Having just experienced a thoroughly enjoyable lunch: a choice of fresh ingredients cooked in front of me, entertaining chefs putting on a show and a communal air conditioned setting where you could meet new people…it got me thinking. It seems such a winning formula, so why don’t more businesses operate teppanyaki restaurants?
By: Joanna Wark
‘Teppanyaki’ is of course a genre of Japanese cuisine, where guests sit around a ‘U’ or horseshoe shaped dining bar while a chef prepares and cooks a meal in front of you. The word ‘teppan’ means iron plate or iron griddle, and ‘yaki’ means grilled, broiled or pan-fried. So, put them together and you have ‘grilled on an iron plate’.
When I heard that the Hyatt Regency Phuket Resort, which is located in Kamala on the west coast, had opened a teppanyaki restaurant, MIZU, I had to come along and try it, a birthday treat in fact, with friends. Some of my most memorable dining occasions over the years, and all over the world, have been with a group of friends around a teppanyaki griddle. They were always fun filled interactive experiences, where the chef entertained and cooked, in equal measures, and we enjoyed the freshest of food, in a convivial setting.
The first important issue, for me at least, is that in hot climates I do enjoy sociable lunches much better if they are indoors, in the air-conditioning. If it’s a cool day, with an onshore breeze, sure there is nothing better, but the day we visited MIZU it was blinkin’ hot, and it was my birthday!
Translated MIZU means ‘water’, and this restaurant is surrounded by the wet stuff: one terrace level below is the resort’s main swimming pool, and there are lily ponds at both ends of the enclosed dining room.
For those with an ‘outdoor fix’ we were first shown to a seat in the open-air 180 Bar, a good excuse for a pre-lunch cocktail, before moving into the air-conditioned dining area. I enjoyed a Tokyo Sour and my companions had Wasabi Cucumber Martinis.
There were four of us ladies, and MIZU has two large hotplate sections, each capable of comfortably seating eight guests. So, with only a total capacity of sixteen, this was the first clue as to why more caterers don’t enter the teppanyaki market- it’s a limited volume business, difficult to make a lot of doe.
The set-up at MIZU had four place settings along the longer middle bit, and two place settings at each end. If you have a group of 3 or more, make sure you sit around a corner section, easier to chat and clink glasses than when four of you are sitting in a straight line.
The Restaurant Hostess a lovely Thai lady who spoke very good English (and a bit of Japanese), sat us down in our chosen corner section and explained the format of the service and the choices available to us from their lunchtime menu. One of the most charming things about Thailand, is the variety of ‘short-names’ that Thai people give themselves. When translated from the Thai abugida into English / Latin script most Thai names are very long, thus the considerate habit of giving yourself a ‘short name’. Our Restaurant Hostess’ short name is Earn, and when she introduced the chef, who goes by the name of Chef Bank we all had a giggle, including Earn and Bank; what an avaricious bunch they are at the Hyatt!
My first question to Chef Bank was about the grill. I am almost certain that the last teppanyaki meal I had, which was in Osaka, involved open flames. He pointed out that had it been a charcoal flamed grill, then it wasn’t teppanyaki, it was a ‘hibachi barbecue grill’, sometimes referred to as ‘shichirin’. The teppan is typically propane heated, with food cooked on a flat-surface.
We were offered ‘today’s set lunch’, priced at 750 THB each, and as we all like beef, the 100g Angus Striploin worked a treat. And so the show began!
First up, Chef Bank grabbed his metal utensils (including a knife!) and started spinning them around his fingers, in an elaborate dance. It looked like a cross between a circus act and a rugby Hakka! Claiming to be new to the job, he had nine fingers left (ha ha!), we were suitably impressed, we were also relieved not to be invited to have a go. Instead he asked one of my friends if she liked eggs from chickens? Somewhat confused, she nodded at which point a plastic chicken appeared in front of her, ‘let me know when you’ve got four eggs’ was Chef’s instruction. OK, so it was going to be one of these meals after all, where the staff make fun of the guests…. We were up for that! Four eggs were grabbed and juggled by Chef, without dropping any he cracked the first one, which started cooking on the griddle. I knew it was coming, but still I was surprised, the remaining three were handed to me to juggle. No, no, I declined three but was press-ganged into juggling one, which, thank the Lord, didn’t end up on the floor.
The eggs, with some finely diced carrot, chives and onion, were theatrically cooked into the egg-fried rice, followed by the slicing and grilling of the vegetables (baby corn, green asparagus, Hitaki mushrooms and broccolini). Finally, the steaks were grilled, sliced and served, with everyone getting the exact degree of doneness on their cubes of beef that Chef Bank had promised. All the while he was cooking (and entertaining) we were alternating sipping from our bowls of Miso soup, some hot Matcha Green Tea and glasses of red wine.
I know! We should have been drinking Sake, but with meetings to attend to after lunch none of us wanted it to become a lost afternoon! Instead one bottle of 2016 Cecchi Sangiovese from Tuscany in Italy did the trick, and we had it slightly chilled, which I like at lunchtime.
Chef Bank was the star of the show, closely followed by the Teppanyaki Beef, (Khun Earn didn’t try to be, she just professionally got on with her job). It dawned on me that the other key reason why only a few try it in the teppanyaki business is that you just cannot get the staff who can cook and entertain at the same time. Particularly true in a country like Thailand, where language adaptation is challenging for people. We all think that chefs are loud, brutal, aggressive people, not a bit of it! Take them out of their comfort zone in the kitchen, and put them on the other side of the fence in front of customers, and most are all shy, shrinking violets. Chef Bank’s of this world are hard to find, you certainly want to hang on to them if you own the business.
We decided not to have desserts, but I was intrigued what a grilled dessert would look like. Perhaps a crepe of some sort cooked on the griddle, but that’s too French, what they offer is a quick fry-up of some chopped fruits, caramelised, flamed and served with ice cream. I will definitely be choosing that when I return for dinner at MIZU.
Lunch is available between noon and 3pm, and dinner is organised over two sittings, thereby at least doubling the seating capacity to 32 guests: first at 6pm and second sitting at 8pm. Chef Bank closes up at 10pm.
The final surprise Khun Earn gave us was a bowl of turquoise blue liquid! Were we supposed to drink it, wash our hands in it, a hangover from COVID sanitisation perhaps? Then followed by a paint brush! No idea! Paint something? Yes, we were handed a commemorative white card, as a memento of our time at MIZU, and inside was a completely blank page. Never seen this before in a restaurant. You paint the blue liquid over the blank page, and hey presto, hidden words appear. In my case the words were ‘Happy Birthday Joanna!’. MIZU, thank you very much, you got me!
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