Located in Plaza Rio where we visited the Mini City for my young kids. We were celebrating 2 of our son's birthdays with a visit to TJ. Last night we visited Mr. Pampas a Brazilian BBQ and today Teppanyaki, both kids favorite. We entered and was seated right away. This is where the locals go so only 1 waitress sort of spoke English. We used the Google Translator which came in very handy. There are only 2 teppan grills so depending on when you go, you may have to wait for Teppan. Seems like most people are here for sushi. Our teppan chef was Oscar who spoke English. NY Steak wasn't available at the time so we got Tokio Roll, some special Roll of the day by one of waiter's recommendation, Ribeye Teppan, and Mar y Tierra which I recognize from 2 year of high school Spanish as Land and Sea. Land and Sea had a generic steak of no name, chicken, shrimp, and octopus all for about 400 pesos ($20USD) and was priced similarly as Ribeye. Teppan dinner consisted of mushroom soy based of soup; fried rice; stir-fry of zucchini, carrots, bell pepper, and onion; and finally the protein. The portion was huge. Family of 2 adult, 9yo and 4yo could not finish 2 teppan and 2 sushi dishes. A lot of fried rice which tasted healthier than American version. Not as much butter or oil. A lot of stir-fry that was soysauce based and was perfectly seasoned. I found regular steak from Mar y Tierra to be more tender than Ribeye. Ribeye was bit tougher with big tendon/fat which was tough to chew. Ribeye meat itself was good. I did bring left over back and refried it on a pan which tasted good the next day. Chicken, Octopus and shrimp was well seasoned and delicious.
We had a daily special which was fish, cream cheese, on top of a scallop and Tokio Roll. Unfortunately despite good reviews, I found to be bit disappointing. Fish wasn't bad or anything but I found flavor to be lacking. I'll try something else next time to report back.
Oscar, our teppan chef did the tricks. He started off with huge fire, bounced eggs on his spatula, made Pac Man out of white rice which ate vegetables and eggs with waga waga sound (my older one loved it), made Mickey Mouse...then Japanese Mickey Mouse with slant eyes (-_-)...then chopped top of the head to make a ribbon for Minnie Mouse; This was for us seeing PacMan or Mickey Mouse.
Just things I've noticed. Restaurants I've visited do not provide a glass of ice water. You have to purchase a bottled water. So I saw a lot of people ordering a pitcher of orange juice for the table. We ordered glass of juices for kids. Lemonade my wife ordered tasted like fresh squeezed, not powder. Plaza Rio gets packed so finding parking toward afternoon gets tough.
We will definitely come back. read more