Tei-An — Restaurant in Dallas

This is long but hear me out because I've spent months traveling three islands of Japan. Tei-An has excellent dishes in what they specialize in, but really mediocre dishes outside those specialties. The service is great, but the menu is very unclear and hard to follow. It all evens out to a good but not great experience.

Tei-An specializes in Soba and fresh fish. They brag multiple times about having a connection in Tokyo that ships fish to the restaurant within 20 hours. That speed and freshness shows because every piece of fish I had was delicious. You'll love every cut. They also call themselves a soba house, and true to themselves, the basic soba noodle bowl with a simple dashi broth was their best dish. It's a clean and delicate dish oozing flavor to that point that you'll want to drink the broth. Every other dish was okay at best.

The tonkatsu was closer to the color and consistency of a paitan ramen. It's a thin light dish with no seaweed, a huge single hunk of meat that's way too thick, and the egg is not standard. Anybody who has been to Ichiran will be disappointed because it felt like they're trying to create an Americanized tonkatsu instead of being true to their roots. The yakisoba was weirdly sweet and lacking any depth. It's a monotone dish that needed spice which I added at the table. The chicken karage had great bites and dry bites. You're not missing much. The Japanese eggplant was extremely gooey that may be off putting - think warm gooey pudding. It came with a ground beef base that tasted exactly like a Mexican picadillo. It as a starter also shouldn't be priced comparable to a entrée. It's not that large or good meaning it fit right in with the other starters. See my photos for reference. The poor menu design also didn't help.

The menu is very large, has varying text sizes, and multiple sections with the same name but different contents. It's confusing to flip through such that nobody at my table was clear about which section covered what. For example, there are a few soba sections and multiple small plate sections. Furthermore, why is there a carbonara, a bolognese, and a gnocchi on the menu of a soba house? I can appreciate fusion creativity, but it feels very pandery and unneeded to have an expanded menu at this kind of restaurant. It shows that too much effort was spent on adding extra memu items instead of improving staple menu items.

The service is prompt and very friendly, but I only need to hear about your fresh fish once - not three times. One server took a bit to explain their recommended menu items and an order in which to eat them. A single page in a revised menu explaining the chef's recommendations with prices would have been faster and clearer, because nobody remembers the half dozen items and order.

Overall I'd go back for fish and soba. I would avoid literally everything else on the menu because nothing else I had was even remotely as good. It's annoying that ordering water isn't free unless you specifically request tap water, and it's just as bad that the menu isn't clear for ordering food. Tei-An is not an expensive restaurant but it is a disappointing one for how they...

New favorite restaurant. I came here with my partner for an anniversary dinner and it was beyond perfect. See review below:

Reservation: The reservation process was smooth and without issues. No wait at the restaurant either.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is perfect to my personal taste. The ambience is a warm yellow with a relaxing touch. The music is classical music and it is low enough so you can hear your party while enjoying the smooth background noise. I sat at the omakase-type area where you face a rock with a relaxing waterfall. Truly a dream just by the ambience alone.

Food: Amazing! The noodles were exquisite. My partner and I ordered the fried tempura, oysters, sashimi, traditional noodles, mushrooms and duck. Everything was FANTASTIC. Perfectly cooked, seasoned and seasoned, and the staff brought out each plate one dish at a time in a perfectly timed manner. For dessert we had the green tea flan and ice cream, and we received complimentary tea. Beyond good! The noodles and dessert were the best.

Drinks: I had the lychee martini and my partner had a whiskey old fashion. Both good and amazing taste.

Misc: You can tell a lot about a place by the quality of the restroom. Each restroom has a Toto toilet and you have the option to use the Toto features. The doors are floor to ceiling and everything was incredibly clean. Even the toilet paper was folded in a triangle, meaning someone is constantly making sure you get that hotel-type guest experience. There was also a nice touch of ice cubes in the sink. I had never thought of ice cubes as decor but it worked.

Misc 2: At the end of our meal we met the chef, who asked how everything was. He greeted us with warmth and interest in hearing about our experience. I really liked that. You can also see him walk around at times from the kitchen area because there is a part with a clear window to the kitchen area.

Misc 3: our waiter was so nice and welcoming. I even heard him speak Japanese to guests next to me: He was well-informed and had a warm aura to him.

Overall, I’m incredibly impressed with this restaurant and will...

Definitely the worst $400 we've ever spent on omakase, may be the worst $$$ that we've had in general. Be careful when ordering, there are some sneaky up charges (I feel) and if you don't get the add ons, you will leave hungry.

In terms of the food, my wife and I love multiple course meals and this is the first time that we let a course go after only taking a bite. I would describe that particular course as an exploration of bland - bland fried fish with a cold bland sauce OR some bland red aioli. Yikes. The next dish that came out the waiter said, "we like to explore clean, natural flavors" or something like that, but, come on, bro, you just gave me some bland Captain D's fish and mayo.

The table next to us made me 50 ways of jealous. Definitely order off the menu. The $60 steak and $18 ramen looked 100 times better than anything we had, speaking of, I've mostly forgotten what we ate except for a banging dessert. Sadly, the best course may have been the sashimi plate, which I mean...you can get anywhere and for $400, you can get a much better deal.

I really disliked the service. Course timing was very inconsistent, long wait times between our cold courses and in one instance we had not finished a hot dish before they brought the next. The restaurant was maybe 1/3rd full, so not sure what the issue was.

The worst part is that my wife was in the mood for a dessert wine. We asked if they had it, they recommended a saki. We tried it, didn't like it, told the server so, but agreed to keep the glass. That one glass of saki was $25. They should probably warn somebody, "Hey, we don't have what you are looking for, but here's some trash saki (that's only $25 a glass). Thinking about this and the unknown add on for the toro with the sushimi plate (we thought it was a substitution because of a shell fish allergy), I get heated thinking about it. What a waste of money and time on an otherwise great vacation to Dallas.

Very...