Royal Teppan Steak House

Sadly, this place has gone a bit downhill since my last review. The quality of the ingredients has gotten worse, and the cost just isn’t worth it now. The restaurant is always so empty, so their customers have figured this out.
The owners seem to be trying something different, as they had removed one of the teppan tables and were building something in its place when I was there last. I think it was going to be a sushi counter, though it seemed an odd mix of things. I’m not sure it’ll work though.
What made my last visit especially bad was getting sick from some bay scallops they served me. I don’t plan on returning for a long while, if ever, but it’s rather disappointing after many years of visiting this place.

This place has been around for a while, but can’t seem to retain much of its customers as it has changed owners several times within the past 5 years.
Usually we go here to eat the teppan or hotpot, which is mediocre at best and on the more expensive side. However last night for dinner we tried the individual shabu shabu. It came with your choice of soup flavor (9 to choose from), a meat selection (beef, chicken, lamb, pork), and a plate of veggies (spinach, cabbage, vermicelli, tofu, meat ball, mushroom… etc), a bowl of rice, and finally your choice of satay sauce or sesame all for $ 12.99
The soup was served in a small individual pot, which is nice if you don’t like to share a big pot with ten other people. The taste is what you expect to find for shabu shabu and the QTY for the price is decent for any appetite. I would recommend this place for the shabu shabu to my friends, especially on those cold/​rainy nights!

This place used to be awesome, but I think they changed owners and now it is not so awesome anymore. Shame.
I went here tonight with mi madre and ordered the $ 11.95/person mini hotpot that comes with rice and sauce. It comes in a variety of flavors — I got the original and my mom got the kimchi. Each pot comes with a small plate of vegetables and tempura and a small plate of meat. There was a small handful of cabbage and spinach, small handful of vermicelli, 5 thinly sliced tempuras, and 1 meatball cut in half (to make it seem like we’re getting more meatballs, I guess). The meat was also as thinly sliced as possible. $ 11.95? No! Especially when HotPot City has all-​you-​can-​eat hotpot for about $ 15. Not mentioning dinky portions, my broth was like water; no taste at all.
Verdict: don’t get the mini hotpots.

Ended up here accidentally for lunch. A&J was full and we didn’t have a lot of time to wait.
My steak ramen was ok, the price was ok, the service was not terribly attentive.

Hubs and I came here on a whim — we were in the neighborhood and were always wondering about this spot since it’s the only Japanese place in this plaza.
I didn’t realize it had the benihana-​type «cook in front of you» tables (I have no idea what it’s actually called). We knew about the hot pot, but it was a warm day and I just wasn’t in the mood.
Nice ambiance — not too Japanese-​y. But I’m not sure what was going on with the disco ball at 6pm on a Thursday???
On to food. I ordered the beef bento — not bad. The little salad it came with was drenched in dressing so I couldn’t finish. Miso was delish. Egg roll was delish. CA roll? I was never a fan of the stuff. Beef was tasty, but too much pepper for my taste.
Hubs had the kimchee ramen. He must have loved it cause he finished the whole thing.
The service was pretty good, though I must admit I only saw maybe 2 waitstaff, and 2 chefs. It wasn’t super busy, maybe that’s why??? And prices are very reasonable, considering the portions. Only 17 bucks for 2 people — great deal.
Overall we liked the food and service. Next time we’re in the mood for ramen or bento, we’ll probably come back. Nice to know there’s a decent Japanese place nearby.

Seriously this place has gone downhill faster than a rollercoaster with a jetpack.
Back when it first opened, the crowd was aplenty, food was delicious, and the lines were up the ass, staff was friendly.
Flash back to now: People are nonexistent, staff is rude, food is mediocre.
This used to be my family spot for some Teppanyaki. Much better than benihanas, without the touristry omg-​they-​cook-​in-​front-​of-​you, he-​just-​flipped-​shrimp-​into-​his-​friggin-​hat craziness.
They also had hot pot, which i have to say I’ve never tried. Honestly though, I went back for my friend’s birthday, and the restaurant was empty. The chef attempts to pull off basic stunts with the spatulas/​salt-​pepper shakers… and fails. many times. (hey guys… if you’re gonna bust out some fancy-​shmancy, PRACTICE!)
But in the end, the food is still decent. Just don’t come expecting amazing service and a jaw-​dropping show.

My Ratings:
Quality of Food — 2 Stars
Quantity of Food — 3 Stars
Price — 2 Stars
Location — 3 Stars
Parking — 3 Stars
Service — 2 Stars
Speed — 3 Stars
My Opinion/​Story:
We ended up here one Sunday afternoon after finding out the restaurant we wanted to go to is closed. Other restaurants were packed and we were HUNGRY. so we went inside to try this place. It’s a japanese place right?
We ordered our bento boxes and we even wanted to order an extra dish but the lady who took our order said, «there’s too much food». So taking the positive side of that, we agreed to stick to one dish each person. She was right, there was too much food. They put too much stuff on the box and the only thing good was the mochi that was included. The beef teriyaki was bland and tasted kinda old, the sald dressing was just mayo or something that tasted weird, the miso soup was bland, and the rest of the dish was just not good. We kept calling the lady to give us more water and tea. I want to like this place but the entire time I was there eating my lunch, I just kept thinking: how the hell can they screw up Japanese food?
I was very disappointed and will definitely not go back there again. Perhaps their teppan is better but I won’t even go back there to try it. The rest of my lunch date agreed that their food was a waste of money. Sorry but I should have had dim sum from the nearby grocery store.

I went to this restaurant because I was in the mood for some ramen and it was the only place open on a Sunday afternoon in the Cupertino Village plaza, except for A&J. I refused to go to A&J.
Anyway…
A guy who worked there, perhaps the owner, was standing outside smoking. I asked if the restaurant was open. He nodded his head and led us inside, while continuing to smoke. We sat ourselves down and ordered. A few minutes later, the waitress came back and told us that we could not bring our boba drinks inside because they sell their own boba there. I thought this was lame because everyone else who kept coming in had a boba drink from Fantasia or Quickly’s (around the corner).
I had the tonkatsu ramen and it came with a side of California roll. The soup was okay, nothing great. I didn’t like how it wasn’t steaming hot either. My soup got luke warm really fast so I didn’t finish it.
The bill came, $ 17 for two people. We paid with a credit card, but the waitress told us that they only accept credit cards if the bill is over $ 40. LAME!!! I’m not a fan of this place.

Having been here since years and years ago, I had tried a little bit of everything.
When I was younger, I thought the teppanyaki was way over priced with too little food. It was great but I remember always leaving a bit hungry. I’m not sure about these days.
I also hated the ramen here… as I’m really a big favorite of more traditional Japanese ramen with the really intense soup base, flavorful chashu and soft egg yolks. The ramen here, from that one experience I had, was bland.
I had never had the mini hot pot and was rather apprehensive in coming here… having avoided this place for quite a long time but I didn’t regret it this time.
This review is for the mini hot pot. There were apparently 8 soup bases. I got the thai spicy base and it was pretty good… it got more and more flavorful as the water evaporates.
For 11.95, you get your own mini pot, your own choice of meat, a type of drink, 2 types of veggies, tofu, 1 egg, egg dumpling, noodles and more. The meat was also thinly sliced and looks well prepared.
There was a good amount of veggies…
The hot pot came out within 5 – 10 minutes of ordering. Service was pretty good (maybe it’s cuz we’re asian). I would come back again.
Cons…
The restroom smells funny.
There’s a $ 40 minimum charge on credit cards. Bring cash.
Pros…
Food is all that matters. I felt that I got my money’s worth. Service was decent.

3.5 stars. I came here tonight for some ramen. If we had more time I might have tried their hot pot/​shabu shabu. They also have Benihana style Teppanyaki.
They have a very nice hostess that seated us right away. Service is very good, especially considering they are chinese owned and managed.
I had the spicy kimchi ramen and loved it. The noodles were nice and chewy and it was filled with plenty of ingredients including sliced pork and corn.
I will likely come back again one day!

I’ve only been here twice, and only for the teppanyaki. However, both times the service was friendly, and the chefs were both friendly and cooked well. We’ve always come for lunch and we all order the 2 item combo, and for $ 12.95 or so it isn’t bad at all. You get a bowl of miso soup (avg), salad, rice, and your two choices. I usually go with the calamari and pineapple (really good) and the beef slices (too garlicy). My brother got the mini-​steak last time, and that was much better. My parents like the fish, and the udon was pretty decent. At the end, the chef cooks up a mess of vegetables for everyone, squash, onion and bean sprouts. The service is good and you get a 5% discount if you pay cash (as others have said, $ 40 min for cc, $ 8 min per person charge at teppanyaki). It’s a fun time out, though not something I’d do often (cost + amt of food).
4.0

Ive always enjoyed coming here in the past, the service was nice and fast… and they were always willing to give a good suggestion on what to try out or what you might like.
I also enjoy the fried rice they have here… and the watermelon juice.
Now on to the hotpot of the segement… well thats the only thing I ever order when I come here. just hotpot.They have a selection of how spicy you want your hotpot. from mild to really spicy. even the mild is pretty spicy for me. so just becareful when making your selection.
Im not sure if they still have this but they had this buy 2 get one free meat plate… which was a pretty nifty deal. and they have a list of what you can choose from. like tofu, veggies, fishcake, fish balls, eggs, pig blood, etc. you know the usual…
Some nights it can get a bit packed and sometimes not so much. Either way, I dont know what their teppanyaki is like. but i do enjoy their hot pot.
I always end up leaving sweaty and full and with a burnt tongue =_=

BAD SERVICE!
It took a very long time to get seated (the restaurant was not crowded), to get a menu, our orders placed, our drinks (they came out midway through our meal never got a refill until we were paying for the bill), and our check. The food, however, was not bad. Good price and good portions, but we had to wait so long for everything! I was even considering writing this review on Unilocal from my phone because the I actually had that much time to do it. It totally ruined my dinner.

I’ve ate at both the teppanyaki table (ala Benihana-​ish area) and the hot pot side.
I love shabu shabu, and the whole, warm, bonding (?) that sharing feeling of eating with friends and/​or significant others always works for me. We got the ½ and ½ divider thing, to get the two different flavors, mild and spicy. All the ingredients including the meat looked fresh, and we asked for a few raw eggs for our dipping dish and put that in also, the hot pot was tasty and filling, at the end we put in the noodles to finish the meal, it was overall great~, I’ll say 4.
On the teppanyaki side, went there with an adult and like 5 kids, I’m not a teppanyaki fan quite honestly, the meat always seems to dry quickly and seems to cool so fast, ending up being drudgery to finish it all somehow, maybe I eat too slow not sure. Well, as far as teppanyaki goes, there was nothing wrong per se, I think the food was reasonably fresh, and the chef cooked it properly by all accounts, but… so what. This kinda of food though doesn’t get me excited, and I always feel kinda sad when the cooking show ends and you’re just sitting their eating in front of a huge, cold stainless steel surface. Overall I’d give it a 3.
The hostess or manager working that night, to me or my group, was very friendly and made us feel welcome.

I am writing review only for their hotpot, not anything else.
I been coming to this place with all my friends for many many years (probably like 5 – 6). They went through few different rounds of management changes etc…
The hotpot is pretty good. Service not so good. But I think I just kind of accepted it because it’s a typical chinese place. The soup broth (order either ½ and ½ or you can do all spicy) is very tasty. They have multiple degrees of spicyness, small red is probably what most people could tolerate, as medium red and large red will be way too spicy for the average palette.
The ingredients are fresh… get the prawns (raw), you won’t regret it. Also the fried rice is very good. Price wise it’s on the steep side I’d say. 2 people hotpot with 2 meat dishes, 1 order of prawn and some sides will run you $ 45 – 50.
They also have a «bar», but it’s mostly generating smoothies that are fairly overpriced and sodas come from fountains that have a pretty weird taste, so I just order tea when I go there. Anyway if you are looking for a good hotpot restaurant, this is a good place to go, despite the price and poor service.

What is royal about here???
Their birthday special is pretty awesome though. Actually, their specials are all pretty good deals. My ramen was $ 5.95 for dinner (Seafood ramen is the special for Mondays). Bento boxes were I think $ 7.95. Before tax and tip of course. And very generous large portions.
The potstickers are pretty good, and my ramen came with edamame as well. Yum! My ramen was a bit too sweet though, probably too much corn. It wasn’t that great or anything, nothing to write home about.
Also, we explicitly asked if they take credit card when we walked in, since none of us had enough cash. The cashier said yes, so we went in and ate. Then she said, «We have a $ 40 minimum for credit cards…» and we were like, «WHAT?!» (we definitely were nowhere near $ 40 since we all got specials) Apparently there’s a sign behind the cashier that says that, but when it’s among like a bajillion other signs, it just doesn’t stand out, you know? Well, just as we were considering earning our dinner by helping out with dishes, she said it’s okay, and I went ahead and charged my card. Whew. Almost enslaved myself there.
They’re one of the only restaurants open past 9 pm on a Monday night — they’re open till 10 pm.

* This review is for the ramen only *
We shared two bowls of ramen: spicy tantan men and seafood ramen. Seeing a variety of unconventional types of ramen like tempura ramen, short rib ramen, curry katsu/​pork ramen, etc. on the menu, I figured we had come to the wrong place…
Turns out it wasn’t too bad. Visually not appetizing, but not bad in taste. Not sure how to classify it, because it’s clearly not Japanese, but if you look at is as some sort of Chinese-​style noodle soup with unique toppings, it’s acceptable. Each bowl came with two pieces of California roll and a portion of edamame on the side. You can call me spoiled, but feeling how COLD they were, I couldn’t bring myself to eat them.
The family sitting next to us was eating hot pot (shabu shabu). It looked quite delicious, so we might give it a try next time.
The place is spacious, and the service is good… BUT one thing I don’t get is that they ONLY ACCEPT CASH FOR $ 40 OR LESS, lunch or dinner. I mean… SERIOUSLY??? We barely had enough, so our poor waitress didn’t get the extra tip she deserved.
SUM: I’d like to give this place 2 stars, but considering it’s a teppan and hot pot restaurant, not ramen, I’ll remain neutral…

After reading the other reviews I’m thinking that perhaps I have a stomach made out of iron. Or maybe, just maybe something is really really wrong with me. I’m guessing it might be the latter one because I kind of like this place. True the service kind of blows and sometimes it’s a ghost town up in there but I don’t mind it at all as long as they feed me.
I had gone there a couple of times with my cousins and friends and I think they still go… without me too… b*st*rds!!! Anyways, the shabu shabu is generally good but I’m not one for spicy… so I learned the hard way to not get all spicy (it’s all about half n half). I still need to try everything on their ingredients menu but there’s just too much and I have a tendency to get balls…;D What? They are chewy and I like them.
As for the teppan — I like that too especially the volcano (don’t lie, you like the volcano too). Found out the lunch prices aren’t half bad especially thanks to the serving size I get to eat for the next three days.
I love pepper anything… hmmm pepper steak, pepper shrimp, pepper chicken… pepper pepper. And those $ 1 blended juices are great — mango being by far the best. And mangos are good for your eye sight. And I don’t know where that line of thought was going… it’s good.

Had the Shabu Shabu (hot pot) there for lunch with colleagues.
This bowl was split in two with a divider that had a mild broth side and a Hot side which had mini-​flame throwers pointed at you so you could tell that this side was frelling spicy HOT!!! [OK so no flame throwers but just imagine how seriously choking hot that means]. This bowl was placed on a hot-​plate to start it cooking.
Everything to put into the pot was fresh:
–Eight whole shrimp,
–Curled semi frozen beef-​slices and also chicken slices
–Napa cabbage
–Two kinds of sliced mushrooms.
–Tofu
They also included some yummy condiments which I will describe in nitty-​gritty detail:
–Pinkish stuff
–Thick granular Dark Brown sauce stuff
–Preserved veggies (an appy)
–Chopped scallions and
–Chopped white stuff that looked like onions but not as oniony.
Directions: Combine all except the preserved veggies in equal portions and you have a delicious muck that you can eat with the hot pot items.
The problem with the flame-​thrower broth side is that it was so hot that we tended to avoid most of the food we boiled in it and ended up with it nearly full with the other mouth-​friendly side almost empty. Even straining the items from the flame-​thrower side did not relieve us of its heat.
So order this hot broth at your level of pain/​love of scoville units.
Service was slow in spite of almost no one else eating there.

Went here for the Teppan since we wanted to get a Benihana-​fix but fellow Unilocalers recommended this place.
Food alone would have rated 3 stars. Of the food we ordered, seabass and mushrooms were tasty, but the rest disappointed. Filet mignon had the texture of skirt steak. Fried rice was so bland despite all the oil I wondered why I was ingesting the calories. Teppan bananas were ok.
This place loses an additional star for lame service and stupid restaraunt policies. When you sit at the teppan area, the menu reads «minimum charge $ 8 per person». Usually, that means if you have two people, you order at least $ 16 worth of food. Here, it means if someone orders a $ 30 meal, the other person has to order an additional $ 8 worth of food to qualify. That was pissy but we played along. We ordered the fried rice $ 2.25, teppan banana $ 1.95 and the teppan mushrooms $ 3.95. $ 2.25+$ 1.95+$ 3.95 = $ 8.15. The waiter taking our order ok’ed that for meeting the minimum. However, when our bill came, they had added on an extra $ 1 for not meeting the minimum. They also forgot to give us on thing that we ordered, and had to be reminded after they had handed us the bill. Royal teppan — you need more math classes.