Kelly (51) and Lobo (56) are quitting restaurant Fujiyama in the heart of Groningen after 25 years. ‘Our guests learned to eat with chopsticks here’

The Japanese restaurant on the corner of the Grote Markt and the Oude Ebbingestraat looks spic and span at the beginning of the afternoon. The wooden tables are covered with white, square plates with blue flowers. In addition, a rectangular container for soy sauce and two wooden chopsticks on a white napkin. The cleaning lady quickly wipes the floor, after which the place is ready for the busy evening.

The scene seems familiar, but there is one big difference: after 25 years, Kelly Chen (51) and Lobo Fung (56) are passing on the baton. “Our daughters don’t want to take over and we want to slow down,” says Chen. That is why they transfer their Japanese restaurant to fellow chef Raymond Ng (46).

“I have been involved with Fujiyama since the beginning,” says Ng, “I apprenticed with Fung as an apprentice chef and learned a lot from him.” Ng is nervous about running the restaurant with his wife, but is also looking forward to it. “I want to make Kelly and Lobo proud and pass on the good name of the restaurant.”

‘Attracting Groningers was difficult’

Chen came from China and worked all her life in her parents’ takeaway business near Emmen. Fung came from Hong Kong and learned the tricks of the trade from a Japanese master in Alkmaar. They met through a summer job and ended up in Groningen together.

In 1999, the couple opened the city’s first Japanese restaurant on the Grote Markt, called Fujiyama, named after the highest mountain in Japan. ‘Kelly Chen wants the people of Groningen to have better Asian dishes’, was the headline Newspaper of the North in their early days. 25 years later, Fujiyama is a household name. Fung took care of the kitchen, while Chen took care of the service and administration.

During the opening, the staff walked around expectantly in Japanese kimonos. “We really didn’t know what to expect,” says Chen. At that time, Japanese food was still unknown in Groningen and many guests had never eaten with chopsticks.

‘Japanese people take the time to eat’

There were still six teppans in the shop at the time. That was very special in the Netherlands: Fujiyama was at that time one of the few places where guests could see the chefs at work at the table. A teppan is a griddle on which chefs prepare traditional Japanese dishes while visitors sit around it.

“When you dine at the teppan, you sit next to each other at such a table with other guests,” says Chen. “You enjoy the food together in peace. It also tastes better. Japanese people take the time to eat.”

Introducing this cuisine to Stadjers was a challenge. “Foreign guests walked in and were surprised,” Chen remembers. “But Groningers often thought it was strange that they had to sit next to strangers at the table.”

From table companions to married couples

Yet that special table setting has resulted in many pleasant encounters over the years. “Every now and then, guests who met here would go out into town together after dinner,” says Chen. And even more special: a couple met at the teppan and later got married in the shop. The spark had ignited in the heat of the grill.

Now there is only one teppan left in the restaurant. “After the corona period, it was very difficult to find good chefs,” Chen explains. “That’s why we changed things around.” Only the lampshades made of narrow wooden slats still remind us of the original interior from 25 years ago.

One thing has remained the same: the table by the window at the front of the business is still a favorite of both the guests and Chen himself. “This table is always reserved the fastest,” says Chen. In the restaurant, visitors sit at the table just above eye level, so they feel unobserved but can have an excellent view of the passing public during dinner.

And now eating with chopsticks is no longer a problem for most regular guests. “They learned that here,” says Chen, laughing. “We always have children’s sticks that everyone can practice with.”

And the newcomers? A knife and fork are always available to them.