Roppongi Robataya

ROBATAYAKI, first time hearing of it during an Über ride and decided to look it up prior to my trip to Tokyo.
For those who don’t know what it is, it’s a place where you come in, sit around a huge table headed by two chefs, with all of the ingredients laid out in front of you. Regardless if you speak Japanese or not, all you do is point to what you want and the chefs will cook it for you! They then serve it to you on a giant paddle!
This place has seriously the best service I’ve ever seen at a restaurant. The whole experience can be quite intense too. As soon as we ordered our items to our server, he recited it aloud to the chef who was to be in charge of preparing it for us. The chef would then recite back the order to make sure everything matched up. The servers spoke English to us and even made recommendations for places to visit during our stay in Tokyo. One guy drew maps for us and handed it to us on a piece of paper.
Now on to the food, everything was so meticulously prepared and grilled to perfection. Seasoned perfectly and never allowed for the seasoning or sauces to overpower the natural taste of the ingredients. The asparagus we ordered was cut perfectly and was so tender that we didn’t even feel like we were eating vegetables.
The two dishes that left us in awe were the A5 wagyu served in two pieces on a skewer and for me personally the prawns. A little bit of sea salt on top of each and the flavors exploded through our taste buds. The wagyu was butter and the prawns were just plump as can be, bursting with juicy smoky flavor.
Will definitely stop by here again on our next visit, even if my wallet feels a lot lighter after coming here, at least my stomach is happy and full.

My big boss booked this robatayaki restaurant for us when we went to Tokyo on a business trip. She has been here several times with her previous company and was raving about how fun this place was. However, she bailed out at the last minute due to the jet lag and told the design director and I to go without her anyway because she already made a reservation. Not knowing what to expect, we went to this inconspicuous restaurant which was a bit tricky to find. The place is small, with a counter that only fits about 20 people. Everything was fresh, the vegetables, meat and live seafood in the fish tank for robatayaki are all laid out in front of you to choose from and the chef will pass you the cooked food on a wood paddle. We didn’t check the price because there was no price on the menu and we carelessly ordered whatever that looked appealing and we stuffed ourselves with delicious robatayaki. The chef showed us the album of the celebrities that came to the restaurant and we were surprised that even Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Guns N Roses members have been here. After seeing all these celebrity pictures, me and my co-​worker look at each other and started wondering about how expensive the bill is going to be.
When the bill came, we flipped out. $ 400 for 2 people!!! Ouch!!! We charged it on our company’s corporate card anyway even though we were way over our daily allowance. Thankfully our boss approved the expense because it was her invitation. It was a fun experience but I wouldn’t go back again unless it’s someone else’s treat. $ 200 per person is overpriced for this type of meal.