Teppei Restaurant @Orchid Hotel

We finally set foot on the legendary Teppei Restaurant, where the current reservation queue is half a year!

Hubby was following Teppei’s Facebook page for any last minute cancellations, and it appeared that we were always missing that little bit of luck. But our chance came on one fine day in Dec 2015 where Teppei opened up a few slots at the same time for the next few months. Without missing a bit, hubby messaged and secured two seats for the 8:30pm session on 2 Mar 2016!

After a not-so-long wait of 3 months, we arrived at the restaurant full of expectations, and saw that the 6:30pm session people were just finishing their dessert and taking their leave.

We were welcomed into the counter-seats-only restaurant, and shown to our allocated seats. Once we were comfortably seated, we had a good look at the place, and realised that the counter seats extended all the way to Hana Hana, its sister shop next door.

This was a rather huge production omakase, with at least 5 staff preparing our food. Small wonder since there were already 22 customers at the Teppei side. It was not completely packed at Hana Hana today though.

Our cold tea was already waiting for us at the table, so we could relaxed and watch the on-going action. Meanwhile, a staff went around to take note of our food preferences.

The appetiser was already ready and waiting before we entered the restaurant, and Chef Teppei san was busy slicing sashimi when we walked in. Five minutes past 8.30pm, the chawanmushi went into the steamer.

At 8.38pm, we got our Appetisers! Our favourite was the flavourful meat ball, which had an interesting blend of meat, mushrooms, carrots, etc. The tofu had a lovely yuzu topping to complement it. The pork belly salad was quite delicious too. The roasted potato was quite standard, while the boiled di wang miao was pretty much what we eat at home. We found the fish cake to be a bit too hard though.

Next up was the 7-piece Sashimi Platter. We were pleased that the fish slices were very fresh and delicious, especially the salmon and ootoro.

Third item was Chawanmushi, and I was initially dismayed that I was given a smaller portion than hubby, but quickly realised that the ladies sitting around me all had smaller portions. The flavours of the chawanmushi were in layers, with a strong seafood broth at the top, a rather firm custard egg, and ended with a bit of zesty broth. Quite interesting.

Next up, the ladies were served first with a Minced Tuna Hand Roll, and many broke out into giggles when the gentlemen were served their ultra long hand roll that was double the portion! Fit for their size, haha! The ladies portion had very little rice, and the end result was a crunchy but rather salty hand roll. The gentleman version had more rice, which complemented the salty fish roe and minced tuna mix.

We were asked to select our main course, from a selection of sashimi don, 4 kinds of sushi, uni fried rice, wagyu beef fried rice, and garlic fried rice. We could also select from a list of ice cream flavours, and I choose salted caramel and yuzu.

Next was a skewer of… Erm… Brown Bean coated with Salt? Hubby thought it was potato.. But that was a reallllllyyyy tiny potato. The naughty staff said it was bi sai (things from your nose). Hahaha…

One of the staff then proceeded to feed everyone a mouthful of Sesame Tofu… Oh yes, he went to each of us with a spoon! The sesame tofu was soft and creamy, with a good balance of sesame flavour. Don’t think it was because of the way it was served though, haha!

We then had a plate of bite-sized Fish Cake and Fried Chicken Wing. To prove that it was indeed chicken wing, the bones were still intact.

Next round was yet another feeding session; a spoonful of Salmon, Uni, and Fish Roe heaven, provided you get the chance to eat it, because they will tease you with the food! 😛 It was a good combination though.

This was followed by a spoon of Blended Edamame, which could have easily been a spoon of wasabi… We had to pick our spoon, and they claimed that 7 of the spoons had a layer of wasabi, and 1 was a pure spoonful of wasabi 😮

Then the chef came to feed everyone the Foe Gras with Scallop spoon, and wow, this was deliciously sinful!

More feeding continued with Pickled Fish Head Cartilage.

A twist on a tempura dish was Crab Leg with Mashed Potato and Yam. The gravy was full of seafood goodness! While the colourful sprinkles made this dish a pretty side, I was pretty irritated by the texture as they were tiny and soft, and everywhere.

In the midst of all the excitement of feeding, we were next fed Stewed Tuna which was quite nicely scorched.

We totally enjoyed the Saga Beef, both the raw display, and the excellent tender beef with crispy exterior, with a nice bit of fats. I found the sauce to be overly sweet and over powering though.

The slice of Japanese Tomato was refreshingly sweet and juicy! It was followed by a Seafood Flavoured Soup, served with a huge piece of mochi… So hubby got to eat two of it 😛 My bad, I did not expect that mochi would be part of the meal. This was followed by the very sweet slice of Strawberry flown in from Chef’s hometown, Fukuoka.

Finally, our mains of Uni Fried Rice and Wagyu Beef Fried Rice arrived. The fried rice was surprisingly spicy 😮 The creamy uni helped to alleviate the spiciness level, but just barely… Hubby’s version was slightly less spicy. We both preferred the Saga beef to the Wagyu beef.

We ended our meal with the Salted Caramel and Yuzu ice cream. We definitely preferred the yuzu flavour, as it was not too sweet and tasted very refreshing!

We were done in slightly more than 2 hours, which was a relatively more relaxed dinner, as compared to the first seating that cleared out of the restaurant within 2 hours. Overall, a rather interesting dinner with some showmanship.

Note: Amex card is not accepted here, only Master or Visa.