Long-time Cruiseboysians will remember when I visited Osaka in 2019 I had a wonderful evening meal at a teppenyaki restaurant. When I saw such a meal was offered as a tour in Tokyo I had to sign up.

The Sumida teppenyaki restaurant is on the 20th floor of the Royal Park hotel. In short, it was awesome. Longer comments after the image-palooza. Enjoy.

Appetizers from left to right: deep-fried garlic chips (which were amazing), spiced shredded beef, sweet corn soup (I was surprised by how much “corn taste” was there) and beef pate with vegetables. The bowls contained ponzu, diced radish, soy and wasabi. The flute contains plum (umeshu) infused sparkling wine.

On top of the salad is finely shredded dried fish. Sounds odd but worked very well.

Beef “sushi”. Fine cuts of wagyu beef cooked just enough to render the fat, then placed on traditional sushi rice and wasabi. Served on palm leaf.

The vegetables were sweet white onion, new potatoes and turnips. The top right corner were “cracklin’s” from the wagyu cut fat used to season the cooking surface.

We had the choice of fillet or sirloin. I went with sirloin as it has more fat.

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So, conclusions. The meals served at both teppenyaki restaurants were equal. However, the Osaka site also supported several tea serving rooms and had a garden that the rooms were built around. I prefer that setting. On the other hand, I understand how that may be very cost prohibitive in a city as expensive as Tokyo.

All in all, a fabulous night out. If I’m going to wear a suit and tie while on vacation, this is the level of meal I expect. We have ten more Japanese port to look forward to, including an extended day-trip to Kyoto. Stay tuned.