Jenpachi

One of the more unique restaurants that opened in Rochester several years ago when the restaurant options were pretty much Perkins, Denny’s, and Applebee’s was Jenpachi.  Since then the restaurant scene has changed a bit, still not on par with any other towns I’ve been to with 100,000+ citizens, and there is another Japanese-style restaurant too.  Jenpachi, though, was the original Teppanyaki restaurant here in Rochester, at least to my knowledge and assuming there wasn’t one here back in the 70s, 80s, or 90s. 

Though I don’t go there frequently, every once in a while I will go there for a meal.  Each time I am there I am reminded of Beverly Hills Ninja and, more specifically, Chris Farley working the Teppanyaki grill.  It always makes for a good laugh.  When you walk inside it has the look of a Teppanyaki grill from the perspective of the color scheme, the decorations, the multiple Teppanyaki grills with seats around them, the wooden blinds on the windows, and the Kimonos that the wait staff wears.  Where the restaurant falls short of a traditional Teppanyaki grill is the lack of Japanese employees and, particularly, the lack of trained Japanese chefs working the Teppanyaki grill.  Of course, if Jenpachi had this the prices would be at least double, if not triple, what they are.  If you are seeking a more authentic Japanese Teppanyaki grill experience, check out Ichiban in downtown Minneapolis.

When your party is seated at Jenpachi you are lead to one of the several Teppanyaki grills to sit at.  Unless you are there with a party of eight, chances are you will be sitting with some other people.  If this is not your thing, find seven other people to join you.  Shortly after taking your seat a server adorned in a Kimono takes your drink order.  They have Pepsi products (you know my feelings on that), wine, beer, and a full bar with some specialty cocktails, as well as sake.  The guy sitting next to me asked if they had Sierra Mist since the waitress said they had Pepsi products, to which she responded “No, we have Pepsi products.  Is a Sprite OK?”  Unless I missed something recently, Coca Cola owns Sprite.  In any event he went with it and I am not sure which of the two he received; my money is on Sierra Mist.  After perusing their Minnesota inspired beer menu I ordered a Sam Adam’s Boston Lager.  It is always a good stand by beer.  Unfortunately they didn’t bring me a glass for my beer so I had to lug it out of the bottle.  I could have asked for a glass, but it is a pet peeve of mine when you aren’t brought one.  Thanks Minnesota mindset.  On a side note, I don’t use the phrase “Minnesota inspired beer menu” meaning they had a fine selection of the quality brews made in this state, but because they had seemingly every beer with the word “Light” after it.  

Taking a look at the food menu you find many options to choose from.  I cannot speak for any other part of their menu outside of the offerings from the Teppanyaki grill as that is all I’ve ever had, but they do offer the predictable fare of an Asian restaurant like egg rolls, miso soup, tempura, gyoza, Teriyaki about anything, sushi, and a selection of various seafood offerings.  The choices you have from food prepared in front of you on the Teppanyaki grill are quite expansive; you can choose one main protein or a combination of two or three of them.  They do offer a vegetarian dish, though I couldn’t tell you what is in it.  Then they have Teriyaki chicken and Teriyaki steak.  These are the least expensive of the Teppanyaki grill offerings; beyond that you can get salmon, Filet Mignon, lobster, shrimp, and scallops, and about any combination of them with the Teriyaki chicken and steak that you want.  Certainly you do have options, which are nice if you want to try some cow and some scallops, for example.  You also can get either steamed rice or fried rice for a few dollars more.  I would recommend the fried rice, it is pretty tasty, particularly with the lobster sauce.

After placing the food order the show beings.  The Teppanyaki cook wheels out a cart with the food to be cooked, rice, vegetables, proteins, and so forth.  The first dish served is a salad with a ginger dressing.  I am not too well versed in my Japanese ingredients, but I would guess there to also be some miso in the dressing.  It is a good salad, though nothing special in terms of the vegetables used.  It is your standard iceberg mix, with shredded carrots and red cabbage.  Where the salad itself falls short in terms of the greens used, the dressing is a shining spot, provided you like ginger.  It has a fairly sharp flavor, but it is not overwhelming.  I think this would be fantastic on some bitter greens, or even as a sauce for chicken or seafood.  

The next dish served is miso soup.  Beings that I am a soup connoisseur I am always up for a good cup, bowl, or cauldron of soup.   Jenpachi’s miso soup is good.  I have had miso soup elsewhere and I have made it myself and the expected flavors come though.  It had some green onions in it and I think one small piece of tofu.  As someone who disdains tofu this was fine with me, but it seemed like it should have had more in it.  I cannot speak to whether or not this is house made soup as I have not eaten enough Japanese food to discern subtleties of purchased versus house made miso soup.  Like I said, though, it is good; if nothing else, it is a change from your typical chicken noodle soup.

After the soup course you dine on sautéed vegetables that have been being prepared before you while you ate the salad and soup.  The vegetables were nicely cooked, as in not cooked to mush, and had what I recall as a ginger sauce on them, as well as sesame seeds.  You are served more vegetables than the picture below shows, but I ate a good amount of them before realizing I didn't get a picture of them.  When the Teppanyaki cook starts cooking he will do the onion volcano where an onion is doused with booze and lit on fire.  My apologizes for not getting a photo of this, but if you search “onion volcano” you will see what I mean if you already don’t.  This onion is used in this vegetable mix and the fried rice.  Additionally, you are served two sauces to eat with your meal, a lobster sauce and a ginger sauce.  I highly doubt the lobster sauce is scratch made from lobster bodies, but it does have a sweet, lobster like flavor to it.  It is creamy and goes excellent on the vegetables, fried rice, and main entrée.  

Speaking of fried rice, if you chose to order that over the steamed rice for a few dollars more, you will have this delivered to your plate shortly after the vegetables are.  The rice has some vegetables in it, the aforementioned volcano onion, zucchini, carrots, as well as chicken, an egg, sesame seeds, and soy sauce.  While preparing this the Teppanyaki cook does some egg entertainment by maneuvering the egg with his spatulas and will likely toss it into the top of his hat.  You paid for the show, after all, enjoy it.  The cooks certainly are talented in terms of utensil utilization and maneuverability.  Like I said before, the lobster sauce is good on the fried rice, but it also has good flavor on its own.  The flavors of the soy sauce and egg come though and a little toasty note is present from the sesame seeds.  Mixing the rice with the sautéed vegetables, unless you ate them too fast like I did, works well too.  

After a quick scrape of the grill the main entrees go on.  This is where I was reminded that I was in Minnesota, not because of anything that the cook did, but because one of the ladies sitting to my left ordered a three animal combo, I think it was shrimp, Filet Mignon, and chicken and she ordered the Filet Mignon cooked well.  Ugh.  Also, a guy off to my far right was drinking a Michelob Golden Light, another sure tell sign this is still Minnesota.

The Teppanyaki cook does a good job of cooking the food to the correctly ordered temperatures.  I ordered the Teriyaki steak and wanted it medium rare.  It was medium rare so I was happy.  The Teriyaki sauce works well with the beef, yet it doesn’t overwhelm the beef.  The steak is cubed, judging from its precooked look I am guessing it is sirloin, and the first couple pieces I ate were fairly tough.  They were not overcooked; they just didn’t chew the easiest.  The ones after that, however, were fine.  I think the meat could have been seared a little better to bring out the caramelization of the meat.  A nice touch, however, was some bias cut green onions on the meat; it gave the steak a little burst of freshness.  

Also, if you go to Jenpachi for your birthday and clip a coupon you get half off your meal, some free ice cream, a photo, and happy birthday sung to you by who I assume is the owner in English and Japanese.  I am guessing the second language is Japanese only because it is a Japanese restaurant.  He has a loud, carrying voice, and he sings opera style.  I think every time I have been to Jenpachi there has been a birthday at each of the Teppanyaki grill stations. 

Overall, Jenpachi is what I expected from being there before and it was good.  I have been to Ichiban before and no, it doesn’t quite compare, but Ichiban was more costly.  This is Rochester, after all, and we always compromise for what we can get.  That being said, Jenpachi is a good change of pace restaurant for something outside of the typical flavor profile.  Give it a shot; enjoy the show and the food. 

To recap…..

Food:  Overall the food was quite tasty and a nice diversion from the typical flavor profile of the town.  I won’t pretend that it is all scratch made daily, but I don’t expect that.  When I lived in Düsseldorf, Germany for a while I ate at a Japanese restaurant there and, yes, their food was better.  Düsseldorf also has an enormously large Japanese population, Rochester does not.  In Jenpachi’s food there are a lot of repeated flavors, like ginger, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and Teriyaki.  They also have a fairly substantial menu to choose from so you can likely find something you are in the mood for, though it is mostly predictable and what you would expect from a Japanese/Asian restaurant.  I have never tried their sushi, but it looked like they had a wide section of sushi offerings.  I was impressed with the Teppanyaki cook’s ability to properly cook vegetables since most people like to cook them to death.  The presentation of the food isn't great, mostly because it is served straight from the grill to your plate via spatulas.  It would be incredibly hard to plate food using only spatulas, however, so it wasn't a big deal.

Service:  The service was sufficient, though not completely knowledgeable.  If you have Pepsi products you do not have Sprite, I guarantee it.  The food came out with good timing, though it helps that over half of your meal is prepared within arm’s reach of where you sit.  The Teppanyaki cooks are always friendly and do try to put on a show for you. 

Drinks:  Pepsi products ,ugh, your typical Minnesota beer menu, ugh, though they have Sam Adam’s, some wine choices, including sake, and a full bar menu. 

Ambiance:  It looks the part of a Japanese restaurant.  The colors speak of it, the Kimonos speak of it, the wooden window shades speak of it, the Teppanyaki grills speak of it, the plates speak of it.  I didn’t feel like I was sitting in a restaurant in Japan, but what do you expect for Rochester?  I didn’t expect such.  One more thing, I was impressed with how clean the vent hood above the grill we were sitting at was.  These can get greasy and dirty mighty fast and it looked as if all of the vent hoods were clean and well maintained. 

Conclusion:  I can recommend Jenpachi because of what it is.  It’s not the best food you will ever eat, but they put out some tasty good, the Teppanyaki cooks try their best to give you a show while cooking your dinner and do succeed in doing both, and it is something different.  It can get a little pricey as once you move past the Teriyaki chicken and steak that are in the mid teens dollarwise, the other entrées quickly approach the $20 range and up.  That being said, I think of this place as more of a special occasion restaurant for Rochester; with that in mind, the price shouldn’t be too off-putting.  Give it a try for something different. 

Jordan