Japanese Village (Southside)
I always drive by the Southside Japanese Village and since it's one of the few places that serve teppanyaki in Edmonton, I've been meaning to try it out for quite a while. But since dinner prices are absurd (in the $30-$50 range) and you can pretty much get the same food for half the price during lunch, I waited for an opportunity to visit on a weekday for lunch. (No lunch on weekends!)
Customers can sit at a teppanyaki table where they can watch the chef cook, or they can sit at a regular table and order from the non-teppanyaki menu. But apparently it doesn't matter where you sit, you can order teppanyaki dishes anyway. Personally I prefer watching the show for the full experience. At the beginning of the meal, each place setting consisted of an empty plate and 2 sauces for dipping: sesame sauce (left) and ginger sauce (right).
All entrees came with egg drop soup as a starter — a thick starchy bowl that was a bit salty and lacked flavour.
After placing our orders, the chef wheeled out a cart with our uncooked food and various condiments for seasoning.
Then he proceeded to flip and toss the food in front of us, adding in butter, soy sauce, and other sauces along the way. It wasn't a particularly impressive display compared to my previous teppanyaki experiences. There were no giant flames or juggling tricks, but we did get a happy face.
The filet mignon (10 oz: $21) was good quality, and this is really the only dish I would recommend getting. The texture was nice and tender with no fat or sinew, and the savoury green butter complemented it well.
The chicken teriyaki ($13) was overcooked and the meat was dry with the texture of an eraser. Plus the chef went overboard on the sauce, so in short, this dish of salty rubbery chicken did not impress.
I also tried the shrimp misonaise ($15) but forgot to take a picture. The shrimp were cooked with lemon butter and a house-made misonaise sauce. The flavour was alright, but the shrimp were quite small and not worth the money. I'm really glad I came here for lunch instead of dinner, because I would've been sorely disappointed if I had paid $30+ for this meal. But for the price I paid, I thought it was decent value since we got soup, green tea, meat, rice and a side of veggies.
Customers can sit at a teppanyaki table where they can watch the chef cook, or they can sit at a regular table and order from the non-teppanyaki menu. But apparently it doesn't matter where you sit, you can order teppanyaki dishes anyway. Personally I prefer watching the show for the full experience. At the beginning of the meal, each place setting consisted of an empty plate and 2 sauces for dipping: sesame sauce (left) and ginger sauce (right).
All entrees came with egg drop soup as a starter — a thick starchy bowl that was a bit salty and lacked flavour.
After placing our orders, the chef wheeled out a cart with our uncooked food and various condiments for seasoning.
Then he proceeded to flip and toss the food in front of us, adding in butter, soy sauce, and other sauces along the way. It wasn't a particularly impressive display compared to my previous teppanyaki experiences. There were no giant flames or juggling tricks, but we did get a happy face.
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The filet mignon (10 oz: $21) was good quality, and this is really the only dish I would recommend getting. The texture was nice and tender with no fat or sinew, and the savoury green butter complemented it well.
The chicken teriyaki ($13) was overcooked and the meat was dry with the texture of an eraser. Plus the chef went overboard on the sauce, so in short, this dish of salty rubbery chicken did not impress.
I also tried the shrimp misonaise ($15) but forgot to take a picture. The shrimp were cooked with lemon butter and a house-made misonaise sauce. The flavour was alright, but the shrimp were quite small and not worth the money. I'm really glad I came here for lunch instead of dinner, because I would've been sorely disappointed if I had paid $30+ for this meal. But for the price I paid, I thought it was decent value since we got soup, green tea, meat, rice and a side of veggies.
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