I had wanted to try Teppei Japanese Restaurant for the longest time ever. Definitely more than 5 years. But I gave up because it was so difficult to secure a reservation. If my memory didn’t fail me, Teppei released seats quarterly then. And once the phone line was opened, seats were snapped up within minutes. It’s even read that some would queue at the restaurant just to make reservation. I kid you not. But of course, that had since changed. To make reservation now, one would do it on Teppei’s website.

And what could be to allow as many different people to dine at Teppei, one is limited to 1 booking per month. Reservation could only be made 1 month in advanced too. Credit card detail was required where USD50 would be charged per guest in the event of no show or if one cancelled reservation with less than 48 hours notice. Yeah… it’s quite odd that was USD50 rather than S$50.

Between 6.30pm and 8.30pm, we booked ourselves for the second seating. And on the day of dinner, my friends and I arrived at the restaurant by 8.20pm. With only 1 menu, we started our ($80 menu) dinner with:-

1) Dish #1 (above) – Assortment of appetisers.

2) Dish #2 (above) – Sashimi platter.

3) Dish #3 (above) – Steamed egg (chawanmushi).

4) Dish #4 (above) – Handroll containing minced tuna, salmon roe and tempura flakes. I like the addition of tempura flakes for the crunch although I was sad to see a shorter roll given to ladies. Though true, females generally have smaller appetite compared to males. But still… The staff must had noticed my disappointment because they gave me a second roll. But not without teasing us by giving a rolled-up piece of seaweed first. Errr…

5) Dish #5 (above) – Sea grapes.

6) Dish #6 (above) – Abalone.

7) Dish #7 (above) – Foie gras and onsen egg.

8) Dish #8 (above) – Snapper in blue cheese sauce.

9) Dish #9 (above) – Mantis shrimp.

10) Dish #10 (above) – Fried water crab.

11) Dish #11 (above) – Mackerel, crab meat and baby corn wrapped in (edible) leaf.

12) Dish #12 (above) – Strawberry.

13) Dish #13 (above) – Ice plant.

14A) Dish #14 (above) – Grilled beef.

14B) Dish #14 (above) – And because I don’t take beef, I was given grilled pork instead.

15) Dish #15 (above) – Melon.

16) Dish #16 (above) – Salmon broth with somen.

And halfway through our dinner, the staff went round with a menu where we were to choose our choice of main and ice cream flavour.

17) Dish #17 with options of:-

(A) Uni fried rice (above) – And for my choice of main, I went with sea urchin fried rice. And it was literally sea urchin on fried rice. Quite a bumper because I actually expected rice fried with sea urchin.

(B) Sashimi rice don (above) – And ironically, it’s this dish that has sea urchin mixed with the rice.

(C) Unagi chazuke (above)

18) Dish #18 (above) – Ice cream. With 8 flavours, I chose sakura from the menu.

Prior to dinner, I read Teppei would sometimes serve exotic ingredients (think insect) for the omakase, so I was mentally prepared. But while we didn’t have any for our meal (phew), no one mentioned Teppei would feed us for some of the dishes. Gasp. And we were fed not just once, but twice! The foie gras and the mantis shrimp dishes. Customers at the corner seats had it harder. Because they are not within staff arm’s reach, the staff used a toy claw to hold the spoon in order to feed them. Double gasp.

Teppei tried to come across as a cosy restaurant with a fun, relaxed atmosphere. They certainly delivered cosy since we were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. But unfortunately, they failed quite badly at being fun. Their attempts of delivering jokes and even pranks were half-hearted. They really should had executed them enthusiastically. So yeah, interaction between staff and customers was just awkward instead.

Would I recommend Teppei? Well… Not really. They used to be famous for their really affordable omakase then. But these days, there’re several places which offer equally affordable omakase.