Quang L.
Google
I can’t say enough good things about this place. My wife and I both agreed by the end of the course that this was the best meal of our life, even accounting for the fact that we’ve eaten at the French Laundry and she doesn’t even like red meat. I’m a steak lover so expectations coming into it were already pretty high, but somehow still exceeded my expectations. We made a reservation about 3 days prior through Table Check, which was pretty easy to navigate as a foreigner (reservations are a must as-is with most teppanyaki places). This place has about 8 seats and it was full with another family of 6 next to us. There were two chefs working and another assistant. Our chef Ryota Arimura was very attentive to us and made us feel extremely welcomed. We don’t speak any Japanese so he meticulously translated everything using Google Translate on his phone - from what ingredients he was using to what places we visited while we were in Japan. We previously ate at a Michelin-starred omakase in Japan where the chef there pretty much ignored all of the foreign guests and only interacted with the Japanese couple, so this level of hospitality by Chef Ryota was a very pleasant experience and contributed a lot to making this an amazing meal.
The food was top notch. We did the regular kira kirameki course. The first course was seared Wagyu beef topped with uni and roe, which was amazing. Second was a steamed sea bream wrapped in kelp with some broth added - again excellent overall, although we weren’t used to the mugwort gelatin that came with the dish. Third main course was live lobster cooked in front of you and this was divine - steamed to perfection and topped with a butter/miso sauce that was seared and honestly the best sauce I ever had (I even dipped my vegetables from the salad dish in that sauce). Finally came the A5 Wagyu which was hands-down incredible. I’ve always loved a tender Wagyu that melts in your mouth along with a nice crisp garlic chip and authentic wasabi - and this did not disappoint. What was more amazing was that it came on top of a piece of bread to soak the juices, which was then taken from your plate when you finish half of the meat, then grilled with butter and served back to you to have alongside the meat/garlic/wasabi combo and elevated the dish even more. We were glad we didn’t didn’t choose the pricier options as we were very full and bloated by the end of this - though if you have a bigger appetite, it looks like the other guests who paid for the pricier courses got additional sashimi and abalone (though the meat and lobster that we all got were the same). The meal was completed with garlic fried rice with pieces of Wagyu, miso soup, pickled vegetable and some tea. Dessert was an ice cream sandwich with a matcha ice cream, red bean, strawberries, and mochi filling sandwiched between two wafers that my wife loved, which held together and didn’t crumble as you bit into it.
Again, best meal we’ve ever had and we’re Michelin Guide aficionados. We’re going to recommend this place to all friends and family when they visit and looking forward to coming back the next time we’re in Japan.
