Torii Teppanyaki is a string of restaurants with its presence in malls like MyTown Shopping Centre, Gardens Mall, KL Gateway Mall, Paradigm Mall, Setia City Mall and IPC Shopping Centre.
As the name implies, their speciality is teppanyaki (of course) but also offers a selection of other Japanese fare that includes
iron rice, donburi, okonomiyaki and
ramen. After a visit to
Ikea, we stopped by
Torii Teppanyaki @ MyTown Shopping Centre for dinner.
Their
iron rice series is basically almost similar to their
teppanyaki series which offers a meal of rice (except it's served with fried rice instead of white rice) with a protein of your choice of beef (beef patty, steak or slices), chicken (
katsu,
karaage or grilled), chicken
gyoza, lamb, salmon or
unagi. The difference is just the name being slightly more intriguing...they probably called it
iron rice to denote the iron plate (teppan) in which it is served.
Various donburi (chicken
karaage or
teriyaki,
katsu curry or omelette,
kimchi or
yakiniku beef slices, salmon or
tamago mentaiko,
ebi fry curry or
unagi), okonomiyaki (chicken, beef, salmon or vegetables) and ramen (signature, miso, shoyu, sukiyaki or spicy jigoku) complete the menu.
This was my son's pick, the
Beef Slices Iron Rice @ RM24.90 (
a la carte) served with fried rice, some sweet corn, together with a bit of chopped scallions, and their speciality sauce. For drinks, we had
Green Tea at RM5.90 per pax.
To my surprise, the
fried rice appeared very plain. It was literally rice fried with some seasoning/sauce only, you won't find even simple ingredients like egg or spring onions in it! >.<
The
beef slices were very thinly sliced and arrived with adequate searing. The flavours were satisfying and the beef fairly tender since they were cut so thinly.
Even though the beef was cooked with their speciality sauce already, my son decided to add-on an additional
black pepper sauce @ RM3.90 for a punchier flavour. You can also add-on
kimchi sauce and
kimchi for RM4.90, cheese (!) at RM3.90 or omelette at RM3.90.
I, on the other hand, was after their teppanyaki...and you have a choice of either beef (steak or slices), lamb, chicken, seafood (fish of either salmon or saba, prawns & squid) or mixed mushrooms. I chose the
Prawn Teppanyaki @ RM29.90 and made it a set meal (
a la carte, RM25.90).
The set meal gets you extras of a
miso soup,
pickled cucumber and a dessert of (red bean)
mochi served alongside Japanese white rice (a very huge portion, I might add, which you can upgrade to garlic fried rice for RM5.90) with a tasty, spicy green chilli paste (something you only see in a Malaysianised teppanyaki....we love our
sambals...
lol). The
mochi was good and a nice ending to the meal. ^.^
The
teppan-fried prawns with thin shells (and there were six acceptable-sized ones) were of adequate freshness and sweetness. They were nicely seared with reasonable flavour.
As with any teppanyaki meal, expect it to come accompanied by
teppan-fried vegetables of cabbage, carrot, red bell pepper and beansprouts topped with crispy fried garlic slices and a sprinkling of chopped green onions. I've to admit, the beansprouts were a bit too thin that day and so they were limp and overcooked + I was hoping for a bit more seasoning in the vegetables too....but they were a bit
kedekut (stingy)
lah with the crispy garlic! ;)
My Personal Opinion
The teppanyaki or iron rice here is average fare but always fulfilling and enjoyable as it's a complete meal with hearty portions of protein (of your choice), veggies and rice. I guess many people simply enjoy eating it as it's a meal that is the closest to what we eat regularly like chap fan (Chinese mixed rice) or nasi campur (Malay mixed rice).
If you happen to be shopping in this mall (or Ikea) and looking for a place to eat to re-energise yourself with sustenance for even more shopping, consider Torii Teppanyaki as a possible choice for an affordable lunch or dinner spot. Based on what I had here, I wouldn't mind making a repeat visit at all. ^_~
Torii Teppanyaki
Lot B1-071 MyTown Shopping Centre
6 Jalan Cockrane Seksyen 90
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-215 7230
I can't remember when was my last had Teppanyaki and your post definitely trigger my craving! One thing I enjoy very much of the Teppanyaki is the combination of chili sauce + soy sauce with the pickles (?), I'm not sure if I will like this green chili at Torii. >_<
ReplyDeleteYa, I felt the missing soy sauce too...and so far I've only been served a fresh (red) chilli dip. This green chilli was a first for me but I thought it was rather unique and turned out to be a good, successful dip.
DeleteHaha, one more thing to comment, I cannot accept that they charge the sauce, why???
ReplyDeleteI think it's alright to charge for the black pepper sauce as it was, after all, additional (since the beef was already cooked in their speciality sauce). At other teppanyaki joints where you can see the cooking being done, I've seen cooks ladle some kind of sauce over the meat when they're teppan-frying and they're then only served with dips of chilli and soy sauce.
DeleteAdoi...why is their fried rice so plain like that >.< Your prawn teppanyaki looks a lot more interesting. I actually like teppanyaki meals and my choice used to be either beef or chicken.
ReplyDeleteMy choices are always beef or prawn (been having beef too often that I went for prawn instead this time). Yeah, I wasn't expecting the fried rice to be so plain, at least some egg and garlic bits would have been nice. ^_~
DeleteI used to be crazy over teppanyaki when they had a huge restaurant at 1-Utama over 10 years ago. Like you said, I enjoyed it like eating Chap Fan until I couldn't stand the smoky smell all over my clothes, Body and hair. I had to wash and shampoo my hair before sleep. This chap fan became Ma Fan! 😂😂😂 Now I miss this Teppanyaki.
ReplyDeleteI am surprise that you were surprised their fried rice was so plain. That's typical Japanese style unlike the Thai or Malay varieties of fried rice.
I will remember this place when I head to that mall. ♥️♥️♥️
As I mentioned in my earlier comment, I wasn't expecting the fried rice to be so plain and neither was I expecting it to be filled with lots of ingredients like Thai fried rice or our Chinese & Malay fried rice...but I was expecting it to at least have some egg and garlic bits in there somewhere for a bit more flavour.
DeleteI'm wondering if that huge teppanyaki restaurant in 1-Utama was from that original Teppanyaki chain that first introduced teppanyaki to our shores many years ago (I remember everyone being taken in by their "showmanship" when they first landed in Sungei Wang). No ma fan now since many teppanyaki spots have chose not to cook directly in front of us anymore but (still watchable) behind an open glass kitchen.
😂😂😂 Yes. That's the big chain outlet that had "showmanship" for very kaypoh diners like me. In Japan, it's all behind glass screens.
DeleteI think all their chefs only put minimal soya sauce and garlic to make fried rice to eat with dishes. The delicious Chinese fried rice don't need side dishes. Bingo!!