Restaurant: Aka Teppan
Location: 394 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 1X4
Price Range: $$
[wp-review id=”5695″]
I have been to Aka Teppan in Markham multiple times before and you can check my previous review here. To sum it up, Aka Teppan is a take on the popular Pepper Lunch franchise in Hong Kong where the food is served on a sizzling hot plate. The experience of mixing all the ingredients on a hot plate in front of you is very enjoyable as the food stays piping hot for a while and the aroma is heavenly.
The interior of the downtown location is much more fancier and spacious compared to the Markham location. Also unlike the other location, the servers here were very polite, but would not seem to follow up with anything unless we grabbed their attention.
I don’t recall how much was this milk tea but it was actually pretty good! A bit too sweet for my taste (you can’t adjust the sugar level) but strong black tea flavor and perfectly creamy!
P got the pasta and she commented that while there was an abundance of cream sauce, the pasta got really dry really quickly – which was the same problem I had with the Markham location.
C and I decided to get the hot pot sets since I personally never had an individual hot pot before (this was before Hopo) and it was quite chilly that night. Both of the hot pot sets are served with udon, tofu, enoki mushrooms, cabbage and Naruto Maki. C ordered the Sukiyaki whereas I ordered the Red Miso. The setup was cute, since the propane stove and bowl they used were miniature in size, however I felt I could do something like this at home too on a grander scale for about the same price.
If you ask me which broth is better, I would go with the Sukiyaki more than the Red Miso as the first one had a nice distinct sweet and salty flavor. I honestly can’t exactly tell the difference between red vs white miso. In my opinion, red miso is usually more salty and assertive in taste than white miso, thus this hot pot was quite salty in general. C actually found that her Sukiyaki was also salty as well, but not as much as mine.
Again, I can’t remember the price but if I remember correctly it was a vanilla flavored creme brulee. Not too sweet and had nice sound once you crack the sugar layer – which is all I’m asking for in creme brulee :).
Not the best tofu cheesecake I have had but it was still quite good! The texture was just firm enough for the spoon to go through yet had a melt-in-the mouth texture. Loved how it wasn’t too sweet either and you still could have tasted the soybean. I didn’t think the raspberry sauce was even necessary but it went well with the refreshing cheesecake.
Just like the Markham location, the tiramisu didn’t have the espresso flavors that I was looking for in a Tiramisu. I found that 80% of the dessert was actually cream then topped with cake-crumbles. Overall a good dessert for an Instagram picture, but don’t expect too much.
To be honest I have tried most of the offering dishes at both locations of Aka Teppan already and I don’t think I would come back again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad but I felt like I could spent the same amount of money at somewhere else. While Aka Teppan offer some nice concepts, it’s a place worth to try it out but I wouldn’t consider it as a must visit place in Toronto/Markham either.