Teppanyaki Asian Cuisine

Telephone: 508-528-8660, 508-528-8667

Hours: Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday noon to 10 p.m.

No smoking

Reservations accepted

Handicapped-accessible

Major credit cards accepted

Can't decide between Chinese and Japanese food for dinner? Teppanyaki Asian Cuisine, which opened in September in the Franklin Village Shopping Center, covers all the bases.

When you enter, you will be asked whether you want to sit at a cooking table or a regular table. The cooking tables line three sides of a large cooking surface. If you order from the cooking table menu, a chef in a brightly colored toque will prepare your meal on the spot. Cooking table selections include appetizer, soup, salad, vegetables, rice, and dessert, along with your entree choice of beef, lamb, poultry, or seafood. Prices range from $14.75 to $30.

The cooking table menu has been enormously popular, said general manager and part owner Wilson Wang, with steak and Maine lobster the favorite entree choices. Teppanyaki, he added, means ``cooking table'' in Japanese.

The decor is spare and clean, with ice-blue walls, dark furniture, and the requisite fish tank. The sushi bar is attractively set up, with a low divider between diners and the chef so it's easy to see the ingredients and the preparation.

On our first visit, we ordered from the Japanese menu, sampling California maki ($5.75), with avocado, crab sticks, and flying fish roe; and shrimp tempura maki ($7), with shrimp, cucumber, flying fish roe, and a spicy mayonnaise that held it all together. Both were served with sliced fresh ginger and a dollop of wasabi. The flavors were wonderful, though we found the seaweed wraps a little tough.

Shumai ($6), a steamed shrimp dumpling, came with a lemon wedge, broccoli floret, and tomato on a beautiful plate with a cutout section for mustard. Seafood yaki ($8) consisted of two skewers of tasty barbecued shrimp, salmon, scallops, and vegetables. Tempura udon ($12) was a huge bowl of thick, slightly sweet noodles in a fish broth with a side dish of shrimp and vegetable tempura. The broth was a little strong for my taste, but the tempura was excellent - light and crispy.

On our second visit, we ordered some Chinese favorites and found them several notches above what we find in most Chinese restaurants. Our mini pu pu platter ($9.55) contained beef and chicken teriyaki, crispy chicken wings, crab rangoons, and some of the leanest boneless spare ribs I've ever found in this menu staple.

We shared a combination entree of Jordan chicken (also known as General Gau's chicken), beef with mushrooms, and shrimp with garlic sauce ($20) - all beautifully presented on a large platter. Vegetables had good color and bite, and all the ingredients maintained their distinctive flavors. The chicken and shrimp were labeled spicy on the menu, but we found them relatively mild.

A firm, flavorful pork fried rice in which you can pick out the tastes of rice, pork, and vegetables is a hallmark of careful Chinese cooking, and Teppanyaki's version ($5.55) was excellent.

Service was courteous, but we would have liked more assistance with the menu, particularly the Japanese dishes. On our first visit, our waiter spoke little English. When we asked a question of our waitress on our second visit, she informed us it was her first night and she knew nothing about the menu. Particularly in the suburbs, ethnic restaurants would do well to prepare the staff to assist diners eager to try something new.

Be sure to tell your waitperson if someone in your party is celebrating a birthday or other special event. A staff member will sound a loud gong at least once and perhaps several times - it's guaranteed to draw the attention of everyone in the restaurant, if only for a moment.

ELLEN ALBANESE