Austin Is Teppanyaki Crazy!

Austin is going bonkers over Teppanyaki, and we've got three new (or improved) venues to prove it. What is Teppanyaki? It's those big grills (Teppanyaki tables) that people sit around while watching the chef prepare their food with (we hope) a dazzling spectacle of knife gymnastics.

Teppanyaki was invented in the United States in 1964, and pioneered as a franchise by Benihana Restaurants in the 1980's. Now, it seems, everyone wants a piece of the action.

Tokyo Teppan (see article above) is now open and features six Teppanyaki tables. Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, mentioned several months ago in Austin Sushi News, is now open as well, and Kyoto II (/locator/index.shtml#kyoto2 ) has remodeled -- their new room has eight Teppanyaki tables. And, of course, there's Benihana (/locator/index.shtml#benihana ).

Kobe Japanese Steakhouse
13492 Research Blvd, Suite 380
(Southwest corner of Anderson Mill Road and 183)
(512) 288-7333

A couple of Teppanyaki links -
Description of Teppanyaki from British web site (http://www.japanweb.co.uk/listing/teppanyaki.htm )
An Austin Teppanyaki cartoon (http://www.atowncomics.com/onlinetoons/cs53.html )