Moving Over To Teppan Edo

This review reflects our experience in May of 2014.

Since we were in Japan last week at Tokyo Dining, we figured we’d move next door to Teppan Edo. Teppan Edo is located in the same building as Tokyo Dining in the Japan Pavilion in Epcot. This restaurant is a Hibachi style steakhouse where the chefs cook in front of you. We used to enjoy eating at these style of restaurants prior to being vegan, so we figured we would see how it was.

We went with a big group of friends for our first time here in May of 2014. We felt more comfortable about requesting vegan food with friends at our table who already knew rather then being judged by strangers. We were seated in a room in the back with only two tables, it was much quieter then the main room. If you have a large party try to request the back rooms. It was easy to have a conversation with our whole party and not have people feel excluded. Since there was 8 of us we took up a whole table. 

We talked to our waitress about our vegan diet as well as my friends gluten allergy and she brought out a manager. The vegetarian meal at Teppan Edo is Yasai which is fresh seasonal vegetables. All the meals come with Udon Noodles and Beef Rice, both of which are not vegan friendly. The manager told us that we couldn’t eat the noodles and that we would receive something else to replace it. We were also getting steamed white rice instead of the beef rice. Our friend with the gluten allergy had to have her meal cooked in the kitchen away from the table.

The waitress came out and started to put the different dipping sauces in dishes for the table. We were only able to have the ginger sauce because both the mustard and yum yum sauces were not vegan. Soon after that our chef came out and started to cook our meal before everyone else’s. Since it was just for the two of us he didn’t do any of the fun theatrics with our food. To replace our lack of udon noodles we were given more vegetables.

While the chef was cooking our waitress brought out everyones rice. He soon finished up our meal and began to cook everyone else’s. He did more of the fun theatrics, including fire, with their food. At one point it did get awkward when he placed raw chicken down and it began to sizzle and “bounce” on the grill. He made a joke about the chicken still being alive and everyone felt awkward because they all know how Corey and I feel about animals and that this joke was not too funny for us. Once the awkward moment passed everything moved quickly and our friends could finally start eating with us.

Our vegetables for the Yasai consisted of onion, mushroom and zucchini. The vegetables were really good with the ginger sauce. To replace our udon noodles we had carrots, broccoli and green beans. We weren’t very excited about the extra vegetables since our meal ended up just being vegetables and steamed white rice. It wasn’t filling at all.

On the menu they also have edamame, miso soup and a salad to get as appetizers. Since our meal was already $18 each and we both ordered fancy alcoholic drinks I didn’t really want to spend even more on more vegetables. The experience as a whole was just okay. The chicken comment really didn’t make us feel comfortable and if you don’t like to see raw meat being cooked in front of you I suggest you stay away from this restaurant.

Would we go back?
No. If you’re with a big group of non vegans it’s at least somewhere you can eat a big meal too, just don’t expect to be well fed.

Price?
$$$

Cheers,
Melissa & Corey