Teppanyaki (?) Buffet

*Cowritten by Alex Ritacca*

In place of the old Mongolian Atlantic Buffet in Woodbury's City Centre, a new restaurant has emerged: the Teppanyaki Buffet.

Teppanyaki, according to the website ron-of-japan.com, is traditional Japanese cuisine that involves grilling vegetables, meats and seafood, as well as yakisoba and other dough products, on an open, flat griddle cooking surface (not to be confused with hibachi!).

By Wikipedia's information, teppanyaki's origins come all the way back to 1945, when the Misono restaurant chain introduced cooking Western foods on a teppan. However, the food was less popular with Japanese natives than it was with tourists and American foreigners, so when a transition to the Western world occurred, it stuck. My boyfriend and I are no stranger to this kind of cooking, so we knew what we should have been getting when we arrived. 

But after eating out there for the first time, we find the term "teppanyaki buffet" a bit misleading.

First, there was only one food there that was labelled "teppanyaki," which was the chicken. While there was also sushi, and other types of traditional Japanese cuisine, they had been adapted to fit the buffet setting. The seafood, we found, particularly the sashimi (raw pieces of fish served on a bed of packed rice) were somewhat great.

Foods that we enjoyed there that weren't too bad in quality included the Chinese donut, the sushi rolls and sashimi, and the wontons. Aside from the speciality items, they also have standard buffet fare such as a salad bar, fruit bar, and dessert table, including a crowd pleasing soft-serve ice cream machine. The fruit bar was particularly well stocked, and the fruits were fresh and delicious—a worthwhile treat!

The egg drop soup was another good try, as it was very yolky and tasty, but lacked a sort of gingery kick that I was used to. In contrast, there were a lot of foods that had the standard ire of the buffet scene: greasy, fatty, over-salted and over-sugared. The stuffed shrimp was not up to par, the roast beef was kind of tough, and the edamame (or what we guessed had to be edamame, as it was soybeans) wasn't even edamame, which is traditionally salted lightly and not stone cold. 

But then again you get what you pay for. 

The pricing is relatively low, with $7.50 for lunch, and $12.50 for a dinner per person. Quite frankly it's a bargain deal and a good introduction to several types of Asian cuisine for the uninformed. (We had the dinner.) Though take note: some of the menu items are not an accurate example for how the food would be served in a place such as Akita or Kinnichi's, also located in Woodbury.

However, both of these places charge upwards of 25 dollars per person for all-you-can-eat, catering more to the level of connoisseur. So, by comparison, the Teppanyaki Buffet is a good chance to get a quick bite and sample different types of food without committing yourself to a large bill at the end if you find that you don't like it. 

All in all, despite anything negative that has been said, this definitely garners a positive recommendation from us for people seeking an alternative to regular cuisine, I (Chloe) give 3 stars out of 5, while Alex gives 2.5 stars out of five.

Overall, standard buffet fare with a heavy Asian twist that may encourage the more than normally curious customer to invest in learning more about the wonderful world of Asian food.