That Food Guy
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet - St Petersburg, Florida
Teppanyaki
Grill and Supreme Buffet
St Petersburg, FL 33713
727 327-8886
It is a buffet-style restaurant. The lunch buffet Monday
through Saturday (11:00 am to 4:00 pm) is $7.29 for adults and tiered lower
prices for children depending on age. The dinner buffet (4:00 pm through 9:30
pm) is $9.99 for adults and lower priced for children. Sundays and holidays are
all day dinner buffets (11:00 am through 9:30 pm) adults are $9.99 and children
at reduced prices. We arrived in the late afternoon but in time for the lunch
buffet. With the coupon a filling buffet meal for three, soft drinks and tip
was just about thirty dollars; pretty reasonable for a dinner out.
My first round was a sampler, a little of this and a little
of that until I filled the plate. It included, among other items, a teriyaki chicken
skewer, honey chicken, beef and broccoli, salt and pepper you peel shrimp, some
fried zucchini and some California rolls. First lesson: soy sauce, wasabi and
the like are not table items. They are there at the serving stations but not
always obvious. Also, small dishes or containers are also available; you just
have to look around to see where they are.
Teppanyaki
Grill and Supreme BuffetSt Petersburg, FL 33713
727 327-8886
The Sunday paper had a single sheet, full-color
advertisement for the Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet.
That was a new one to me and I looked at the ad a bit more closely. It is
indeed a new establishment. It has set up shop in the old Social Security
building and boasts 18,000 square feet and seating for 500. I remember the
Social Security building from a few years ago. There was a tiny, cramped little
waiting room with no amenities and a pass-through window that was mostly
closed. Once inside there was a maze of walkways, a seemingly endless warren of
partitions and office cubicles. I was curious to see what the new occupants had
done in remodeling. Among the other boasts in the advertisement was the phrase,
“…something for everyone” and “The Largest and Most Elegant Chinese, Japanese
and American Cuisine Restaurant.” That covers a lot of ground.
With something for everyone, the wife was amenable to trying
it out if only to humor me. We called Martha. She has a liking for the oriental
style foods. What with the recent closing of one of her favorites, Good Fortunes, she was at a loss for a
new place to occasionally visit and take visitors. It looked like a good bet
for everyone. The fact that the advertisement had several $1.00-off coupons was
an added inducement.
It is a buffet-style restaurant. The lunch buffet Monday
through Saturday (11:00 am to 4:00 pm) is $7.29 for adults and tiered lower
prices for children depending on age. The dinner buffet (4:00 pm through 9:30
pm) is $9.99 for adults and lower priced for children. Sundays and holidays are
all day dinner buffets (11:00 am through 9:30 pm) adults are $9.99 and children
at reduced prices. We arrived in the late afternoon but in time for the lunch
buffet. With the coupon a filling buffet meal for three, soft drinks and tip
was just about thirty dollars; pretty reasonable for a dinner out.
The anteroom, the left over from the Social Security days,
is still there. It is bare, devoid of furnishings or decor. Perhaps it now serves
as an air-lock entry keeping the hot and humid air outside. In the future, if
there is a need, some comfortable seats would transform the area into a congenial
waiting room for overflow guests.
Just inside is a wishing well pool to help set the mood. Opening
the central area and colorful lighting of what was an office complex helps to
transform it to a large, festive arena filled with more than a dozen self-serve
buffet counters. At the far end of the area there is a sushi station and a
teppanyaki grill. Seating for up to 500 customers is along both sides of the
complex. Being new, everything appears very clean and pristine.
The usual in a buffet is to pay at the door; so much per
head and your drinks. Then you are free to roam the floor. Since The Teppanyaki
Grill offers extra cost items, such as beer and wine, the customer is presented
with the bill at the end of the menu.
With so many choices, the best strategy is to walk the
aisles between the serving stations to see what is offered. Even a little dab
of this and a little dab of that can be overwhelming when there are so many options
to choose from. As much as I would have liked to, I knew I could never sample
everything. Most of the stations are of an oriental flair. Others offer
American comfort food items, fruits, salads and a large selection of desserts
and ice cream. Perhaps they do have something for everyone.
My first round was a sampler, a little of this and a little
of that until I filled the plate. It included, among other items, a teriyaki chicken
skewer, honey chicken, beef and broccoli, salt and pepper you peel shrimp, some
fried zucchini and some California rolls. First lesson: soy sauce, wasabi and
the like are not table items. They are there at the serving stations but not
always obvious. Also, small dishes or containers are also available; you just
have to look around to see where they are.
The sushi, layered on top was the first to be sampled. It is
decent sushi, machine made I believe, but the rice is well cooked and the
grains are not compressed into an amorphous mass like some although it may be a
bit stickier than you are used to. The
selection of sushi is makizushi; I didn’t see any nigirizushi. About a dozen
varieties were offered; a small selection If sushi was to be the main course. A
little dip in the soy sauce and the rice holds together (the hashi are also located
at the serving station). Tasty morsels and considering you can make many trips
to the sushi bar, an economical entrée.
The teriyaki chicken skewer tasted fine but it was a bit on
the tough side and a bit overcooked. The fried zucchini was more crunchy than
crispy, as well a bit over cooked although it did taste pretty good; it just needed
to come out of the fryer a minute or two earlier. The salt and pepper you peel
shrimp, one of their signature dishes, had a good flavor, not too heavy on the
spices so you could still taste the flavor of shrimp. It’s just that it is
messy, more suited to a New England Shrimp and crab seafood boil; good but
messy. My favorite of that plate was the honey chicken; small strips of chicken
in a slightly sweet sauce. These were cooked just right, tender and moist and
the sauce slightly sweet and a wonderful adjunct to the chicken.
My second sampler plate consisted of some fried rice (I
know, it’s a filler but fried rice is definitely one of my favorite foods),
sweet and sour chicken (more about that to come) some shrimp, egg foo young and
skewered meatballs. The fried rice was, as you might have guessed, a filler
dish. Not bad just pedestrian, uninspired and needs some work to be a good
dish. The shrimp were shelled and deveined 40 - 50 shrimp cooked in a slightly
spicy sauce although I can’t remember the name. They tasted like shrimp in a
slightly spicy sauce. Not bad but nothing exceptional. The egg foo young, hard
to find in most buffets, was a bit over cooked but with a bit of the gravy top
moisten the patty it had a pleasant flavor. The skewered meatballs were a bit
of a disappointment. They looked very good. If they had been cooked on the
skewer someone would have had to tend them very carefully to get them to cook
so evenly although a bit overdone. The flavor was okay but a bit dry. A sauce
or dip would be of great value. That brings us to the sweet and sour chicken. New
York, or whatever style it is, is merely breaded and fried chicken nuggets with
a red sweet and sour sauce on the side. So it is with every other local take
out or buffet I have tried. For me,
sweet and sour chicken (or pork) is a much more involved dish that combines
stir fried onion, Bell peppers and pineapple with the sweet and sour sauce and
breaded meat morsels. A trip to the salad bar provided some raw peppers and
some pineapple tidbit from the fruit bar. Although the chicken tid-bits here
tasted okay (I suspect they are purchased pre-breaded and fried, just heat and
serve) and the sweet and sour sauce was also tasty, I can’t rate the overall
dish very high because it isn’t complete; a short coming shared by many restaurants.
Many restaurants that claim to be Mongolian have a raw bar
where you select the items you want the chef to cook on the grill. This
restaurant also has a raw bar where you select the items you want and then the
chef will cook them on the grill while you watch. In this case the grill is
rectangular instead of round and perhaps that is why it is called the Teppanyaki
Grill. There is a nice selection of vegetables, onions, peppers, sprouts,
mushrooms and such. The meat selection is limited to chicken and beef. The buffet
counter is well iced and the selections seemed to be fresh (the meat is put out
in small batches to preserve freshness).
To try out the Teppanyaki grill, I make a small selection of
chicken and vegetables. The chef was very amenable even smiling so I could take
his picture as he prepared my food. You are offered a variety of flavoring
sauces for you food. It was small plate and I neglected to get a picture. However,
fresh vegetable and fresh chicken cooked in front of you, to your order, is
certainly better than previously prepared foods, kept warm while waiting to be
served. In my case, the meat was cooked through, the vegetables had mouth feel
but were cooked through and the sauce was quite tasty.
My dining companions, my wife Janis and our friend Martha,
we all look favorably on the Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet. It does have
its deficits but overall it is as good as or possibly better than other buffets
in the local area, at least meeting that standard. My next visit I will probably spend more time at the sushi
bar and teppanyaki grill although I will seek out some of that honey chicken
and, well, I have to admit it, some fried rice too.
The local Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet seems to be
part of a larger chain with many stores in the North and Midwest. I can’t seem
to find a web presence for the parent company although many local TG&SB’s
have web presence. Check your local facility’s inspection record.
Labels: Chinese, Florida, fried rice, grill, Japanese, St Petersburg, sushi, sweet and sour, teppanyaki
¶ 3:54 PM 0 Comments
Monday, June 17, 2013
Maki Yaki - Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Maki Yaki – Albuquerque, New Mexico
11/3/2012 Maki Yaki 36
https://www.facebook.com/makiyakirr
4300 Ridgecrest Dr. SE, Ste 0, Rio Rancho,
New Mexico (505)892-3554
http://maki-yaki.com/web/index.html
As luck would have it,
Maki Yaki also features my favorite, the bento box. It is a great way to sample
a lot of different food items in one dish. They offer six varieties of bento
boxes; I chose the basic and out of seven choices chose the beef teriyaki
($9.95 Beef Teriyaki Bento Box served with salad, 5 pieces of California roll,
steamed rice, mixed tempura and miso soup. Between the three of us we ordered a
lot of different things. Nonetheless, our order was quickly prepared and it was
time to eat.
Maki Yaki is convenient, close
to Larry and Vickie’s home. The food is excellent and there is a wide variety
to choose from. The shop is clean and well cared for. The prices are
reasonable. It is little wonder that Makin Yaki has become one of Larry and
Vickie’s favorite places to go when the sushi urge strikes.
 |
| Larry and Vickie in front of the Rio Rancho NM Maki Yaki |
11/3/2012 Maki Yaki 36
https://www.facebook.com/makiyakirr
4300 Ridgecrest Dr. SE, Ste 0, Rio Rancho,
New Mexico (505)892-3554
http://maki-yaki.com/web/index.html
This was my second
encounter with a store-front takeout serving sushi and Japanese themed foods.
The first was OEC Japanese Express in St Petersburg, Florida and now this one
in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Whereas OEC Japanese Express seems to be a unique entity,
Maki Yaki would be part of a larger franchise headquartered in California, this
being store number 36. Established in 2004, most of the stores are located in
the Southern California region but apparently the store plans expansion through
the rest of North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Ambitious since one
of the proposed sites is Tokyo, Japan.
The best that I can come
up with for the name is Maki – rolled (as in makizushi) and Yaki – grilled
broiled or fried (as in teriyaki or teppanyaki). ,Maki Yaki or Rolled and
Grilled would seem to be an appropriate name considering the fare offered. What a fun way to learn to speak Japanese.
  |
| Clean and bright |
Arriving in the late
evening, the store was brightly lit. It had a clean, bright appearance. Even in
the dark, with reflections, the windows were clear and not a smudge to be seen.
The inside was spartanly decorated. The tiled floor had recently been swept and
mopped as there were few signs of traffic on its shiny surface. The store,
roughly divided in half, featured a dining area with basic tables and chairs
for eating in up front and the rear half with the counter and kitchen area.
Strangely, it did lack the traditional sit-at sushi bar; perhaps a manifestation
of the restaurant’s bare-bones appearance. All of the food preparation was done
in the back kitchen. The walls were decorated with a large lighted picture menu
board and some poster art depicting “pretty as a picture” foods; the art work a
standard corporate supplied item.
 |
| From Top Clockwise: Eel Special Roll, Baked Scallop Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll |
Tables are in two sizes,
small for two people and larger for four persons. The three of us were quite
comfortable at a larger table but if there had been a fourth person it would
have been quite cozy. Tables are set with a napkin, disposable chopsticks and a
bottle of soy sauce.
 |
| Left: Boston Roll Right: Spicy Tuna Roll |
We were warmly greeted quickly
on arrival and shown to a table. Menus were passed and a beverage order taken.
Most of the beverages came from the self-serve style refrigerator cabinet against
the far wall; a back to basics touch. Our order taken, we could see a flurry of
activity behind the partial curtains setting the kitchen apart. It seemed that
the courteous woman who greeted us took care of the dining room, the counter
and the register. I could only discern a single male in the kitchen. It was
slow at the time we were there and the two of them were able to handle the
traffic effortlessly. I would think, however, that they would need additional
help for busier times. While waiting, we were all served a bowl of miso soup.
It is an extensive menu
featuring many Japanese dishes other than sushi. With so many good things
offered it was hard to finally decide on what we each wanted. Larry and Vickie
do a little mix and match across the table and can sample many items with a
minimum order; sometime an order just to share. Vickie ordered an assortment of
sushi items. These included a spicy tuna roll (Spicy Tuna Roll $5.95), eel special
roll (Eel Special Roll $10.95 in: crab meat, cucumber, avocado out: baked fresh
water eel) and baked scallop (Baked Scallop Roll $9.50 in: spicy tuna,
cucumber, avocado out: baked scallop).
 |
| Combo Plate: Chicken and Beef Teriyaki |
Larry ordered some sushi
items. He chose a spicy tuna roll (Spicy Tuna Roll $5.95) and a Boston roll
(Boston Roll $8.50 in: crab meat, cucumber, avocado out: shrimp tempura). He
also ordered a Teriyaki Combo Plate ($7.95 Chicken and beef teriyaki served
with steamed rice, vegetables and miso soup).
 |
| Bento Box: Mixed Tempura, California Roll, Salad, Steamed Rice, and Teriyaki Beef |
Larry and Vickie both
thoroughly enjoyed their selections. Suffice it to say there was no need for
any take-home container. My bento box had a lot of good things. The salad was
made of crisp lettuce mostly, a cherry tomato and some pickled onions. The
salad was good but the pickled onions would not be my favorite. There was an
inverted bowlful of steamed rice with a toasted sesame garnish. Rice is rice
but this rice was cooked to just the right consistency to pick up with chopsticks.
With the bento box that is important because you can’t just raise the bento box
under your chin like a small bowl of trice. The California roll was good, the
ingredients fresh. The artificial crab picks up flavors very quickly and if the
crab has been sitting around any time it will take on some of the surrounding
fish flavors Even with a dunk in the soy sauce you could taste the crab, avocado and cucumber; a
good roll. The tempura selection was good, the batter the classical thin and
crispy. It was very good. Even though my favorite is the bento box for its varied
selection, I almost wished I had chosen a tempura platter instead. The tentsuyu sauce was excellent, just the
right saltiness to accent the flavor of the tempura. There was a nice serving of teriyaki beef. It
was quite tender and lean beef in teriyaki sauce with toasted sesame seeds
garnish. The sauce had cling without being too thick; you could coat with as
little or as much sauce as you liked each bite. The sauce had a good flavor,
slightly sweet, slightly soy that did not interfere with the taste of the beef.
All in all, I enjoyed my bento box very much - well, perhaps the pickled onion
I could do without.
 |
| Maki Yaki Wall Menu |
Labels: Bento Box, Boston Roll, Californiaq Roll, eel roll, Japanese, maki, miso, rio rancho, scallop roll, spicy tuna roll, sushi, tempura, yaki
¶ 12:51 PM 0 Comments
Saturday, June 01, 2013
OEC Japanese Express
St Petersburg, FL 33710
(727) 345-4088
HTTP://www.oecexpress.com
 |
| OEC Take-Out Tempura Chicken Plated At Home To See What An In Restaurant Serving Would Look Like |
OEC Japanese
Express March 4, 2013
2438 66th
St NoSt Petersburg, FL 33710
(727) 345-4088
HTTP://www.oecexpress.com
It surely is a nice day when you have a pleasant surprise.
Today was one such day. A year or so ago I received a flyer in the mail
advertising OEC Japanese Express. It was an interesting concept; a storefront
fast food Japanese emporium. At the time I did not think I had ever encountered
anything like that before. It was on my list of things to do but often was put
aside for other things that came to light; maybe someday…
 |
| What is in the bag? This is what I got when I ordered a Teriyaki Chicken Bento Box to-go. |
It was the wife’s day out today. She was on a shopping trip
with her girlfriend. That left me free to find my own lunch. I rummaged through
some of my papers and found the flyer for OEC and decided to give it a try. I
wasn’t sure what I’d find. In my mind I was comparing it to several storefront
Chinese restaurants in the area which are very bare boned; edible but really
nothing to brag about. On the way to OEC Japanese express I was reminded of the
old axiom of location, location, location. OEC is located on one corner of a very
busy intersection. Access has to be planned ahead of time and casual drive-by
encounters with OEC would be rare. In spite of being a difficult to access
location, OEC has prospered and is still in business. That is always a good
sign. Looking up OEC Japanese Express on the Internet I could only find one
reference and that to the store in St. Petersburg. This restaurant is
apparently not part of a chain and is a unique entity which may explain why the
employees seem so dedicated to their store.
 |
| The Bento Box - The teriyaki chicken and vegetables. |
The store is more than just a takeout counter. It is also a
small sit down eat in restaurants as well. It is subtly decorated and does have
a bit of the feel of Japan. I know more than entered the door then I was
approached by the hostess. I informed her it was a takeout order. She has
guarded me to the counter and provided me with a menu to make my selection. The
menu is very complete. It features most of the items you would find in a more
traditional sit-down restaurant. My selection was the bento box on the lunch
special for $11.99. For the main course of the bento box you have a choice of
teriyaki chicken, steak, shrimp, salmon or white fish. I selected the teriyaki
chicken ($11.99 Choose from It is served with a California roll, house
salad, white rice, and you have your choice of shumai or an eggroll). I
chose the pork eggroll. The bento box gives the opportunity to sample many of
the dishes at one time; the sushi, the rice, and the other traditional entrées.
I was curious about how they would package the bento box to go since it usually
requires a special plate.
 |
| The Bento Box - The California Roll |
After I placed my order I sat down in one of the booths and
looked around the restaurant, taking in my surroundings. There are several booths
along one wall and tables and chairs occupied the rest of the area. I also
noticed a few tables outside for alfresco dining. There is also a sit at sushi
bar with about a half a dozen stools. From my vantage point I could watch the
sushi chefs preparing foods for the day’s customers and I also had a peek
inside of the kitchen and could watch many of the activities as they prepared
my order.
One of the sushi chefs was preparing cucumbers. He was
peeling the cucumbers into a paper thin strip. He worked his way around the cucumber
making a long continuous strip. It w3as one continuous cut until he reached the
seeds which were then discarded. I was amazed at his skill with the knife and
thoroughly entertained while waiting for my order; his skills were excellent.
From what I could see the kitchen, it was neat and tidy and very clean as was
the rest of the restaurant. It was a little before noon and there were only
three other customers in the restaurant (the small open-air patio outside had
several customers but they had apparently already been served). My order was
completed in a very short time. Neatly packaged in a plastic bag it was brought
to me by the hostess. I hurried home to see just what I got.
 |
| This is what I got when I ordered Tempura Chicken and California Roll to-go. |
The accessories included two pouches of soy sauce, a pair of
disposable chopsticks, and just in case, a fork. The house salad was in a small
Styrofoam container by itself. The main part of the salad was coarsely grated
lettuce, some finely grated carrot and a slice of tomato. It was accompanied by
a small container of a mild dressing similar to 1000 island dressing. Lettuce
was crisp and not discolored. The slice of tomato was from a nice ripe tomato
that had good flavor. The dressing, though mild and taste, was a good
accompaniment to the salad. The eggroll was also in its own little Styrofoam
container with a small container of what appeared to be duck sauce. The eggroll
was neatly wrapped crispy and fried to a nice Golden Brown. The filling was
flavorful and consisted of a mixture of pork and cabbage. The dipping sauce was
slightly fruity, slightly sweet with only a hint of sour. It also was a good
accompaniment to the eggroll.
 |
| The Tempura Chicken with a crispy - flaky crust. |
My curiosity about how they would serve the bento box
without satisfied. It is served in a compartmented plastic to-go bento box; a
nice touch. The main food compartment contained the teriyaki chicken. Under the
chicken were some vegetables consisting of broccoli, carrot, onion and scallion
and some nice slices of mushroom. To say the vegetables were under the chicken
is not mean they were skimping a chicken. The chicken was all white meat, cut
in small bite-size pieces and was a very generous serving. The teriyaki sauce
was thinner than I would have expected, it didn’t cling, but had an excellent flavor.
I saved some of the steamed white rice to sop up the teriyaki sauce after I had
finished my chicken and vegetables. The white rice was an ample serving as well
overflowing its compartment into the small compartment that would normally be occupied
by the wasabi and beni shoga. The next compartment contained the California
roll. There were six slices. The rice layer was very thin; the filling of crab
and avocado and daikon was more than ample. The California rolls were freshly
made but some of the ingredients may have shared space with sashimi and had
just a slight taste of fish. Other than that, the California rolls were
excellent. The last bento box compartment contained a small Dixie portion Cup
had the essential wasabi and beni shoga. Thinking of other bento boxes that I
have sampled, I recall that that one of the compartments would usually have a
small selection of vegetable tempura. What I mean to say is that although this
bento box selection was smaller than others I have tried it contained all of
the items listed on the menu in ample quantity.
 |
| California Roll with Masago (capelin roe) |
What started out as a curiosity quest ended up being a voyage
of discovery. OEC Japanese Express is close by, is very clean and
well-maintained, provides ample servings of good tasting, well-prepared food at
a fairly reasonable price. I do believe that OEC will become one of my favorite
places to go for a fast bite to eat when I don’t have time to cook at home. To
anyone who asks, anyone who likes Japanese food, I would say yes, try OEC
Japanese Express for a bit of sushi or other traditional Japanese dishes
prepared for the American palate. I enjoyed this encounter very much and I will
be going back again. I do believe I’ll try the tempura next…
A Revisit to OEC
Japanese Express March 17, 201
Over the next week or so I remembered fondly my first
encounter with OEC Express. Enough so that I was back again for lunch and would
now sample the chicken tempura ($8.99
Served with white rice. It includes containers of tentsuyu dipping sauce and
another creamier sauce). I was a bit on the hungry side so I also ordered a
side of California roll ($3.95 8-pieces Crab,
cucumber, avocado and masago in place of the usual tobiko. Includes a container
of beni shoga and wasabi). The California roll tasted good; it had a fresh
smell. The filling was more than adequate which made the rice layer a bit thin.
The rice was perhaps not as sticky as it should have been and the roll was, how
should I say, tender and I had to handle them very carefully. Other than that
small bit, the roll was excellent, the dipping sauce flavorful. The chicken
tempura had a bit of different coating than I would have expected for a tempura
batter. It was more like a fried coating
on Southern-fried chicken, crispy and flaky. It was more a difference of style
than substance in the long run because the coating was excellent, light and not
greasy. The chicken inside was cooked through to perfection; hot, steamy and
still moist. The tentsuyu sauce was favorable but seemed a bit thin. The creamy sauce was mild in flavor but I
really can’t say what the main flavor was; not as prickly as a 1000 Island nor was
it as pronounced in flavor as a Ranch dressing.
I alternated between the two but looking back I would say I preferred the
tentsuyu; perhaps I am just a traditionalist. The side container had a nice serving
of sticky white rice. I was able to eat it with chopsticks. Two single serving
packets of soy sauce were included.
Both of these dinners were package to go for take home. That is not the best way to showcase your food
product. However, the packaging shows care in preparing the food to go. The end
product is tasty and attractive. OEC Japanese Express will certainly be on my
list of favorite places to go.
You can call
in to order ahead, take out, eat in or perhaps linger at the sushi bar. For a
minimum order of $15 they offer free delivery in the local area. OEC Japanese Express
has a website at
HTTP://www.oecexpress. com ; there you will find
information about the restaurant including the unusual name, directions to get
there, their menu, and some pictures of the foods they prepare.
Labels: beni shoga, California Roll, chicken, Express, Japanese, OEC, rice, tempura, teriyaki, wasabi
¶ 11:35 AM 0 Comments
