LIFESTYLE: Wasabi Teppan-Yaki

A dissertation hand-in is a pretty big deal, and obviously requires quite a lot of celebrating.
Not quite satisfied by a liquid lunch and a night of funk & soul at HiFi, we headed to Wasabi Teppan-yaki on Little Neville Street via the Marriot and Mook to carry on the party with my housemate Sophie’s parents and brothers. I completely forgot to pick up my camera and I was too busy chatting/eating to keep waving my phone around, so apologies for lack of decent pictures.

After many fat cubans, mango iced teas and mojitos, we hopped into a cab and headed to an unfamiliar part of town, under a few old railway bridges and along the canal to Wasabi Teppan-Yaki. 

The first thing to say about Wasabi is that the menu is vast. There’s sushi, sashimi, set menus and a la carte and it all sounds incredible. Sophie, a Wasabi veteran and all round great orderer pointed us in the direction of the set menus. These work much like tasting menus, you can try pretty much everything if you want to, only you can’t move when you have to eventually extradite yourself to the next table (for dessert, which it turns out much to your dismay, you can’t actually manage). 

Set menus take place at the teppan-yaki table, and ensure each customer enjoys a variety of foods cooked in front of them, super exciting! After much oohing and aahing, we settled on three house specials, two fuji’s and one umi.


House Special:
Wasabi Salad with Japanese Dressing, Yakitori pan fried skewered chicken breast and leeks in Teriyaki sauce, Yasai Harumaki Japanese vegetable spring rolls, Miso Soup. Sirloin of Beef, Salmon Fillet served with Butter and Soya Sauce, King Prawns served with Garlic and Plum Wine, Fillet of Chicken served with leeks and teriyaki sauce

Fuji:
House Salad with Japanese Dressing, Tori Katsu, Salmon & Avocado Maki, Miso Soup, Sirloin of Beef, Fillet of Sea Bass with Mangetout & Jumbo Scallops.

Umi:
House Salad with Japanese Dressing, Prawn & Vegetable Tempura, Miso Soup and Fillet of Salmon with Jumbo Scallops & Asparagus.

Before we knew it, flames were leaping around the table and there was a chef catching eggs in his hat. We were invited to play something resembling air hockey with eggshells, a game some of us were not as good at as we had expected.

and then, there was egg fried rice.

and salad.

and tempura prawns.

and miso soup.

 and an unbelievable amount of salmon.

and asparagus.

The list goes on and on.

It took three of us to polish of a fantastic green tea panna cotta and the rest of the wine, but it was definitely worth it. Eventually, we jumped into a cab and headed home and chatted until the early hours. So, a big thank you to Sophie and her wonderful family for a really great evening, and thank you to Wasabi for a really excellent dinner. I highly recommend it.