[Mission Viejo] [Japanese] Riptide Rockin' Sushi & Teppan Grill

Riptide Rockin' Sushi & Teppan Grill
27741 Crown Valley Pkwy # 325
Mission Viejo, CA 92691-6535
(949) 282-0182
http://www.riptidesushi.com

We always like teppanyaki. Not only the food is good, it's also fun and entertaining to watch the chef cook the food right in front of you. I saw a daily deal on Groupon for Riptide Rockin' Sushi & Teppan Grill. From their Yelp reviews, it seemed like it's a very Americanized Japanese restaurant. $20 for $40 was a pretty good deal so we gave this place a try.



The restaurant is huge. We were glad we had a reservation because there were tons of people waiting when we got to the restaurant. The bar area was small. Seemed like people were having a great time there. The loud rock n' roll music made this place really lively... kinda make you wanna party. haha...




They also had a huge sushi bar that went around the whole room. There were about 10 sushi chefs working. And... none of the sushi chef was Asian. They are all Hispanic. But I peeked at people's sushi orders. They all looked good. Riptide has all you can eat sushi night on Thursday for $20/person. One of those days we're going to give that a try.


Miso Soup

Dr. P and I ordered two entrees to share. Soon after we ordered, our waitress brought everyone on the table a bowl of miso soup. It was your standard miso soup. But unlike other teppanyaki places, you don't get salad here.



Our teppanyaki chef, just like the sushi chefs, is also Hispanic. He started the dinner show with big fire. It was kinda exciting to see big fire like that. All the other teppanyaki restaurants we've been to for the past 2 or 3 years, they don't do any fire tricks anymore. I don't know if it was for safety reason or what. They don't even do that traditional fire volcano thing with onions anymore.


Fried Rice ($3.00/person)

You just have to get fried rice with teppanyaki. Everyone on our table got fried rice. The chef didn't really do anything with the fried rice like Benihana's chefs. He kinda just cooked the rice. But the "trick" he did was throwing a little piece of rice from his spatula to the customers, then the customers have to catch it with their mouth. Huh? What? Personally I don't find that fun to do at all. He tried it with everyone on our table, but Dr. P and I declined to do so. We didn't want to get hit on the face, or head, with rice like the other people did. I thought that was a pretty lame "trick". But the fried rice tasted great. It was very flavorful. I think it was all due to the 5 lbs of butter he added to the rice.



OMG! The volcano!! I haven't seen the volcano for years! So glad he did that... brought back lots of childhood memory.



The chef was busy cooking. He didn't talk much. He didn't really do any special tricks. He didn't throw anything in the air and try to catch it with his hat or in his pocket. He didn't do the spatula ding ding dinging salt and pepper shaker thing. He just simply cooked.


Blackened Ahi ($24.95)
A Blackened 8oz. Yellowfin Tuna steak, grilled pink & flaky topped with grilled spinach, peppers and green onion. Drizzled with a spicy sesame sauce and served with Teppan vegetables

Everyone got the shrimp appetizer. It was cooked and seasoned well. One of the entree we ordered was Blackened Ahi. We asked the chef to cook the Ahi medium so the fish was still raw in the middle.



He cooked it exactly as we asked. And this piece of ahi tuna was DELICIOUS! It was a big and thick piece of ahi. The spicy sesame sauce was so yummy. It also came with a lot of spinach and roasted red pepper. Honestly, we weren't really expecting too much when we got to the restaurant. But after a few bites of the ahi, we were really surprised how delicious the food was.


Dipping Sauces

At this point, I started wondering... how come we didn't get the dipping sauces like the other teppanyaki places? Do they have dipping sauces? So we asked our waitress about it. Yup, she forgot to bring it to us. Their dipping sauces were the standard teppanyaki dipping sauces. The creamy orange one is for seafood, and the ginger onion brown sauce is for meat.


Surf & Turf ($27.45)
Filet Mignon or chicken breast served with jumbo shrimp or scallops

The other entree we ordered was Surf & Turf. For the Turf, it was filet mignon. For the Surf, since we already got shrimp for appetizer, we picked scallops. This chef was seriously talented. He cooked everything so perfectly. The scallop was soft and sweet. The filet mignon was cooked medium, and so tender and juicy. We both agreed it was the best teppanyaki we've ever had in Los Angeles and Orange County.



We were really surprised how good the teppanyaki was at Riptide. Our chef probably doesn't know how to do too many entertaining tricks, but he sure knows how to cook. Personally I prefer it that way. We will definitely return again for the teppanyaki. Although I am very curious to try their sushi... So I think next time we'll be back for their all you can eat sushi night.

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