It’s been 30 plus years now since I first visited a teppanyaki restaurant, Benihana on West 56th Street in Manhattan, which was America’s introduction to food theatrically prepared by highly trained Japanese chefs right in front of diners.
The occasion for that initial visit was our young daughter’s birthday, and while I remember she and a friend being wowed by the flashy knifework, I think they were considerably more impressed by the fact that also dining at Benihana that evening was the rock group Cheap Trick.
Flash forward four decades, and while one of the many Benihanas that subsequently swept the nation still exists in Stuart, hundreds if not thousands of similar restaurants have sprung up to provide a fun dining experience perfect for birthdays, school celebrations, or holiday dinners with grandchildren.
There are two of these teppanyaki restaurants now in Vero – in our experience, both better than the Stuart Benihana – but the one closest to most of our readers is Takara (the renamed Samurai Steakhouse & Sushi) located in a building that once housed Crispers on U.S. 1. The other, Fujiyama, is on Route 60 across from the Mall.
While Takara offers a seemingly endless variety of sushi, sashimi, teriyaki and tempura choices – some of which my foodie friends tell me are excellent – what appears to attract most diners (and certainly the most vocally enthusiastic diners) are the eight large hibachi tables.
If you were to ask me how the teppanyaki dining experience has most evolved over the decades, I would say the Japanese knife show (not many of the chefs seem to be Japanese any more) apparently is no longer enough to impress kids.
Today, the loudest gasps come from chefs’ ever-more-venturesome antics with fire, which in some cases, go well beyond the “onion volcano” and send people like me recoiling in their chairs as sheets of flame shoot up from happy faces drawn with oil on the teppan grill.
But beyond the show, there’s the food – and Takara does an excellent job with that. Like most hibachi restaurants, dinners start with soup or salad. For those who are not fans of the traditional Japanese miso soup (my husband is one of these), the news here is the soup is a light onion broth. The salad is about what you expect, topped by either a ginger or creamy dressing.
For entrées, on our most recent visit, my husband and I both ordered from the combo menu. He chose the filet mignon and lobster ($30) and I opted for the shrimp and scallop ($22). Our companion chose the chicken with shrimp ($20).
Before actually preparing the entrées, the hibachi chef put on a good show, squirting long streams of sake into the mouths of two willing diners, and flipping a chopped veggie that was snagged out of the air by another.
In addition to preparing egg-fried rice for the table, he also served up a round of stir-fried noodles – something we have not previously encountered at teppanyaki restaurants – as well as an assortment of chopped vegetables perfectly cooked al dente.
As for the main courses, all were cooked exactly as ordered. The portions were very large (most everyone appeared to be ending the meal with a Styrofoam box to go), leaving no room to sample Takara’s desserts.
Takara offers a full bar, with a decent selection of wines by the glass, as well as beer and mixed drinks. Prices for entrées seemed very reasonable, ranging from $16 for a chicken teppanyiki dinner to $31 if you order twin 5-ounce lobster tails.
All in all, this is a place you can go for a birthday or a celebration and have a lot of fun – and best of all, you can still eat well.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.