The Rocks Teppanyaki

Even casual dining becomes private dining when you opt for Japanese teppanyaki. And in Sydney, there’s few places better than The Rocks Teppanyaki, taking its name from its location and mandate, but secretly a sibling Japanese restaurant in the renowned Kobe Jones family. It’s less of a secret, though, that The Rocks Teppanyaki’s heritage Cumberland Street premises house five rooms equipped with the latest teppanyaki technology. Each helmed by an expertly trained chef-slash-culinary-samurai, this is a top spot if you’re looking for a Japanese restaurant in Sydney that combines Far East tradition, fresh Australian produce, and aerial, acrobatic eats.

The Rocks Teppanyaki’s heritage-listed building down Cumberland Street was built in the late 19th-century. Originally an open-air butchery, it’s sort of appropriate that a new generation of knivesmen and women have taken up residence here. This is one of Sydney’s best Japanese teppanyaki restaurants, eschewing the hurry-hurry approach of many of its peers in favour of a personal dining experience that, while certainly theatrical, is all about exploration and consultation, banter and tempura batter in equal measure – the team at The Rocks Teppanyaki know how to balance respect for tradition with creative, contemporary flair just as well as they know how to balance a knife and slice and dice at speed.

Head chef Yumi Maeyama hails from Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of Japan. Now situated southerly in Sydney, Maeyama is possibly the only female head teppanyaki chef in Australia. Formally trained and elaborately skilled in the art of knifecraft and culinary presentation, Maeyama brings her deep knowledge of Kobe’s venerable teppanyaki tradition to The Rocks, crafting a range of exciting, delectable menus for diners to indulge in – and participate in their creation, too. Once again, as is typical of the Kobe Jones family of Japanese restaurants in Sydney and in Melbourne, the menus at The Rocks Teppanyaki are many: try the Spring Seafood & Wagyu Deluxe menu for a lavish meal, or pick a Winter’s Pleasure, Lobster & Black Angus, or, in homage, Autumn On The Rocks. Long menu short: book well in advance and choose your weapon!