MANILA, Philippines?If you get a sudden craving for traditional Japanese dishes, check out Kaiseki Japanese Cuisine at The Fort.

Definitely nothing of the popular ?fusion? menu here, says owner Albert Wu.

?We offer real Japanese food that most haven?t seen anywhere else. We just do some tweaking to make it fit the Pinoy palate. Say, the sukiyaki is not as sweet as it should be.?

Couple Albert and Jo Wu, looking for something to do after retirement, put up the Japanese restaurant six years ago. What started off as a two-floor affair now has a teppanyaki floor on the third level.

Light meals

Teppanyaki or grilled dishes have always been part of the menu, used to be cooked in the kitchen. Now diners, especially kids, can delightfully watch as food is prepared by a teppan chef. It?s pretty much like watching a live cooking show and eating the finished products fresh off the pan.

There?s the meat teppanyaki selection of chicken, sukiyaki, Kobe and Wagyu steak. Lighter meals include scallops, oysters, ika or squid, lobster tail, maguro or tuna, prawns and tofu.

?Our seasoned Japanese chef, Mutsuo Okuya, makes the dishes as authentic as possible,? says Albert. The regulars call Kaiseki an ?extension? of their flats at The Fort. ?They don?t cook in their own condo units so they dine here.?

Crowd favorite

Kaiseki has a variety of sushi: the Matsu (eight kinds of imported seafood), or pick your favorites from the temaki or cone-shaped sushi?California (mango, crabsticks and lettuce), Spicy Maguro (tuna, cucumber, lettuce), Ebi Ten (prawn), Tamago Sarada (egg, cucumber, mango, shrimp) and Unagi (eel).

The kids love the Crazy Maki, a yummy sushi topped with shredded crabsticks.

Healthy eaters

?Our market is generally the healthy eaters,? says Kaiseki manager Jo Wu who has been in the Japanese restaurant business since the ?80s. ?Bestsellers are the raw fish, salad, grilled items.?

Seasoned travelers are glad to find Kaiseki in Manila, says the couple.

?We?re retired, we?re here to have fun,? says Albert. ?For now, we?re just planning to add a kiddie meal on the menu.?

Kaiseki Japanese Cuisine is at The Fort, behind the NBC Tent. Call 8891005 or 8894093.