EAST MEETS WEST IN UNDER 30 SECONDS

By Joyce Babe Pañares

IN THIS quiet spot in Katipunan Ave., you can find yourself transported from Quezon City to a Japanese omakase house or to a US steak room in under 30 seconds.

Fukui Omakase and William Watson Steak Room stand side-by-side each other, allowing clients to cross order and enjoy the best of both delectable worlds.

More importantly, both restaurants offer "affordable luxury" to residents of Quezon City, says owner Anthony Ng.

"Quezon City has a different vibe. Here, people are more conscious of value for money," Ng said in an interview.

"Fukui and William Watson offer a convenient alterative for affordable luxury instead of leaving QC for say, BGC or Makati. Here you can move from East to West in just 30 seconds," he added.

William Watson, which pays homage to two famous Angus beef cattle breeders Hugh Watson and William McCombe, offers a hefty slab of Tomahawk steak (1.3 to 1.5 kgs) at P8,800 -- pricey still, but almost 50 percent less than what one would fork out in the more upscale business districts in the metropolis.

Here you can also order table-side Caesar salad made from scratch right in front of you, or seafood bisque that comes with a large crab claw.

There's a burrata salad and grilled salmon with wasabi mashed potatoes too, as well as Cheese Steak Pizza with slow-roasted Angus beef, mozzarella, and Emmental cheese.

At Fukui, you can enjoy a sushi boat with certain fish (hamachi and ottoro, among others) flown in every week from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market and ebi tempura with the lightest of batter to showcase the plump, juicy prawns inside.

Its Flaming Maki is a sensory experience in itself -- flambéed cheese sauce blanketing a salmon-kani with cucumber roll, while its Red Miso ice cream is an explosion of flavor with chopped walnuts providing texture.

Ng said opening his own restaurants was a natural progression for him from being a meat supplier to SM supermarkets.

"I've been dealing with raw meat for the longest time. Our meat retail shop was my college thesis over two decades ago, while as a young boy I grew up with a big piggery owned by mom in Iloilo," he said.

"As fot my cooking, it is really for survival -- nothing that I can be proud of. But I think my taste buds are generally pleasing to the public," he said.

And as a self-confessed "maarte" foodie, he wants his dishes delicious, affordable, but elevated.

His favorite dishes in his two restaurants are reflective of his philosophy -- tenderloin rossini with foie gras on a brioche bun and roasted US Angus bone marrow with crostini from William Watson, and the teishoku set at Fukui that is truly affordable luxury (all sets at under P1,000).

"Opening a business is always a gamble. But I think there is a market for what we have to offer," he said.

"You don't need an occasion to eat here. Our two restaurants are where you can have fun with your family or friends without breaking the bank," Ng added.