Tokyo Teppanyaki (South Yarra) 07/2012

If you want to get an idea of what to expect at a restaurant a visit to Urban Spoon or TripAdvisor or similar sites will usually give you a pretty good idea. Not so for Tokyo Teppanyaki. Some find the food awful, some love it and some find it indifferent. There is more unanimity about the service. Most find it lacking but others were well cared for. Most find it pricey but many have purchased Groupon vouchers giving a substantial discount and making it much more reasonable. The wine list rarely gets mentioned, it's pretty ordinary. The ambiance also gets some comment as does the theatricality of it all.
Our experience was not too bad. The place is pleasantly and simply decorated. It is set up with a row of teppanyaki grills, open rectangular bar style seating with a grill top in the centre and room for a chef to stand facing the patrons in the open section. The menu is set. After an offer of drinks, saki or wine, and a short wait, we were served a very tasty small bowl of sweet pickled bean shoots followed by a delicious, quite mild, miso soup.This came with an very nice entree of spring roll, crumbed chicken nuggets, a bit of broccoli and a small slice of sushi with a dipping sauce. Our chef, a happy fellow from Korea, had learned his trade here, in Melbourne. We requested that he refrain from throwing food to us, one of the things they do here giving you the chance to show your skill by catching morsels in your mouth. While the grill heated he gave us a demonstration of hand skills twirling and flipping his spatulas so rapidly they appear as a blur of silver. There were three sauces available, a soya sauce, a mild chili sauce and a sweet sauce which one could use according to personal taste. Beginning with king prawns, which he rapidly decapitated and de veined and set aside the heads the chef grilled a series of dishes, The prawn heads are frying here bottom right.lamb chop, waghu beef, chicken, beat an egg and chopped it into slivers for fried rice and some mushrooms, one for each person. The meal finished with a dessert of green tea ice cream or deep fried vanilla ice cream. We did order green tea but it never arrived but tea/coffee were offered at the end of the meal. The food was good though the manner of cooking and serving was very quick so it was all over in barely more than an hour. Waiter service, mostly provided by pretty young girls, was very poor but we had an enjoyable night.
Without the discount voucher, including a $45 bottle of Forester Shiraz, the bill would have been $220.
Score: 13.5/20