The chains of society, the struggle of individuality: Teppanyaki!!

After quite a number of weeks of talking about hanging out and going out to have Teppanyaki somewhere etc etc a group of my friends and I (inclusive of Allan) finally made plans, booked the place and went out for dinner!!

We went to a place called Tokyo Teppanyaki located on Chapel St, South Yarra which apparently was the first Teppanyaki restaurant to open in Melbourne (please don't quote me on this, I'm not too sure).

How the place looks

Having made the booking for 7pm, I (as any good Malaysian does) end up arriving at 7.15pm -.- Luckily the rest of my group were out drinking beforehand and hadn't arrived yet either. I was stressing out soooo much because I was going to be late (I'm pretty sure that would be the Swiss culture rising out of me again) but one cannot hurry traffic along unfortunately. Plus parking turned out to be somewhat of a pain for a good 10 minutes or so before I decided to park in a carepark place nearby.

We ordered the "Osaka" set menu and set about conversing and drinking wine (well the rest did, I drank a virgin daiquiri since I don't really drink wine that much) while waiting for our chef to arrive. Those of you who aren't fluent with eating at a Teppanyaki restaurant, the one's in melbourne are known to have mischievous and talented chefs who would flip eggs at you while cooking ;)

I have to say that although the waitstaff didn't actually speak very good English (from what I could gather), the service there was EXCELLENT! Each time someone would get up to go to the toilet or out for a smoke, a waitress would be there folding the napkin and placing it on the table beside the plate so it is ready for us to place on our lap again upon return. Wine glasses were also quite quickly refilled (due to a b.y.o. plan where my friends brought about 5 bottles of wine between them) as soon as they were empty.

Our chef was actually a Thai born, Australian citizen who has lived in Aus since he was 2 yrs old! OMG did he have great personality and my group and him were just bouncing off each other with jokes and laughter. He even bought us a free round of sake at the end of dinner! Egg flipping was fun. He tried to flip the eggs into our mouths one at a time and it took a few tries for some of us to get it right. A couple slices of egg (omellete style) kinda went down my top in the attempt much to the amusement of EVERYONE at the table *blush* We also had to earn our main dinner (bowl of rice) by catching the bowls that he tossed at us (usually 4 empty bowls followed by a full bowl of rice), with each person catching the bowls at different distances. Chris, Maree-Claire's partner, actually caught his bowl of rice outside the restaurant, where the chef threw it from the middle of chapel street! :D That was amazing.

I have to say kudos to the person who actually chose that particular chef for us because from what I gathered of the other chefs, they were a little placid and not as "crazy"/adventurous as our chef. It really made the dinner great.

Alistair looking EXTREMELY relieved after actually catching his bowl of rice. This photo was taken at the same distance of which the rice was thrown

Bottom's up! Alistair, being Scottish, made sure there was not a drop left in that jar :)

Watch out for cars! Our chef checking for traffic as he gets ready to throw a bowl of rice from the middle of Chapel St

Left to right: Alistair (one of the girls), Erin (Miss Perky), Karin (I'm from Sweden :P), Chris (extreme rice catcher)

Chef "firing up" our meat for dinner. Noms full of awesomeness!!

After dinner (which would have been counted supper too considering the courses we had and the time it was when we walked out of the restaurant), we all went over to Katuk, a bar on chapel street that REALLY caught my eye and heart (as much as a bar can). It is such a quaint but quirky little bar that has a bookshelf, couches, fireplace, and even has games at the bar such as connect four and jenga!!!!

I really have to say that this bar is really the kind of bar I could frequent (only if they served coffee too) quite often and make it my "local" if I had the chance.

Allan and I spent a good part of an hour there before we decided to head home. Right before this though, we found a cosy little corner where a few photos were taken and I sadly missed Erin tackling MC while MC was trying to carry 3 schooners of beer. *giggles*

I have to say that although the night was slightly draining on me (social wise), I really really enjoyed myself and have found that I'm actually more of an empath that I thought. I'll talk more about being an empath in another post. It is late and I'm really tired.