Sushi, sake and Korean barbecue at Takayama, Ipswich

Ipswich has its fair share of Indian, Chinese and Turkish restaurants. But over the summer a newcomer to the international dining scene was making rather a large impression on those in the know.

Takayama on Fore Street is the town’s first Japanese restaurant, offering a Korean twist to the menu, all of which is cooked entirely from scratch by chef/owner De Xing Chen and served by his wife Irene.

The pair, moved to the town a little over five months ago with their young daughter to pursue De Xing’s dream of running his own restaurant.

“Cooking is the only thing I do,” the chef said. “It’s my life. I’ve worked for many restaurants and finally got a chance to do this. We’d been planning to open a restaurant for a while and we looked for a long time for the right size of place. It’s just the two of us.”

And he’s not exaggerating. Takayama is a two-person operation. Until the restaurant gets off the ground De Xing is running the kitchen entirely by himself to ensure the quality of every single dish. And Irene single-handedly runs front-of-house, saying she’s really proud of what her husband’s doing.

“Everything is homemade and he can customise dishes for customers. If they are allergic to anything we have an allergy chart and can avoid certain things for them. I really can’t pick a favourite thing from the menu. I think people should try everything. I really love his cooking and his passion. Even when he cooks for his family, the decoration and the care is perfect. He even carves things like butterflies for the plates.”

On the menu are traditional Japanese dishes, plus made-to-order sushi, and Korean classics like bulgogi.

If you can’t decide what to have, pick a set menu or bento box.

And you have try out the range of sake from the drinks list which even includes sparkling sake.

Booking is essential at this small family establishment so if you want to give it a try, make sure you call ahead. You can find all their details at the Takayama Facebook page.