Japanese Village is a Teppan Style restaurant. These are the ones that you get a show with your dinner, as the chefs are cooking your dinner right in front of you on a very hot grill. Think the ones you've heard of throwing the spatula and forks and making the bad puns. You are seated around the outside of the grill and normally are joined by people not in your group. It is a way to meet new people and have some fun.
On this night we were joined by two other couples that we don't know and of course my husbands parents. After seating us all the waitress promptly took our orders and we waited for our chef. When he came out he was a young man whom I think was just finishing learning how to cook in this style, which is a challenge because you have to both be talented at cooking as well as entertaining. I hoped he would give it is all.
Since almost all of us at the table were having the Steak and Shrimp he went around the table to check what temperature everyone wanted there meat cooked. We had one medium rare, one medium well and the rest were just mediums. My father in law and I opted for the Chicken and Shrimp instead and one of the other diners had the Chicken and Steak. The meal is also accompanied by Shabu Shabu soup (egg drop soup), a salad, rice, grilled vegetables, a sampling of shrimp, bean sprouts and Japanese tea to finish.
The chef started the show with throwing and clanging the spatula and fork artistically over the grill and I was impressed by his behind the back throw. It is definitely a way to make sure you have the attention of your diners. He then grilled the vegetables (a mixture of mushrooms, zucchini and onions) and divvied them up between all of us. Then he started the Teriyaki Chicken as it would take the longest to cook. Then he started the Black Tiger Shrimp Misonaise. And then the drama started.
He dished out the shrimp to all of us whom had ordered it and we went to dig in but one of the diners discovered that his shrimp was still partially raw. The rest of us checked and sure enough a few of us had a couple slightly raw shrimp in our bunch. The chef immediately apologized and asked to take the shrimp back to finish cooking it but the one diner got angry and said that since he had had raw shrimp on his plate he wanted a new one, and that he wanted his shrimp redone from the beginning. Now this was a slight over reaction but not wanting to cause a scene the rest of us went along with him. The chef then went to organise getting enough shrimp to replace the mistake.
He then continued cooking the rest of the dinner. This meant the steak, which in my opinion he expertly cooked. The diners on the other side of the table however had decided by then that they were going to have a bad experience and starting bashing the chef, the restaurant and the style of the cooking in general. All of which the chef had to listen to while cooking them their dinner. Since there were a variety of steak temperatures being cooked not everyone got theirs at the same time, and by coincidence the gentleman that had complained about the shrimp was the one with the medium well steak so he got his last. Which of course meant that he complained about it.
Then he redid the shrimp, which he had gotten all of us a new full order of even though we only had a couple uncooked ones the first time. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice he left it on the grill a little bit longer than usual, which was fine. He then took one shrimp from each of our piles and got us to taste test it to make sure it was okay this time, starting with the gentleman that had insisted on it being redone. Now while he said it was good he also asked the chef to leave his on for a minute or two more just to be sure. Mine was cooked perfectly, just slightly crispy on the bottom from the grill which I liked. Then he finally served the shrimp to the picky gentleman, who stated it was now over done and could be 'thrown through a windshield' it was so hard. If he had just let the chef do his job his shrimp would have been done wonderfully.
Our Chicken Teriyaki was finished nicely with the smaller pieces being slightly crispy and the larger ones being juicy. All covered in a slightly salty teriyaki sauce, although the lady at the end of the table claimed hers was over cooked, over sauced and too salty. I honestly think she had never had chicken teriyaki before and didn't know what to expect.
This was when the gentleman and his wife asked to see the manager, even though the chef wasn't completely done and still had one more part of the entertaining to do. The chef agreed to get the manager and then did the little part with the 'Japanese salt, pepper and MSG' using covered wooden salt and pepper shakers. He then left looking like he was about to cry.
The manager came over and immediately got a tirade from the 4 diners at the other side of the table about how horrible their service was and how they weren't going to pay for their dinner. They wanted compensation for their troubles. This was when the 4 in my group decided to wait until the manager was done with them and talk to her ourselves. After they had gotten away with their practically free meals and gift certificates for the other locations of Japanese Village in hand we finally got to talk to the manager. We let her know what had gone on with the bashing and the calling down of her chef, and that we were certain that they had purposely acted that way to get a free meal out of them. And that despite their rudeness the chef had done a wonderful job not just for us but the whole table even though he was obviously embarrassed by them.
I truly hope that the budding Teppan style chef that served us does not give up something that he was very good at just because of a few bigots that decided to use him to get cheap food. And I will definitely return to this location again as he provided us with an energetic and memorable evening all on his own.
Food: 4/5
Ambiance: 4/5
Service: 4.5/5
Dinner for 4: $160.00
Japanese Village Northgate
1084B 9499 137 Ave
780 422 6083
http://www.jvedmonton.ca/
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