Months ago I purchased a Groupon for Gyu King Teppanyaki and has been planning to use it for some time. Since both Greeny and I have not been to this place, it was a bit of an adventure of itself.
Located in core Downtown on Alberni Street, we've passed by this place for a number of times. Given the price not being the most approachable, it's never really been on our list to try. That's why I was very excited to see it appeared on Groupon.
It seemed like many people came for the same reason and it was certainly a busy night for a week day. Despite having a reservation, we still waited for about 15 minutes until our chef showed up. The restaurant was divided into several compartment - each has two teppan stations and could accommodate large group of 10. Each of the station would have a dedicated chef for the entire dining process. The menu was already pre-selected through Groupon so we didn't have to take time to decide.
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| Seasonal Green Salad - 4/6 |
The green salad was lightly dressed and refreshing. However, I didn't like the mayo on top - thought it was unnecessary.
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| Lobster Miso Soup - 5/6 |
Despite it's miso soup, we could actually enjoy the lobster taste in it. There wasn't much else other than a small piece of lobster claw. Yet, it wasn't overly fishy. In fact, it was a nice blend of miso and lobster taste that made this tasteful.
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| Atlantic Lobster - 4.5/6 |
Greeny was surprised about how "big" the whole lobster was. It's in fact a baby lobster. The texture was quite firm and it was nicely seasoned during the cooking process. Probably because the cooking iron was very hot - the lobster juice was well maintained.
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| Prawns - 4.5/6 |
The prawns were already de-skinned and our chef probably got a little too excited talking about Jeremy Lin that he put a tad more salt in this.
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| AAA Beef Tenderloin - 5/6 |
The beef tenderloin was quite nicely grilled - the natural steak juice was maintained well in it. And it was as we wanted - medium rare. Combined with only salt and pepper, one could really enjoy the natural taste of the steak.
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| Rib Eye Usuyaki - 4/6 |
This was essentially thinly sliced rib eye wrapped deep fried garlic and chopped green onion. There were a couple of them not cooked well, and because it was a bit saucy, the deep fried garlic was a bit mushy.
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| Chicken Fillet - 4/6 |
The chicken fillet skin was very crispy - since it took a while to cook through, I was a bit worried that it would be too dry. It was not the case. The texture was also quite soft, combined with the crispy skin led to my fried chicken craving.
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| Beef Fried Rice - 3/6 |
The fried rice was quite oily… And the beef was chopped to tiny pieces so it didn't add much of the texture to the fried rice.
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| Fried Vegetable - 2/6 |
This was just a simple pan fried vegetable - nothing more than that.
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| Gelato - n/a |
We had the choice of green tea or mango - we went with one each. From the taste of it, I think it was Mario's gelato. By saying this, I guess you probably know how it taste like.
As a whole, I think the ingredients used were quite fresh. Having a chef making it just add to the entertainment during the eat. At the same time, our chef was quite sloppy especially when he was making the fried rice. Perhaps having the personal chef was the reason why it was pricey to begin with.
Honestly, the dining experience was interesting. Would I come back for the regular priced meal? I would say very unlikely. It's not the food was bad - it's just that I thought it's over priced for the amount and quality it offers. Again, this is just my personal preference.
