Ah So is a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant located in Glendale, Arizona. "Teppanyaki" describes Japanese food cooked on an iron grill.
Aside from good food and pleasing atmosphere, Ah So includes the opportunity to have the meal prepared at your table.
After you are seated at the table, which surrounds an iron grill, or teppan, a server appears to take one’s order. He'll bring the drinks and soup starter, too. We found the chicken broth slightly bland,and this prompted one diner to comment that it tasted like "like the water in which they rinsed the chicken".
However, that was by far the only disappointment. Soon a chef arrived to begin cooking the main course; a vertibale show of skill. After tossing and banging his utensils on the grill, he poured soy oil over the teppan – and set it alight. Sit too close at your peril!
The first to be cooked is the rice. After oiling the grill, the chef placed the rice and vegetables on it, and cracked two eggs. As the rice cooked, he fried the eggs, then chopped them up and blended them with the rice. He then seasoned the rice, tossing a broken eggshell at one guest and catching the other in his chef's hat.
He then divided the rice evenly among the diners and started on the vegetables. Fresh broccoli, and other assorted vegetables were grilled and chopped, and samples were tossed into some people's mouths. A small broccoli head landed neatly in one diner's shirt pocket, like a corsage.
Then the main show begins. Shrimp, scallops, steak and chicken were laid out in each corner of the grill. The shrimp was grilled, seasoned and delivered to the plates. The scallops followed, and then the steak was grilled to order. The chicken, cooked last, was juicy and well-seasoned. The feat was accompanied by "ooh” and “ooh”, and other interesting sounds from the chef, as well as the juggling and cacophony of clanging utensils.
The shrimp and scallops were nicely grilled and succulent. A shrimp sauce and a honey sauce were provided with the meal.
Enrique was entertaining and personable. The food was, obviously, hot and very tasty. The prices are fairly reasonable, considering that this is the Phoenix area.
Ah So is located at 6033 W Bell Rd, Glendale, AZ 85308-3762. Their phone number is (602) 978-1177. The restaurant is open seven days a week, 11 am to 10 pm.
