Hotel Nikkohimeji Teppanyaki Ichoh

Excellent service and wonderful food at this teppanyaki grill. We went for one meat and one fish tasting menu, and were so full in the end! Recommended if you are staying in the area (we were in the hotel across the street).

Visited November 2016

ICHO, located atop the Hotel Nikko, is a polished den over looking a manicured garden. Two chefs in starched whites preside over an eight foot tappan grill. The staff appears magically: think of tea and a cup appears. glance towards the waiter and he glides to your side. There is no chatter, just se...rvice as if you are the guest at a palace. After selecting your dinner the components are presented for approval before the chef, using only one utensil, a sharpened spatula, slices and heats the vegetables, rice and meat. There is no knife tossing or grunting as one finds in a "Beni Hana." Instead, before my eyes, my chef takes a few ounces of rice, presses it into a nearly transparent crepe and forms it into a cone to top an exquisite yet simple dish-garlic rice. I ordered 150 grams of Kobe beef, an exorbitantly priced entree which justified not with experience, but because I wanted to try it. My mistake. Of course it was perfectly prepared; even to the extent that when I requested some salt the chef produced a white block of pure salt and files off a talcum powder like film onto my plate. My mistake was assuming that I would like the beef's heavy fat content. I did not. Oh, I did eat it; at nearly $500 a pound, I could nor bear not cleaning my plate, but all in all, I would rather eat a home cooked rib eye. I was sad that I did not enjoy the Kobe (I should have ordered the lobster...which looked so good on another diner's plate) after the care I took planning the dinner, but no fault to Icho. Will recommend this place to anybody wanting a genuine, high end Japanese Tappan experience.

Visited June 2015