Restaurants Travel

Japanese teppanyaki dining experience

Teppenyaki dining experience

Whilst we were away on holiday we went to a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant. It was actually one of the a la carte options at the hotel and I know what you’re thinking – Japanese in Mexico??? Exactly what went through my mind too but actually, we were able to squeeze onto the show table and it was brilliant!

I’m not writing this post as a review because I’m not sure any of my readers are going to jump online and book a flight to Mexico specifically to eat at The Mikado (in case you want to know – its at the Grand Bahia Principe Coba – a fantastic 5* hotel on the Riviera Maya) – BUT what I am saying is ‘if you get chance, definitely give this type of dining experience a go’ – its great fun!

The menu was small – a choice of 4 or 5 starters and 4 mains. The starters included sashimi and nigiri sushi from a sushi station where there was a chef making it fresh.

To start…

I went for the nigiri combination which included shrimp, salmon and tuna. Dipping sauces on the table of soy, sweet chilli and peanut proved a perfect accompaniment. My friend went for the sushi roll combo which included eel tempura – it was nice to see something more than your usual sesame seed rolled salmon!

freshly made sushi
sushi Teppenyaki demonstration

 

For those who aren’t so keen on sushi, there was a yakitori chicken. My friend went for this and it looked really good! Once we’d eaten our starters, the fun really began as the chef cooked our mains in front of us.

For mains…

The starter was followed by a bowl of egg fried rice with mushrooms and onions with ginger, garlic and sriracha. We then had teppanyaki vegetables and a choice of chicken, steak and seafood. I had steak and seafood – the seafood being big juicy mussels and king prawns!

Teppenyaki chef

The best thing about eating at a show table in this kind of restaurant is watching the chefs skills. We were lucky enough to have a chef who really knew his stuff – he was juggling knives, doing all sorts of crazy tricks with eggs and at one point was even throwing bowls of rice around! There were 14 people around our show table and everyone was really involved, cheering and whooping as flames blazed and knives whizzed. This is such a fun dining experience and these pictures don’t do it justice!

Final thoughts…

I can’t speak for the authenticity of the food – we were (as I said) in Mexico, not Japan. I don’t know if the sushi was made with Japanese ingredients. The inclusion of sriracha in the egg fried rice also implies that it was more fusion in nature but, I can tell you that the food was tasty and this dining experience was very fun. Teppanyaki is a real treat for a birthday or special occasion and if you can go with friends, even better! Sit back, be entertained and fed all at the same time!

Have you ever done this? Where was it and what did you eat? Let me know in the comments box below!

Looking for Japanese inspired stories and recipes? Try these posts:

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