OMAE XEX Teppanyaki (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

This place used to be under the watchful eyes of Japanese Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto but a couple of years ago, after the shuffling of their management team, there was a change of guard and now it's been rebranded as OMAE XEX. After we checked in at the reception area, we were then led down the staircase into the dining area in the basement.



For a moment, I thought I've just entered a dark cave from those ninja movies but no, it's the dining area of this Roppongi restaurant. There are 2 teppanyaki counters here, each sitting around 6. 

For the most part, the menu remains largely the same as before but with some minor tweaking. The set menu still starts at around 9,800 yen and goes up to 19,800 yen if you happen to pick the finest Kobe beef. In order to sample more dishes, our strategy was very simple - we went with 2 different sets, Deluxe set (14,500 yen) and Mountain-to-the-sea set (9,800 yen).



My first course was something that looked like a rice ball but according to our server, it was made with scallops, seaweed and turnip.



Between the 4 appetizers, I personally went with their signature shrimp tartare which is one of the ‘must try’ items on the menu.



The dish came with 7 different types of dip including spring paste, spring onion, puffed rice and purple onion. I couldn't remember the rest but trust me, this is a dish that should not be missed.



The other appetizer was an assorted Japanese appetizer platter that consisted of a tofu soup with ginkgo and salmon roes, a bowl of warm spinach, bean curd and taro topped with sea urchin and finally, a plate of small bites including turnip, Japanese fish ball, fish wrapped mushroom, fig jelly and some sweet potatoes.

I liked my shrimp tartare a lot better!




Following our appetizer, we both enjoyed a small Japanese beef sushi that was pretty good.




Finally something from the teppanyaki grill and it's time for some seafood. First up was the grilled abalone and lobster from Ise. The abalone was really tasty but the lobster I thought was a little dry.



Fairing a little better was the grilled scallop served with a special seaweed sauce and the red snapper with assorted Japanese mushroom. For the record, I did enjoy the seaweed sauce a lot.



Now the moment we've been waiting for - some high quality beef starting with this grilled Kobe beef sirloin with garlic chips and onion. That was all nice and marbled.



Less marbled and flavorful was the Japanese beef sirloin. But I thought it wasn't that far off from the Kobe beef (although the portion was slightly disappointing. Is this really 80grams?).



The most exciting part of a teppanyaki dinner is always the rice section when the chef starts playing around with the rice and different ingredients.



But this was a pretty simple one. Fried rice with garlic that was accompanied by an Ise lobster soup.




I didn't want any fried rice so I ended up picking the steak house style ochazuke myself.



Food Rating: 6.5/10
Price: ¥¥¥¥
Address: I.K.N. Building, 7-21-19 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Roppongi
Tel: +81 3-3479-0065
Website: www.xexgroup.jp/en/omae