Sizzling Lunch — Restaurant in Fremont

Sizzling Lunch is picking up the slack that Pepper Lunch (company, not our local chain) has failed to supply.

Look, you pretty already know the concept. You order, it comes out on a teppanyaki plate, you flip the meat after a bit of color, drop that garlic soy sauce after the flip (do it too early and it cools the plate too much), and then you dine. It's a simple, eat-it-as-you-like-it experience at a relatively cheap price point ($18 - $20 after tip and tax).

So how does Sizzling Lunch improve upon Pepper Lunch's concept? Well, one thing they note is that the portion size is bigger, and yea, the rice portion is bigger.

But the real genius is in the design and implementation of the plates. They're now curved upward, which not only helps retain heat since it moves upward instead of dissipating into the air, but also makes it easier to flip and handle the meat.

More importantly, the temperature is set perfectly so that you can get that golden burnt rice, as long as you leave it alone. If you're the type of person to make a mess of the rice right away, then boy, are you just failing at eating.

Leave the rice untouched, flip the meat once, twice tops, glaze the rice with some garlic soy sauce a minute or two after it comes to the table, 💥,...

Yes! This place has become one of our faves! We finally tried Sizzling Lunch in Nov and we've gone back 3 times already. I need a punch card lol. We've gotten the beef/rice, garlic beef/rice, beef/udon, pork belly/rice, all we're great! We like when the rice gets crispy and we prefer rice over the udon, but udon is also good. I also like to add egg and fried garlic! So good! Tried the cheesy corn, it's good, enough for 4. Chicken wings, these were ok. Miso soup and a salad that was enough for 2, both good. We'll just stick to the rice plates, those got us full and we still took some home. It gets busy, each time we've been there we had to wait (30-45 mins), but it's worth it. Once people leave, they are quick to clean and get you seated. Service is ok, they bring you water after you're seated, you place your order via qr code, they bring you your food & that's it. I noticed that I was flagging servers down when we needed something, they didn't really check on you. So that could be better. There's one bathroom, it was clean. The parking lot is always full, if you find a spot right away, then you got lucky. If you're driving in circles, just exit left onto Albrae, you drive past the building, there's a back...

It was my first time coming to this resteraunt, and it was a bit packed as we arrived around 3pm, with a party of six in tow. It listed the wait time as "20 minutes" but that estimate was way off. Most of the people on the wait list were coming in pairs, so the wait time was extra long for us as we had to wait an hour and ten minutes before seating. I would have preferred if it stated that every table that was going to be freed up would take 20 minutes (because a party of 6 would have to take 3 pairs of just emptied seating). Either way, the mismatched time estimation skewed prior arrangements and my brother had to leave right after he swallowed down his meal. My other brother was late for a package pick up and will have to rearrange for a different day. I have to say I'm very upset about how long we had to wait to get a seat.

In spite of that, the service of orders are pretty quick and the food is great. It comes out sizzling on a cast iron pan, and the smells just made my mouth water. The atmosphere is awesome too, as it themes around Japanese buildings/paper screen doors with lanterns hanging about.

If I were to come again, I'd only go with one other person. The wait would be too...