A
teppanyaki house on the Parade has opened its doors near the beginning of the year. It's called
'Samurai' (military nobility of pre-industrial Japan) because they serve their customers in great loyalty, just like the Samurai.
I'm quite a fan of teppanyaki because you get to see the whole cooking process right before your eyes; there's no question that the food prepared is fresh and prepared in a quality manner. No horror stories of food dropped on the floor and being served up to the customer to avoid wastage.
The restaurant is not very big; it can probably seat about 20 people. I really liked the decor though; framed pictures of various Japanese culture like geishas and women in kimonos adorn the walls.
The chef was extremely friendly to us; the moment we stepped into the restaurant, we were greeted cheerfully by him personally. Because we went there late, he informed us that the wok was closed and so we were unable to order any deep-fried menu items. He helped us with our order, taking time to explain about the menu. You'd probably never get this level of interaction with the chef at any other restaurant.
If you've never tried teppanyaki before, I suggest you do just for the experience (also, the food is good but it's always fun to have a huge fire just blow up in front of your face as it cooks your food- in a safe environment).
Within just a few quick minutes, our first dish was done. We ordered the SA King Prawns, topped with garlic coriander. I absolutely loved them! They tasted fresh and combined with the topping was a truly gastronomic experience. Probably my favourite dish of the night, to be honest.
The next dish we had our chef prepare for us was the Atlantic Salmon in
ponzu sauce. It was alright, but it wasn't anything amazing. Fell a bit flat for me.
We decided to order a bowl of the seafood special fried rice. You're actually able to choose whether you want fried rice or a noodle version of the dish. The seafood special had a wonderful mix of calamari, prawns, pineapple, egg, capsicum and onions.
My partner enjoyed the beef tenderloin with garlic peppercorn the most. The beef was tender and juicy with flavour. The beef was the last main we had and we were pretty full at this point but because it was so good, we just had to force ourselves to finish it. It'd be a shame to let delicious food go to waste!
We were really full, but somehow the chef and his silver-tongue managed to convince us to try out one of their desserts. This particular dessert is only available when it's not very busy as its made on the griddle. A clean griddle is needed to avoid spoiling the taste of the dessert.
The bananas foster consists of flambéed bananas on the griddle served with vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce. I adore almost any dessert with bananas and these were some exceptional bananas. In spite of being full to bursting, we managed to polish it off and even scraped the bottom for more.
I enjoyed my experience at Samurai Teppanyaki and would love to go back for more. If only it wasn't so pricy. Our total bill came up to $107, a price I wouldn't be willing to pay on a casual dinner date.
