Four Seasons

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner
Price: 11,124 yen  (we did have some awamori in there too)
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Too much food!
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

We are not big teppanyaki fans, having never really had it before.  Apparently, it's something many people think of when they think of Japanese food in the US.  Fancy knife shows, meat cooked in front of you on a teppan, etc...  This is not so common in Japan.  I mean, there are lots of teppans in various types of Japanese restaurants (especially okonomiyaki), but not so much of the cooking of meat in front of you and making a big show of it.  I guess it was big at one time, though never very showy.  Anyway, we've never eaten it before in Japan.

Near our hotel in Okinawa was a Four Seasons Teppanyaki restaurant, and since we'd never done it before (and we are on vacation, so we the price didn't seem quite so insane), we decided to give it a shot.  The ordering was a bit of a blur.  I think we ordered two "courses" for the adults, and one chicken steak for our son.  Holy cow...too much food!  It just kept coming and coming and the cook was standing right there in front of us and as my wife is fond of saying, we wouldn't want to disappoint him!  There was no "show" until the very end.  The garlic fried rice...  this was what attracted us to it in the first place.  The smell of garlic wafting down the street.  When I saw garlic fried rice on the menu, I knew it had to be mine, so I ordered some to go with the meal.  It was the *last* item cooked.  All this time, there was this huge mound of buttered garlic slowly cooking away on the edge of the teppan.  Finally, once it was golden brown, it was fried with the rice.  The chef did a little show with the salt and pepper shakers (yay) and then it was over.  I could barely eat another bite, but after all that, I *had* to eat that garlic rice.  It was...amazing.

If we were to eat there ever again, I think we would not order the courses and stick with a meat item and the garlic rice.  Bam.  Pictures:

Soup and salad

Chicken, tofu, vegetables, and garlic

Chicken, pork and tofu

Beef

More veg, tofu and garlic getting browner...

Lobster and tofu

The Garlic Rice!