a night in a teppanyaki: February 6 2024

how crazy cold yesterday was is how hot and lively today is. we dined out for dinner in a teppanyaki place in shinjuku. it was along the streets of the kabukicho party area. teppanyaki is basically grilling on a hot iron plate. it is usually how an okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and even steaks are cooked. usually, each table is installed with an iron plate and food is cooked in front of you. that too has a different charm to it, but this place we went to has a giant plate on the counter area where they cook the food and food is served to your table ready to eat.

welcome to teppan baby!

the shop caters to english speakers as well. we were greeted in english upon entering the shop, a rare occasion. and yes, you are seeing things right. the shop's logo is a baby! they even have this cute baby doll as chopsticks holder. as the shop serves alcoholic drinks as well, seeing this baby with the various drinks is quite something: innocent yet hilarious.

so came the starters. although i honestly do not need any appetizers tonight for i am starved, we ordered some for formality sake. of course, we ordered some drinks at the start as well. this is something new to me when i came to japan. back home in the philippines, people order the food first and eat before they even think of alcohol. but here in japan, alcohol is often ordered first and people start drinking even before the food is served.

now food came in one by one. appetizers were really appetizing! jokes aside, i was surprised by how tasty that fish cake was and the umami from the stew definitely made me more hungry. by this time, i could eat the whole table.

not long after, the main dish came. okonomiyaki! we ordered some with avocadoes and shrimp. this one was torched in front of us. (i had some videos of this and i desperately tried to upload to 3speak but the service is down) then we also had one with cheese! the cheese was grated in front of us as well. then there was one with bacon, egg yolk and chives topping. and another one with tarako (cod roe or plainly, fish eggs). all were delicious, but the tarako one was a clear winner. most of us (including me) were surprised of how well tarako matches with okonomiyaki. oh, and did i mention that there were 11 of us dining? of course we ordered some more. and that made me happy.

alcohol also kept coming in, somehow we were like overworked employees definitely in need of fun times. middle of the work week and here we are drinking like there is no tomorrow. well not really, we were thinking of that at the back of our heads, i'm sure. 11 people on a long table just laughing, chatting and having the time of their life. the crazy part though, someone brought a taylor swift related quiz and we fully obliged. this was in preparation for the upcoming concert of course, although i am not attending. suddenly we were silent, seriously answering the quiz. people around us must have wondered what we were doing but gosh it was fun.

alcohol and food kept coming in. we even had sake (rice wine). here are some more pictures of the place.

the staff were all so accommodating. they really tried their best to speak english to us at first. we told them that it was fine to speak in japanese. we could see some stress lifted off their shoulders after we said that. here are some details of the shop.

Teppan Baby
〒160-0021 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Kabukicho, 1 Chome−17−4 POCKET ビル B1F
Opens from 5PM to 5AM

this baby was literally everywhere! cute! he is now ready to conquer the world even.

the night ended with more laughters and hearts warmed.

as always, stay safe.
AMPING!