Samurai Teppanyaki review: Adelaide’s most expensive menu features delicious Kobe beef but lacks balance
At $368 per person for world-famous Kobe beef, Samurai Teppanyaki House’s banquet should be one of Adelaide’s finest dining experiences – but our food reviewer was disappointed.
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Common sense is often set aside when the word exclusive is attached to a car, a piece of jewellery or an island getaway. The world of food is not immune. People will pay extraordinary amounts for a thimble of caviar or a rare bottle of wine.
Which brings us to a set menu that is easily the most expensive I’ve come across at a restaurant in SA, one that makes the prices asked by more noted temples of gastronomy such as Magill Estate or the d’Arenberg Cube look modest by comparison.
Then again, Samurai Teppanyaki House claims to be the only restaurant in this country licensed to serve Kobe beef. This highly prized, highly priced category of wagyu comes from one region of Japan where the cattle are said to be treated like rock stars: drinking beer, listening to music and enjoying regular massages, all to help develop the extraordinary lacing of fat for which the breed is renowned.
Samurai packages its Kobe into two “Omakase” menus, peaking at the $368 “Premium” selection that includes other benchmark cuts of wagyu, as well as an elite seafood experience.
Dinner begins with the same unexpected routine whatever you are eating. A door from the street opens into a cloakroom where customers are fitted with a shiny gown embossed with a fearsome warrior on the back. The attendant rings a bell and another door slides back to reveal a beef showroom where a chiller cabinet displays slabs of wagyu sporting large price tags.
Co-owner Clark Zhang proudly points out a gold-plated trophy he says is proof of his Kobe bona fide, as well as a large shell holding an arrangement of lobster, bugs, scallops and prawns that are the reef to go with the beef. Finally, we are led through to a dining room to join the other patrons, all wearing identical gowns, sitting in a semi-circle around a hub of stainless-steel barbecue plates, as if in religious observance.
Our grill is operated by another owner, Jack Liu, who doesn’t flinch when we opt for the “Premium” package. Other needs are tended to by waitresses who move around outside the ring, delivering the initial courses and taking orders from a drinks list that, given the prestige of the food, is strangely rudimentary.
The first trio of snacks – soba noodles, plain edamame still in their pods and a commercial rice cracker stuck into a dip that seems to be based on canned tuna – are so far the opposite of premium it feels as if they might be some sort of prank.
Redemption comes quickly. Slices of bluefin tuna sashimi look ragged but the pale, rosy flesh is a delicate delight. Better still is kangaroo fillet, seared tataki-style so all but the outer edge remains raw, each piece so velvety and clean flavoured it seems as luxurious as anything else we eat.
Attention shifts to the grill, where a whole cray tail is released from its shell, dissected, fried with butter and, finally, what looks like a bechamel sauce. The already rich, buttery meat is made even more decadent and, given what is still to come, the serve is ridiculously large for two.
Our chef then brings out what looks like a small set of wooden steps on which four wagyu steaks are draped in ascending order of reputation. In case we’re still feeling short on protein, two lamb cutlets are plonked at the base.
The theory is that these cuts can be compared, starting with locally farmed Mayura sirloin and finishing with the $1500/kg Kobe tenderloin. The reality is that not many people could comfortably eat this amount of normal beef, let alone one that has such a high ratio of fat and would usually be presented as small morsels to savour. We do our best, despite quickly feeling like Augustus Gloop on his visit to Willy Wonka’s factory.
Of the quartet, extra-rare slices of Japanese A5 rib-cap are notably chewier than the rest, to the point where it’s a struggle to get them down. The tenderloin, as you’d hope, takes tender to another level entirely, disintegrating under pressure from the tongue, the initial rush of fried fat followed by a lingering savoury flavour with a hint of fresh blood.
Token mushroom and zucchini slices served midway through the meat fest are a godsend; the scoop of matcha ice cream at the end also a welcome change.
Combining these trophy ingredients in one indulgent, showy menu goes against the Japanese tenets of balance and restraint. Like putting mag wheels on the Rolls Royce, it is just wrong.
SAMURAI TEPPANYAKI HOUSE
116 King William Rd, Hyde Park
8331 8153; samuraiteppan.com.au
OWNERS/CHEFS Clark Zhang, Jack Liu
FOOD Japanese
MENUS from $89 (plus supplements)
to $368
DESSERT $15
DRINKS Wine list is surprisingly short on options and aspiration. Try rice lager or ask about sake.
OPEN LUNCH and DINNER Tue-Sun
SCORE 11.5/20