First Bite: Teppan Okochi

We've been searching for good wagyu places for almost a month now ever since our favorite Buta + Wagyu closed. We've been to Wagyu Japanese Beef which was said to be very close to our love but we found it different and underwhelming. This time around, we decided to go with Teppan Okochi, a new Japanese teppan restaurant raved by many. 

Hello, Teppan Okochi. 

It was a sudden decision for us to dine here as we originally planned to have dinner at Edsa Shangri-La's Senju. However, R's dad suggested that we try something new so I thought of Teppan Okochi which is just two months old. 

I booked through Booky and got the last available seats for our group of 6. The room that fronts 9th Avenue Street though could only accommodate 5 so it was a tight fit for us.

Since our table was bar type, we really couldn't share food so we all opted to go for course meals. Some of us went with the Angus Steak Course (PHP2,500/course) while I went with Angus and Wagyu Steak Course (PHP3,500). R went with Wagyu Steak Course (PHP5,000) which also comes with grilled lobster. All these are 9-course meals. 

We started off with some appetizers. Each course vary a bit in starters. The Angus and Angus + Wagyu Steak course comes with four kinds of appetizers while the Wagyu Steak course comes with six. 

My plate of appetizers has sweet tamago, mixed veggies, buta teriyaki and fried dilis. R's had sweet tamago, eggplant with katsubushi, shirake age, shirake negi, and daicon hoshingko. 

We were excited to try our plate of starters thinking that it'd be stellar. But most, if not all were just your usual appetizers. Though there was nothing wrong with it, I guess I just expected it to be a bit more special. (I did like the mixed veggies a lot though.)

Next was our fresh salad which had a lovely tangy taste thanks to the generous serving of parmesan cheese and dressing. The crispy greens sure whet our appetite for the mains.

But before we could get to our succulent meats, we were served with some dishes from the sea. 

R's plate had grilled abalone with garlic butter and grilled lobster with black pepper. The grilled lobster was good though nothing extraordinary. The abalone though had an extremely fishy taste. R still finished it though despite not really fancying it too as he knows how pricey abalones can be and find it a waste not to eat it.  

I liked my scallop with sea urchin sauce and grilled jumbo prawn with lemon truffle oil more. 

Daniel, the owner of Teppan Okochi also took time to share with me that they only serve Japanese scallops and they serve the whole piece just like how they do it in Japan. And the outer part is considered to be a good part despite its chewy texture.

The place was already packed around 7 p.m. and it took a while before R and I got our steaks. It would have been faster if only the teppan plate in our room was functional. But the room we stayed at wasn't even meant to be used yet. 

R's plate of wagyu was served first and it had a nice clean wagyu taste. We just added salt for extra flavor. 

He was also given an unagi rice bowl to complement his meats.

Mine was served after (with garlic rice and miso soup) and I asked the server which one's wagyu and which one's angus. To my surprise, I was told that mine was all Angus because my plate was mistakenly given to someone else in our group. Though I was rather disappointed to get all Angus as I wanted wagyu too, I decided to let it go as I wanted to eat my meat before I get even fuller. 

And it had a very weird aftertaste. I couldn't even describe the flavor but it seemed that the chef who prepared my steak failed to clean the hot plate before grilling mine. It could have been one of the sauces they used for other dishes which I didn't like. 

I was impressed though with the staff trying to correct their mistake by offering me a new plate and this time with wagyu. However, it had the same weird (not in a good way) aftertaste which I didn't like. R tried it too and found it weird as well. One of the head wait staff took my second plate and gave it to the chef for checking. But we never got an update about it till we asked about it 10 minutes later. 

Eventually, I was given another plate, but this time, of just wagyu. And finally, it had the same clean taste like the one R had. But sadly, I was already too full to enjoy it. 

We even skipped eating our okonomiyaki and yakisoba which came with our respective courses.

For dessert, we were given three kinds, chocolate covered chestnut, mochi and this rectangular sweet that I'm not so sure of. I didn't really like the sweets except for the mochi but R enjoyed all three. 

Our iced Illy coffee were great though. 

I really enjoyed my iced latte and R liked his iced cappuccino too. 

The total damage for this meal was over PHP21,000. I would have gladly paid more if the meats and seafood we had were as good as Buta + Wagyu and that of the fresh seas. But we left the place a bit underwhelmed. It might be because the place is still new and is still adjusting to full house service. But for its price, it was hard not to expect something more delectable and service smoother than smoother service.

Note: The Booky discount was not applied to our total bill due to the senior discount of some of our companions.

Teppan Okochi is located at Ground Floor, Ore Central Building, 9th Avenue corner 31st. Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. It is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily.