Teppan

A Classic Japanese Teppanyaki Experience in Niseko, Japan

Down a dark winter hallway, up a long set of stairs…

Warm smell of teppanyaki, wafting through the air…

At base of Hanazono ski resort sits a massive four building complex - half the Park Hyatt Hotel, and half the Park Hyatt Residences. There isn’t much else at Hanazono, and the Park Hyatt prides itself on its F&B offerings. Returning for our annual trip every year, we decided to get reservations at most of the nicer restaurants, starting with Teppan on the night we arrived.

We have visited before, last year, with a large group of friends, but we were slightly less than sober after our apres-ski. Returning for the second time, we found ourselves navigating a winding set of hallways between the buildings, illuminated by the signature Park Hyatt lamps. We’ve been to many Park Hyatts in the past few years, and noticed every single one has an individualized lamp motif throughout the hotel.

We arrived at the restaurant for the 9:30pm seating. Apparently, they do 5 seatings a night. Two rooms of Teppans, with two grills each, seating 13 around the grill, so up to 260 covers a night. That was quite surprising.

As we were the last seating, there were only two parties at the table - my companion and I, as well as another couple seated beside us.

We were asked to make our menu selections in advance so they could do the prep, and there were four choices of menu, each named after one of the resorts around the mountain. We didn’t want to choose between different, so we just went big, and got the Annupuri menu, which didn’t have any choices, but just included almost all the optional supplements.

I started with my classic Umeshu highball, using a plum liquor made at the Yamazaki distillery in barrels that first aged the famous Yamazaki whisky. They really milk that brand name for everything it’s worth.

We were then presented with the raw ingredients to be used for the night’s meal.

The scallops and Kinki fish, used for the first two dishes.

The vegetables used across the dishes.

The large live abalone, used in the third course.

The steaks, each one precisely cut to 30g - A5 sirloin (on the left), and A5 filet (on the right). There’s was very clear difference in the amount of marbling in the meat.

The first course was a grilled scallop on top of a puree made from Shungiko leaves with earthy lily bulbs and topped with uni, caviar and microgreens. Really neat preparation, but the uni and caviar seemed like an unnecessary afterthought. The dish really didn’t need it.

Second came the Kinki fish, locally caught off the coast of Hokkaido. It’s a cold-water white fleshed fish with beautiful red skin. It’s best in the late autumn to early winter, so we just managed to catch it in the height of season. It was grilled on the teppan and served on top of a bed of Japanese winter spinach with a thin French Vermouth sauce and tomato concasse, with shredded salted lemon as an accompaniment.

Next, the abalone. The foot was grilled while the rest of the body was steamed under the cover. The chef removed the abalone from its shell and scored it before placing in on a bed of daikon radish and topping it with a thick beef consommé. This was a really odd preparation. Typically, the Abalone is done with sauce made from the Abalone liver, stock and thickened with some roux. The beef consume was so thick with gelatin that I thought it came straight out the fridge before being spooned on to the abalone. I’m not really sure where the “dried mullet roe” on the menu came into the picture. Interesting, but not my favourite preparation.

The main event, A5 Shiraoi Wagyu Beef Sirloin and Fillet, cooked to medium rare, served with root vegetables and Kutchan’s famous 540 day aged potatoes, made into a mash. This was topped with a wagyu jus and black truffle slices, and served alongside a variety of condiments - wasabi paste, freshly grated wasabi, a peppercorn and salt seasoning, tomato salsa and a plum sauce on the side.

60g (2 oz) of A5 wagyu was about as much as I could eat. In the past, I’ve been known to take down a 24oz prime rib, but when we get into a super fatty A5 wagyu, it’s so rich and filling that a tiny amount is all I can finish.

To finish the mains, in classic teppanyaki form, a king crab fried rice, topped with salmon roe, and served with miso soup and some pickles. One interesting thing about the pickles is that they included pickled wasabi stems - really neat lightly sweet and sour taste with a hit of sinus-clearing pungency.

For dessert, a caramel made on the teppan soaked into a rum baba as it toasted, served with grilled hokkaido strawberries and a strawberry sorbet. Amazing!

As we were leaving, we were presented with a box of yuzu macaroons made especially for the restaurant and branded with the Teppan’s logo.

Overall, it was a fine meal. It hit all the right notes and delivered exactly on everything I would expect from classic teppanyaki meal and nothing more. That really was the problem.

Everything from the elevator music playing in the background, every type of condiment for the steak under the sun to the mechanical delivery of the chefs as if on an assembly line felt a bit corporate and sterile. It felt very mass-market, meant to be as unoffensive as possible while delivering a consistently repeated experience and get the guests in and out in precisely 90 minutes.

Perhaps it was because it was the last seating of the night, and the chefs were tired and waiting to go home, but it was all devoid of personality. It delivered on its promise of a Japanese teppanyaki experience with premium ingredients at a premium price point.

I guess that’s the problem when you’re at a resort in the middle of a food desert - the people staying there have few choices, and you don’t need innovation or experimentation - those could go badly. Instead, just do the safe thing and repeat the same pattern over and over again. It was just all a bit bland.

Teppanyaki is about a show and an experience as much as the food itself. If I just want food prepared on a griddle, I could easily go to a diner.

I remember the best teppanyaki experience I ever had. Chef Willy, a Japanese Australian chef that had been doing this for decades, manning up to three grills at a time, going back and worth engaging us in conversation, telling us about his life, joking around, ordering shots around the table and clearly having a great time. There was nothing like this here.

Get in, eat, get out, go home.

Total Damage: 91600 JPY/2 people