Advice on Your Favorite Teppan-yaki in Fresno
I was wondering if anyone had a favorite teppan-yaki place in Fresno and why it is your favorite. I have an upcoming dinner for which teppan-yaki has been requested. I have gone to Japanese Kitchen quite a few times and I do enjoy it, but was wondering how other places compare.
Has anyone had good experiences at any of the other places in town, Edo Ya, Zipangu, or Sakanaya maybe? It would also be helpful to give some idea of the price range. If I am going to convince people to go to a new restaurant, it would be helpful if I could be confident about the price range. Thanks!
glazebrookgirl
May 16, 2007 12:29PM
Most recently I was at Yoshino's on Blackstone. It was okay. If I had to recommend one it would be Sakanaya. Their food is fresh and I have not had an offf meal there - their sushi is also good.
I have done teppan-yaki at Edo-Ya but it's been at least three years so I can't really say how it is now (when we had it it was good.) My recollection of price was that it ran somewhere between $10-18 an order depending on what you ordered (the $18 would be for a steak and seafood combination.) Don't hold me to the prices though. I would think that they have web sites that have their menus.
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Yes, Edo-Ya does have the menu, should have mentioned that...however none of the others do. Thanks for your suggestion!
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I wish I could offer more positive reviews of Fresno tepanyaki, but I've only been to two places and both of them underwhelmed me.
We ate at Edo-ya last week and Tokyo Steakhouse last month, and I've discovered meal quality is dependent on chef quality.
TS: I had the filet and lobster (about $38) and while the filet was adequately cooked to my medium rare spec, the lobster was overcooked to chewiness and the fried rice was drowning in soy sauce. The chef seemed as if he were poorly trained or fresh out of the tepanyaki factory. All the knife skills in the world don't make up for bad food. The "salad" was bagged greens spashed with a vinaigrette. I've had diner food that tasted better and was better prepared. I have no desire to return to TS.
Edo-Ya was a bit better and had a more extensive tepanyaki menu. The service was also faster. The chef was competent and seemed to care about what he was doing more than the TS "chef." I ordered the paper-wrapped halibut, about $35. The fish was flaky, moist and well cooked, although pretty tasteless until I drizzled some of their spicy ginger sauce on it.
Edo-ya wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I'm not in a hurry to return.
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Thought I would report back on my evening. I ended up at Edo-Ya with a group of 6. The only time we were able to get was 4:45pm! It turns out that Saturday night was a major prom night, so there were tons of people there in prom dresses/tuxes. Anyway, Edo-Ya was clearly unprepared for the onslaught. We received our soup/salad from the waiter right away, but our teppan-yaki chef did not arrive until we had waited at least 20 minutes (after the consumption of our soup/salad).
Our chef was competent, but hardly stellar. He had only been there for about 2 weeks and had been promoted from dishwasher to teppan-yaki chef only recently. He said that he had worked at a teppan-yaki place before, but I am not sure in what capacity. He was unfamiliar with the menu as well. The food was cooked well, but there was almost no presentation or showmanship. Oh well. I think you probably get what you pay for. I have been to teppan-yaki places in L.A. where you pay easily twice as much, but the knife skills and quality of the food is much better.
Overall, it was fun since we were not in a hurry, but I am hardly going to rush to return. Thanks to all who chimed in here to give me advice.
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Japanese Kitchen is by far the best I have been to in the fresno area. They don't have a lot of the showmanship that you will find in nice places elsewhere, but the food is always great, and the prices are much more reasonable then some places I have been to in LA. I went to Tokyo Steak House, and was very dissapointed, not only was the food sub-par, but the service was awful!
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