REVIEW: We Have One Word For This EPCOT Restaurant — BLAND.

EPCOT is filled with dozens of different incredible restaurants that we know and love, it’s often hard to decide what will be the best fit for you and your group.

You can go the quick service route, which often has something for everyone on the menu, snack around during the day at different stands throughout the park (especially in World Showcase), or you can book a table service restaurant reservation for one of your meals and know you’ll have at least an hour to sit down, rest your feet, and enjoy your meal. There are so many different styles of dining to choose from, and we just visited a Hibachi restaurant in the middle of EPCOT.

Atmosphere

Teppan Edo is located in EPCOT’s Japan Pavilion. Here, you’ll experience a traditional Hibachi style meal, which is where your food is cooked on a massive grill right in front of you!

Each table sits eight people, so if you’re part of a smaller party, it’s very likely you’ll be seated with other groups. Our Hibachi chef was incredibly entertaining and kept the preparation of the meal engaging at all times! He made an onion volcano, created a Mickey out of the oil he used, and thoroughly impressed us with his knife skills.

However, we do want to caution you that this restaurant is quite loud! It’s a little hard to hear your party if they’re talking with you, especially if they’re across the table, but it’s not impossible. It won’t be ideal for those who are introverted and would have problems sitting with other parties, or those with noise sensitivities.

Menu

Here you’ll find a variety of items on the menu that all fit into the Asian style cuisine, such as seafood, beef, chicken, vegetables, and rice.

There’s also a large drink menu, for those interested in getting an alcoholic beverage during their meal.

What we really love about this menu is that there are more adventurous options here for guests looking for a more unique experience, but if you’re a pickier eater, you can also go with good ‘ol chicken and rice! 

But enough talk — let’s get into EATING what’s on the menu!

Eats

For an appetizer, we got the Takoyaki for $12. This is 6 pieces of octopus fritters topped with tonkatsu sauce, bonito flakes, and nori.

This was very interesting to us, and while we can’t say we loved it, we also didn’t dislike it. It had a great texture to it and fell apart really well, and the closest thing we could compare it to is a crossover between a conch fritter and an octopus-like risotto rice ball! It did have a nice flavor and we would get it again, but it is DEFINITELY not an option for picky eaters.

Our other appetizer was the Sushi Sampler for $18, which is two pieces of a spicy roll, two pieces of a California roll, and three pieces of nigiri. Everything was fine here, but it felt bland to us.

The California Roll was pretty standard, very middle of the road, and while the spicy roll was our favorite (thanks to that extra kick of flavor), the three pieces of nigiri, which were shrimp, fish, and salmon, were chewy in a bad way and didn’t have a lot of flavor to them. We definitely needed the help of the soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger sauce that you have on the side during your meal.

Our main event was the Nihonbashi for $48, which is steak and chicken served with garden salad, udon noodles, vegetables, and steamed white rice.

This dish comes with your choice of a salad or miso soup. The salad was really tasty, especially with its delicious tangy, vinegary dressing. All the lettuce was fresh and crispy, and we definitely wished it was bigger, but we understood we needed to save room for the main event.

While the miso soup was good, it wasn’t very strong and wasn’t anything special. It likely won’t disappoint you, but it did taste a little watered down to us.

The steamed white rice was your average rice, there wasn’t anything special about it, but it certainly wasn’t bad. We asked for our steak medium, and it was cooked very well! The chicken remained juicy after cooking, which can be challenging with grilled chicken. We enjoyed the thickness of the noodles and the texture of the cooked veggies, however, we felt that again, everything just lacked flavor. The ginger sauce and yum yum sauce they give everyone certainly helped to add more flavor to the dishes, but we weren’t super impressed. We’ve had better Hibachi back at home.

Our first dessert of the evening was the Matcha Ice Cream for $6. Now this had a GREAT matcha flavor to it that was mixed with a great creamy vanilla taste. The matcha is earthy tasting and the ice cream has just the right amount of sweetness to balance it out. If you don’t like matcha, this isn’t the dessert for you, but we think it’s a great portion for the price you pay, especially considering other prices here.

Finally, we had the Mango Mousse Cake for $10. We wouldn’t say there was a lot of mousse here at all, and the mango flavor was very light. The cake itself was moist and fluffy and wasn’t overly sweet, which we appreciated, but we would have appreciated more mango flavor.

Overall, we don’t really think it’s worth the cost.

Magic or Tragic?

We think this is a great spot for guests who:

• Are looking for an entertaining meal that’s NOT a character meal
• Enjoy Hibachi style meals and need a restaurant that has a lot of options on the menu
• Guests who are dining with a larger group to fill up a whole table

However, this restaurant won’t be a great fit if:

• You’re looking to get the best bang for your buck when you’re dining in the park, and don’t want to leave slightly disappointed
• Are looking for a quiet restaurant or want your own table space
• You’re looking for strong flavors in Asian cuisine

We’re always here to bring you the latest Disney World dining news and reviews, so stay tuned to AllEars!

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How do you feel about Teppan Edo? Tell us in the comments!

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