn’t. Ahhhh… Beautiful juicy tender slices of wagyu still marbling in the hot stone bowl in a lovely sweet soy marinate. The whole idea is that you dip it in the raw egg so that the beef holds on to the sauce and moisture creating an epic sensation as you devour it.
The only plate that was a mix bag was the pork cheeks. No it wasn’t too salty this time. What let it down was the cooked persimmon and pickled cucumbers that just did not pair well with the dish. The persimmon somewhat tasted ‘off’ and miso does not go well with pickles for me. Brushing those side bits off, the dish was well executed. The cheeks were moist, juicy and the meaty flavour travelled through the sauce to create a flavoursome dish.
Now the final dish needs to introduction. Kinako french toast they call it lives up to its name. Those who know me knows I love hot matched with cold dessert or visa versa. With the love of matcha, soft whipped icecream and French toast it was impossible to not love this dish.
Would I return to Shackfuyu? Yes, but sadly I will have to turn my head away to half the dishes on the menu. But when the seasoning is right, their dishes really do shine and are so very moreish. Pretty please can you cut down on your salt!!!

I would eat here again but the food just didn’t blow my mind. If we were talking dessert only then I’d rate them 5 stars.
The octopus taco was the best thing I had. Really fresh octopus with some great combinations going on.
Monkfish cheeks were okay. Just a few chunks of fried fish with lemon mayo.
Pork cheeks were actually quite good but I felt something was missing.
We also had the steak which was a let down. It was overcooked and chewy. We ordered medium rare but it came out medium well.
Now the dessert. This is exceptional. Really delicious toast with the perfect sweetness which also balances really well with the matcha ice cream.

The all new Japanese fusion restaurant by the founders of Bone daddies. If you think it’s going to be just ramen you’re wrong because it’s better. For starters we had Spicy friend Korean chicken wings and taco tacos, both really good and appetising. The octopus is so fresh and it goes so well with the crunchy tacos with tangy dressing.
For mains we had the grilled yellow tail cheek which had so much fish meat it filled me up pleasantly. The wafu beef steak was so soft and juicy, so definitely worth the price. To top it all was the unique kinako toast with lovely matcha soft ice cream, even though I was so full this is unmissable and it’s worth waiting, but best to share with two people minimum as it’s not small!

Shackfuyu went totally beyond my expectations, the quality of the ingredients were truly fantastic. I also really enjoyed the great range of East Asian flavours in its dishes, it keeps you coming back to try something new. With the rock and roll themed of the venue, plus the Soho location and decent services, it is hard to imagine Shackfyyu not be a success. But bear in mind that this isn’t a cheap restaurant, without the soft launch offer, my bill would have costed me almost £50 with just tap water to drink. But then again you are getting some of the very best modern East Asian cooking in London at that price bracket.

So Shackfuyu is doing a re-​opening and I’m lucky enough to book a place for lunch today at their soft launch.
I haven’t been here before but looking at previous photos of the place I would say the place is more chic and the layout now makes it look bigger (might have something to do with the huge mirror at the back of the restaurant).
Staff are quite well trained, although they did try to bring the same dish to our table twice. Not sure if this is staff error or kitchen error. Polite service throughout. The food came quite quickly as well, although not in any particular order. We had the curry potato, then duck bun first, and then the iron steak, then the chicken last. They all came separately on their own.
We had the duck, flat iron steak and kimchi chicken bun between 2 people. We also had the curry potato. These are enough to fill you up and make you fall into a food coma!
Props to the flat iron steak, it melts in your mouth and is great coupled with the radish. Kimchi chicken is second and even a non-​kimchi lover myself, the chicken was juicy and succulent inside and it was a huge piece of chicken! Duck was disappointing as the piece was too small and due to this the deep frying made it feel like I was eating fried duck skin!
Curry potato was addictive as it uses those Japanese curry which is slightly sweet.
All in all, a good place for lunch!

5 stars for the kinako french toasts. Crispy edges warm toasts with matcha soft serve. I will be back for their food sometimes.

Go there for their curry potatoes and for their Kinako French Toast, one of the coolest, tastiest and most innovative desserts I’ve ever had. Go back for their mix of Asian junk food. Perfect.

Mediocre at best. Time Out London lies, again, in its recs.
The good: My aubergine and cauliflower were DELICIOUS so I can’t fault that. Rich, sweet flavours that I gobbled too although the aubergine was a little to chewy for my palate.
The bad: My husband’s main dish was awful. AVOID THE MAC AND CHEESE. What a waste of £8. Barely cooked pasta under a meh topping. He also got the scallop– yes a scallop– because paying £8 for one should be a crime, The scallop was nice but there were also these bits of rubbery fish??? scallop bits??? around it that turned us off.
The worst was the service (of course Europe, you NEVER FAIL). Our waitress just ended her shift midway and never bothered to tell us. So after sitting and waiting for some time for our food, drink refills, ANY acknowledgement, we flagged another waitress and she let us know, that yeah, our server had left and she had our section now. No apologies or anything. So we had to repeat our orders.
I had the 12.5% tip that is automatically added taken off immediately. We will never return and I urge others to avoid as well.

We really enjoyed our meal here. Granted the waitress did look at me funny when I tried to describe my dinner «date» as a 30 something man, quite good looking, geeky glasses, look like any other tw*tish medja type but she was lovely once we got past the hurdle of me finding my fellow eater only seated about 2m from me (lucky we know each other really well then eh?)
We both loved the aubergine– terrific and devoured the prawn toast and the korean fried wings (heavenly– just the right amount of heat and crispiness; but I don’t eat really spicy stuff, so I say the KFW is not spicy)
The bibambup was good but we both felt that it was the weakest link as the hot stone pot was a tad too hot and burnt the rice a little– as vs. making a crust which it should have done.
Finally loved my cherry sake/​vodka gimlet– how could something so alcoholic taste so non-​alcoholic?
4 dishes were perfect for 1 hungry male human being and 1 not so hungry female human being. If you don’t go for the rice, I’d say 5 would be safer.

I went to Flat Iron with friends close by, but I told them to eat their steak but to not order any dessert. We were going to hop across the road in Soho New York style just to get dessert. And not any dessert. A dessert I had heard was worth going to Shackfuyu alone.
As we hopped across, informing the staff if they could fit us four somewhere and that we would only have to dessert they were more than welcoming. Getting us a nice table in the back lively room.
The dessert? Oh yeah that… well it was a soft serve Matcha Green Tea with some Kinako French Toast. We could see them putting it on the plate Mr Whippy style as the machine was next to us. And boy was it worth the effort. In fact one dessert is more than enough for two people! It was the perfect guilty pleasure. Had to do a run the next day just to make myself feel like I wasn’t going into a soft serve dream. I love the Japanese pop ups and this Bone Daddies spin off is worth going just for that.

Our group of 4 dined during the recent soft launch. I got to sample every dish on the menu that night as we ordered everything, although if left up to me there are a few dishes I would not even have ordered eg. Fried potatoes with curry sauce.
Noteworthy dishes included:
Endive & pear salad
Roasted scallop
USDA Beef picanha
The only dessert on the menu is an unremarkable half a slice of fried bread with matcha soft serve. I struggle to understand why so many people have been raving about this simple dessert. It is definitely not worthy of being awarded dessert of the year by a newspaper food critic!

After a 40minute wait, partly my fault as they won’t sit you unless your whole party is there, we finally sat in a sweet little booth within the buzzing atmosphere.
The food came speedily and was really delicious BUT so so small and quite pricey.
Korean wings had a good spice, slathered in sticky sauce. The yellowtail sashimi, tiny but really tasty. We shared a bunch of starters between 5 of us so got a good selection, the Mac and cheese was an unexpected highlight (Japanese food with Mac and cheese? Yes, delicious).
My margarita was £8.50 which is pretty steep for my liking. Yet I did loudly exclaim frequently how delicious it was. We ordered pudding at the end but after 30minute wait we cancelled the order as we had a film to catch.
Basically this place is tasty, but too pricey for the portion size, accompanied with the wait for the table means I can only give it 3 stars! If you don’t care about these then certainly go for it.

The ambience of the restaurant is good, there are traditional Chinese characters lining the walls, the place is well lit (which is ideal for taking photos), the music is upbeat and energy bounces around the whole restaurant. Unlike with Bone Daddies’ noodle bar, the seating in Shackfuyu is well spaced and all the while food, drink, the menus and table setting are consistently delivered in the simple and pleasant style of Bone Daddies. The walls lining the stairs are a bit slapdash as there are blotches of white paint randomly splattered across the green. The service is also a bit rough around the edges as our waitress had some difficulties understanding our English and vice versa, the waiters in general were not on the ball as finished dishes were not removed until new orders arrived and the dessert took ages to reveal itself despite there being only one on the menu.
As my group indulged ourselves with ordering every single item on the menu, I am able to describe them all…
‘Edamame — maldon salt’ — pleasantly warm beans with just a sprinkle of salt on top makes this an inoffensive starter but seemingly unworthy of £3.80. ‘Yellowtail sashimi tostada — avocado shiso’ — well presented sushi with a nice variation of textures and subtle flavours. ‘Korean fried wings’ — well cooked and flavoursome, with a sprinkle of sesame seeds these chicken wings are tasty but surprisingly spicy. ‘Aubergine — 4 miso — bubu arare’ — original and light on the palate, the aubergine slices are soft and well seasoned. ‘Red mullet — nanban style’ — I can’t say that I’m familiar with red mullet fish but this did taste a bit too fishy for my liking and the pieces of fish were rather concealed by all the foliage. ‘Endive and pear salad — spiced miso dressing’ — this was very appealing, fresh, crunchy and understated; salads on the whole are usually unremarkable but this one was a highlight of the whole menu. ‘Hand dived roasted scallop — chilli miso butter’ — certainly heavily doused in flavour and sauce and a sizeable scallop but I would prefer it to be stripped back a little and served without the internal organs (gonad and coral). ‘Prawn toast masquerading as okonomiyaki’ — small and forgettable. ‘Roasted beets — shiso avocado’ — tasting fresh and subtle in flavour. ‘Cauliflower — orange miso ponzu’ — not particularly interesting on its own but a good enough side dish to have. ‘Mentaiko mac and cheese — cock scratchings’ — is exactly as it says; a small portion of succulent macaroni pasta embedded in warm cheese with a small amount of crisy fried chicken skin shavings on top; pleasant but questionable whether or not it is worth £4.60. ‘Beef hot stone rice — goma butter’ — basically like a Korean bibimbap but without the refreshing pickle and only bits of beef available together with rice that gets burnt far too quickly. ‘Fried potatoes — Japanese curry sauce’ — this was quite disappointing to me as the potatoes weren’t crispy and became a little soggy immersed in the sauce and the curry sauce was quite mild and unoriginal. ‘USDA beef picanha — kimchee tare butter (200g)’ — this beef was off the mark in my eyes as I found the texture to taste noticeably chalky, the middle was red (I don’t think our waiter asked how well we wanted it cooked), the kimchi was just a little on the side and I could not taste ‘tare butter’ or any other flavour to season the meat; frankly I found it had to swallow.
‘Kinako french toast — soft serve ice cream’ — was ordinary toasted bread with caramelised sugar (that was burnt and smelled burnt) layered on top, powdered sugar sprinkled on top and then a dollop of green tea flavoured soft ice cream on the side; considering that this is the only option for dessert on the menu, it is almost a travesty that it not only took so long to make but that it actually ends up not being worth the wait and thus gives the construct of ‘dessert’ a bad name. The mocktails ‘Okinawa Sunset — orange, pineapple and lime juice, grenadine syrup’ and ‘California Dreaming — cranberry, lychee and lime juice’ are pleasant enough but a little unextraordinary for mocktails as they are without fruit, without much distinct taste, and served in small pre-​prepared bottles (which I recommend you pour into your ice-​packed glass a little at a time so as not to dilute the flavour all in one go).
All in all, Shackfuyu seems to have a lot of great ideas; just shame about the execution. There are some unique recipes worth trying, and some that just sound extravagant but are decidedly disappointing. The vegetable/​salad dishes are noticeably better quality than the meat-​containing options. The menu seems ambitious despite being small; however in reality Shackfuyu has not yet achieved the standards that the menu appears to hint at. Nevertheless, there is much potential here and you can see that effort has been invested into creating a memorable dining experience.