This article reflects one personal dining experience. Menus, service, availability, food preparation, and restaurant conditions can change over time.
Quick take
Fresh ingredients and an engaging teppanyaki performance could not overcome muted flavours, thin soup, and disappointing sauces on this family return visit.
The visit
Dining at Teppan Edo has always been about more than the food. It’s about tradition.
I first came here decades ago with my parents and my in-laws when my children were still young. This time, I returned with my son’s family and my granddaughter, continuing what has quietly become a family tradition. Because of those memories, I genuinely wanted this meal to live up to what I remembered.
Unfortunately, I’d be doing readers a disservice if I let nostalgia influence my review.
The meal began with miso soup, which lacked the rich umami depth that defines a good miso broth. It was thin, bland, and simply needed more miso.
What stood out
The accompanying salad suffered from imbalance. The ginger-onion dressing wasn’t bad in itself, but there was far too much of it, overpowering the vegetables and leaving the salad noticeably salty.
Our chef, Koh, was engaging and entertaining, delivering the classic teppanyaki performance that makes hibachi dining enjoyable.
The sauces, however, were disappointing. The yum yum sauce was watery and lacked the creamy richness and complexity it should have had. The ginger sauce tasted almost identical to the salad dressing, offering little distinction between the two.
What to keep in mind
As the meal progressed, the biggest issue became clear: everything lacked seasoning. The vegetables were fresh, the meats were well-cut and of good quality, but every bite felt flat. Nothing tasted poorly cooked—just underseasoned.
The freshness of the ingredients ultimately saves the meal. Good produce and quality proteins are difficult to hide, and they prevented the experience from becoming a complete disappointment.
But if I’m judging solely on flavour, this was, quite honestly, one of the weakest hibachi meals I’ve had. That’s not something I say lightly.
Final takeaway
Fresh vegetables and good-quality proteins kept the meal from becoming a total disappointment, and Chef Koh made the shared-table experience enjoyable. Still, the thin miso, salty dressing, weak sauces, and overall lack of seasoning meant that the food did not live up to the memories that brought my family back.
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