Teppanyaki at Wa San Mai

I love teppanyaki - it's the display of fresh ingredients in its simplest form possible and a demonstration of honed culinary skill rolled into one dining experience.

Wa San Mai is great - the food is fresh, service is good, and it's in the heart of Causeway Bay. It offers both teppanyaki dining and Japanese 'Wa Shoku 和食' dining. Reservations for the teppanyaki dining are definitely recommended.

Teppanyaki is like a tasting menu in the sense that the portions may be small, but that the end you'll have your hands on your stomach wondering how all those small bites managed to fill you up. We had five people, but we ordered a dinner set for three people and an abalone and beef set for one person and it came out to be just right.

  
In the dinner set for three, there was an appetizer, Australian abalone, Hokkaido scallop or king prawn, boiled clams in sake, fois gras, seasonal vegetables, sliced beef and steak. It's $2080 for the US beef, $2500 for Australian Kobe beef, or $2980 for Japanese Saga A4 beef. In the abalone and beef set, there was an appetizer, South African abalone, cod, king prawn, beef (thin or steak) and vegetables (US Beef steak $510). All sets include a salad, fried rice, pickles, fried vegetables, miso soup, ice cream, and coffee or tea.



An appetizer of a fried dumpling and pomelo salad, as well as a house salad with sesame dressing.

The fois gras - quickly seared on the teppan and served on toast.

The Australian abalone - it was huge, still alive when it was put on the teppan, carved out of its shell and sliced. The chef seasoned it with salt, pepper, and made a sauce from butter, white wine and lemon juice.

 

The scallops, cod, and king prawn 

being prepared by the chef.

The boiled clams in sake - the chef takes out a 'bowl' made by pleated sturdy foil, pours some sake into it, and then lights it up once it comes to a boil to remove the harsh alcohol. He adds the clams and some aromatics like garlic and spring onion.

Steak - the chef will ask for your preference. It's served with some fried garlic slices, which turn out like chips. The other form of beef you can choose is the thin beef, where the chef will roll up some finely diced onion and carrot with a thin slice of beef.

The fried rice and vegetables - the rice has beef, egg, onion, carrot and spring onion in it.

Wa San Mai is a nice treat. Set lunches are a bit cheaper (about $250-$300 a set) if you want to try it out. With 5 people splitting 4 dinner sets, it came about to be about $500 per head.

Wa San Mai
22/F East Point Center, 555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, 2831-8989