Steakland Kobe

I have dined at numerous teppanyaki restaurants in various countries. This is so so disappointing of all places, in Kobe Japan.

This to me, is the Macdonald’s of the teppanyaki trade.

At the range of prices that this joint charges, there are certainly many other options.

Dont get me wrong, you still get decent quality of beef. But the robotic atmosphere of whole dining experience - set meal options (ala carte ? What ala carte), fast order (they expect you to order within 1-2 mins, and kept pushing one particular item), fast cook (chef appears with ingredients with no interactions), pile the food on your plate and they leave it to you to finish the food.

The place was busy, so waiters moved fast and place things (soup, salad, drinks etc) on your table with zero interactions, and in quick sequence. A very apt description would be a factory process - fast, precise and cold.

My main peeve has to be the hygiene standard of this restaurant. As we were led to our seats, i noticed that there were a couple of tables with dirty dishes lying around and not cleared. We were led to our seats with a cooking plate in front of us that appeared as not cleaned, obviously from previous sittings. There was a pile of fried garlics on a plate lying around that was exposed and not covered. The garlic was later used as a garnish for our beef. The whole cooking area was oily, unkept and food crumps all over. Was expecting some cleaners to do their job but instead, the chef appeared and started his job. The Worst of it all was the cloth that the chef used to wipe his spatula - it was oily, black, and looked dirty. It was lying there all this while at the side and i suspected it had been there for the whole day. In fact, there was a row of these as shown in the photo. (Note there were patrons sitting in front of those cloths, waiting for their meals to be served) As the chef was cooking my food, he was frying and wiping his spatula with that dirty cloth. I was really turned off. In all other teppanyaki restaurants, the chef appear with a clean cloth - they wipe/clean the surface and their “workspace” before cooking, and they do the same AFTER their cooking. They also has a clean cloth if they need to wipe off the oil during cooking. None of these was seen in this restaurant. As mentioned, this place was busy - there was even no time for the chef to do the basic hygiene steps.

To be fair, the beef was tender and fried to my request. Can’t really comment on the rest of the vegetables that came along - just basic frying with soy saurce.

Been travelling to Japan regularly over the past 30 years. This is the first time i felt such a letdown (or was it regret) between ordering and having my dinner in a restaurant in Japan. My only hope was that the beef better not disappoint. It didnt make things worse. But it certainly didnt overturn all negativity thus far.

All in all, it was just a fast-food experience for me, in a busy and unkept restaurant. Not forgetting the price is not really cheap. Nearly 12000 yen for dinner for two. There was a previous post that mentioned it is a gamble dining at this place. Well i guess the house won for my round.

Certainly will not recommend this place if you are looking forward to an intimate meal.