The Subtle Statement of Delicacy

At the entrance to Waterloo, along the gleaming Chaussée de Bruxelles, this address opened in the early days of 2023. A bold move, yet a singular personality calls for an atypical setting. Enishi* reveals a dining room of crisp sobriety. One settles gently amid pale tones and noble materials of blue stone and light wood, sensing in this purity an overture—a promise of the moment to come.

Toshiro Fujii is far from an unknown figure; for nearly a decade he was San Degeimbre’s right hand at L’Air du Temps**, orchestrating the launch of the master’s noodle restaurants in Liernu before taking over Inada in Saint-Gilles to briefly run his own eponymous venture. Today, Toshiro stands as a free man, firmly in his own house.

His cuisine seeks neither spectacle nor excess but rather aims almost to ‘disappear’: to remain humble, to progress through delicate touches, advancing with exemplary technique and impeccable ingredients. Far removed from the pseudo-mystical noise of so-called Japan-inspired spots or those fusion restaurants that achieve only one thing—wrecking the kitchens they insist on blending.

Rather than “fusion,” Toshiro’s cooking expresses a magnificent meeting of cultures. Its Japanese roots are clear: precise dishes, accompaniments that carry both softness and strength, gentle melodies and clean strikes. With eyes and heart wide open to the world, his cuisine reads as a fan of terroirs and their produce, executed with the lightest touch: Mackerel with artichoke and kombu; Scallops with white asparagus and dashi; Fish with cabbage and lentil miso; Ramen with crab and wild garlic broth; Sweetbreads with bergamot, green asparagus and Rhubarb, white chocolate.

Each plate draws you into an intimate depth—surprise and restrained euphoria, finesse and emotion—as the chef unveils a repertoire of flavours that quietly reveal his story and the skills honed in the great houses where he trained.

A man who forges links between worlds. One must know how to receive such finesse.

LD

*‘Enishi’ is a Japanese term that may be translated as “the meeting of destiny.”