10 Things To Know Before Eating At A Japanese Steakhouse For The First Time

When the first Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, Benihana, opened in the United States in 1964, it kicked off a revolution. Located on West 56th Street in New York City, Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki brought in expertly trained chefs to perform intricate knife skills while simultaneously cooking delicious food in front of customers sitting around the steel grill. Over 70 locations and millions of meals later, Aoki would be proud of the legacy he has left behind as the Japanese steakhouse has become a go-to destination for those who want to get a top-notch meal combined with a little theatricality. 

In addition to this style of dinner-and-a-show, there's more to know and appreciate about the Japanese steakhouse. From the highest quality of beef — like Japanese Wagyu, perhaps you've heard of it — to sushi, wine, and the possibility of getting to cook meat at your own table grill, eating at a Japanese steakhouse is about more than a meal. It's an experience. Luckily, you don't have to be an expert on Japanese cuisine to eat here. There's room for everyone around the steel grill.

To help guide you on what to expect before eating at a Japanese steakhouse, we took a deep dive into Japanese steakhouse menus from Las Vegas to Singapore, and spoke with Marc Sherry, owner of Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York City, and Masaharu Morimoto, a Japanese chef and restaurateur best known for his title as Iron Chef. If you're lucky enough to be eating at a Japanese steakhouse for the first time, here's what you can expect.

When you sidle up to your table at a typical American steakhouse, you're bracing for impact. You know before you even pick up the menu that a big honkin' steak is heading your way, and that's part of the appeal. Japanese steakhouses, however, are more subtle in the presentation of proteins. Rather than putting a giant steak in front of you and hoping you have room to eat ounce after ounce in one go, the Japanese steakhouse style is more minimalist, presenting you with multiple options to give you a more well-rounded eating experience. "Japanese steakhouses use smaller decorative plates to accommodate tasting cuts since the cuts are not as robust as American steakhouses," notes Marc Sherry, owner of Old Homestead. "The nature of the Japanese steakhouse experience feels way more of a 'tasting' style experience rather than an indulgent gastronomic experience."

A popular way to serve proteins at Japanese steakhouses is through an omakase, or a chef's selection. Since the focus of the menu tends to focus primarily on more specialty meats, like Wagyu and Kobe, offering an omakase option gives you, the diner, the opportunity to sample multiple cuts of meat without having any beef-inspired FOMO. At Fat Cow, a Japanese steakhouse in Singapore, guests have the option of ordering a Wagyu omakase menu for $290 per person. The menu is made up of five courses, all with different preparations, to present the restaurant's collection of Sandai Wagyu and Akage Washu beef.

It's easy to think of a Japanese steakhouse as the place you used to go as a kid for birthdays or some other casual occasion, where you sat around the giant flat-top grill and watched a chef make onion volcanos and flip pieces of steak and grilled shrimp into your mouth. This style of cooking, which is made up of both culinary skill and performance art and was made wildly famous by restaurants like Benihana, is what many people consider to be hibachi. And if you were under the impression that your visits to Benihana have been for a hibachi meal, buckle up. That isn't hibachi. That's teppanyaki.

The mix-up between hibachi and teppanyaki is a common one — the teppanyaki style of cooking tends to be referred to as "hibachi-style" in the United States, which would explain the misunderstanding. However, hibachi refers specifically to the bowl used for cooking, which tends to be made of cast iron, is small and portable, and has an open metal grate on top for cooking meat over an open flame. What you're looking for when you go to a Japanese steakhouse and want to watch the chef flip things and hit their knife on the flat top like a heavy metal symphony is, in fact, teppanyaki. Diners sit around a large, flat-top griddle and watch the teppan chefs grill seafood, chicken, beef, and vegetables with incredible skill and precision.

If you're eating at a steakhouse, whether it's Japanese, American, or otherwise, chances are the red meat will be the star focus of the menu. The gold standard of meats will all be available for your eating pleasure, and if you're a red meat enthusiast with a taste for the finer things in life, you will certainly enjoy ordering a nice ribeye, an A5 Wagyu, or the like. However, there's no rule that says you have to order from the menu that's always on offer. In fact, if you're dining at a Japanese steakhouse and your menu has some daily specials, don't brush them off.

For chef Masaharu Morimoto, a good ribeye steak is always a safe bet when eating at a Japanese steakhouse. However, that order comes with an asterisk. If the menu has a daily special, like a special meat or cut, he recommends ordering that instead. According to Morimoto, it's those special offerings that tend to be the freshest and the most local, so it's in your best interest to take advantage of those menu items before they're gone for the season and potentially off the menu for a long stretch of time.

The term Japanese steakhouse is an all-encompassing one — it's a wide umbrella, under which several different types of cooking styles and foods can live. One of those styles is yakiniku, which actually originated from Korean cuisine. Yakiniku is about so much more than just grilled meats. It's a special culinary tradition in Japanese culture, and whether it's done at home or at a restaurant, it's a unique and memorable way to experience Japanese cuisine.

Unlike teppanyaki, which is prepared by a chef at the big flat-top grill, yakiniku is prepared entirely by the diner. Small pieces of raw meat and vegetables are put on the griddle over a charcoal, gas, or electric stove, removed from the heat when fully cooked, dipped into a sauce, and eaten right away. The meat tends to be thinly sliced, making for a simple and quick cooking experience, and unlike teppanyaki, which is more of a spectator meal, yakiniku is a communal cooking and eating experience, giving everyone the opportunity to cook their own food.

If you're intimidated by the thought of cooking your own meat, don't be. Some helpful tips to quickly become a yakiniku pro include preheating your grill to prevent sticking, preparing both lean and fatty cuts for good balance, flipping the meat once you notice juice on the surface, and most importantly, patience to ensure you don't pull the meat before it's ready.

Unlike most restaurant experiences that tend to keep the diner and the chef separated by a kitchen, a Japanese steakhouse serving teppanyaki has cut out the barrier. The chef is right in front of you, cooking and searing and flipping accordingly, and while this may not seem like anything all that exciting, it is an incredible opportunity for you as the diner. Not only does this allow you to see exactly how your food is being prepared first hand, it gives you the ability to interact directly with the person doing the preparation.

While many chefs may bask in the feeling of not having to actually talk to the people they're making food for, a teppan chef is quite the opposite. They're encouraging you to tell them what you want to eat and how you want it made. This also gives you the opportunity to ask questions, which, for many restaurantgoers, is a rare gift. When else would you get the chance to ask the chef about the type of beef you're about to eat? Where did it come from? Why is it worth ordering? If you're unsure of what to order, you have the chance to ask the chef, in real-time, for their recommendations, which could potentially include items that aren't written down on the menu. Getting face time with the person making your food is an uncommon and useful opportunity, so take advantage of it.

Teppanyaki and yakiniku are undoubtedly wonderful aspects of the Japanese steakhouse experience, but they aren't the only options you have. Perhaps the idea of sitting at that giant flat-top griddle, or cooking your own meat, isn't hitting for you. That's okay — Japanese steakhouse menus have a lot of variety that goes far beyond grilled meat and seafood.

At any Japanese steakhouse worth its weight in Wagyu, you can expect to see fully composed dishes as well as sushi, noodle and rice bowls, and plenty of meatless options as well. At Roka Akor, a Japanese steakhouse in Chicago, the meat and seafood menu is extensive, but it's not even close to the only options worth ordering. In addition to a long list of hot and cold appetizer choices, the sushi menu has a variety of traditional handrolls as well as more specialty rolls like seared Wagyu, crispy prawn and chirashi, and lobster. There are also Korean spiced lamb cutlets and glazed pork ribs for the non-beef-eating carnivore, and a roasted king crab with chili lime butter or cherry miso glazed Chilean sea bass.

Just like an American steakhouse, Japanese steakhouses take just as much pride in their steaks and chops as they do in their non-steak options, from perfectly cooked lobster and sushi-grade tuna to fried noodles and yakitori.

Whether you opt for the teppanyaki steakhouse or go for the yakiniku option, you're likely to get some dipping sauces to accompany your grilled meats and veggies. You may be tempted to think of these like getting a bottle of steak sauce or barbeque sauce at an American steakhouse, ultimately opting out of using them and letting the grilled meat speak for itself. However, when it comes to the Japanese steakhouse experience, these sauces aren't just for show — they're an integral part of the eating process. It's the balance of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy that sets these sauces apart, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the natural flavor of the dish itself.

For your teppanyaki meal, common sauces include lighter, soy sauce-based options like ginger, ponzu, and teriyaki, or something richer and creamier like yum yum sauce. Also known as "white sauce," yum yum sauce is a crowd favorite for its sweet and tangy flavor, not all that different from fry sauce or burger sauce. For yakiniku, you can also expect a soy-based sauce with plenty of sweet, salty, and spicy flavor to enhance the flavor of the grilled meat. Regardless of the style of Japanese steakhouse you have the pleasure of eating at, the dipping sauces are designed to make the meat-eating experience that much more enjoyable and delicious, with the goal of making each bite a memorable one.

A dinner without dessert is an incomplete one, is it not? The Japanese steakhouse meal is no exception to this rule — while you may be going to indulge in ounce after ounce of red meat, the sweet portion of the menu is an important part of the meal as a whole. After all that rich, salty meat, you need something sweet to balance it all out and tie the entire meal together.

While you're probably accustomed to seeing American steakhouse dessert menus filled with items like chocolate cake, cheesecake, crème brûlée, and apple pie, Japanese steakhouse desserts are a little more subtle. Expect to see light options like fresh fruit, ice cream, fried bananas, and sorbet, as well as mochi, a sweet dumpling made with rice flour dough and typically filled with flavored sweet bean paste. Ultimately, these desserts are designed to cleanse the palate and, for chef Masaharu Morimoto, are meant to be a sweet, pleasant ending to the meal rather than a sugar overload.

If you thought perfectly dicing an onion or mincing a clove of garlic was hard, that's nothing compared to the work that goes into being a teppan chef. As you watch the chef cook, flip, sauce, and talk to you simultaneously, it's hard not to be impressed. That skill and attention is no accident — teppan chefs are trained on a variety of things, from meat prep and juggling knives and utensils, to cooking each ingredient just right. For chef Masaharu Morimoto, there are a variety of important skills that a teppan chef needs before getting behind the grill.

"We have in-depth training for our teppan chefs, and prepping the proteins is key, using only the best cuts," he said. "But understanding the temperature each area of the grill has and how to cook each protein to the right temperature is most important. Each area of the flat-top grill is used for different ingredients."

As with most jobs, there is a mixture of education and on-the-job training that goes into it. First, chefs need to be properly equipped with a full set of Japanese knives and utensils like spatulas and scrapers. It can take up to 10 years to reach an elite level, considering the amount of tricks they need to learn in addition to the culinary skills required. Additionally, teppan chefs need to have a good work ethic, stamina to stand on their feet for many hours at a time, a good personality and communication skills, and impressive manual dexterity.

If you can't imagine eating a steak without a glass of wine, a Japanese steakhouse is the perfect place for you and your Wagyu- and wine-loving heart. Just like the sauces served alongside your meats are meant to enhance and enliven the taste buds, a properly paired glass of wine serves the same purpose, and a good Japanese steakhouse will undoubtedly have a wine menu that is designed to do just that. While a glass of Japanese sake or whiskey is a fine choice, wine has a more diverse flavor palate to stand up to the versatility of the Japanese steakhouse menu, so when deciding on what beverage to enjoy alongside dinner, opt for the wine menu over cocktails or beer.

Bold, complex wines are ideal for pairing with the rich, savory meats often served at a Japanese steakhouse. California zinfandel, Amarone, and Valpolicella Ripasso are some of the highlighted options, but if the menu at the restaurant you're eating at doesn't have these exact options, that's not a problem. The key is to look for full-bodied wines that can complement the umami flavors while also providing some balance rather than overpowering the flavors in the dish. Ask your server, or even your chef in between meat flips and onion towers, for their best wine recommendations based on your order.