Teppan Edo is a table-service restaurant in Epcot’s World Showcase. The restaurant features Teppan-yaki-style cooking and communal seating, where tables of 8 guests all surround the chef and a flat iron grill. Teppan Edo is on the Disney Dining Plan as 1 table-service credit and offers discounts to annual passholders. In this post, we’ll review Teppan Edo’s food, atmosphere and value.

World Showcase restaurants are often threading the needle, trying not to be overly stereotypical while also being accessible. Offering a creative menu while still trying to appeal to an audience that has spent an entire day in a theme park is not an easy task. That becomes even harder when trying to craft an environment that feels authentic and not like the nearest chain restaurant .

Nowhere in World Showcase is that harder to balance than at Teppan Edo. This teppan-yaki restaurant sits above the Japan Pavilion and shares a building with Shiki-Sai. Other teppan-yaki restaurants throughout the world have become quite popular, whether it be Benihana or a more localized spot. Known for the performative chefs that cook right in front of you, many of these experiences feel a little over the top. Teppan-yaki definitely exists in Japan but not often in this form, instead it’s more of a high-end experience without chefs throwing food around.

Teppan Edo is more on the performative side of things. The chef performance is toned down from other spots I’ve been to in the States but is still more westernized than other restaurants in World Showcase. There’s nothing wrong with that in this case. In fact, the chef performance is fantastic and never moves into playing into stereotypes. Instead, Teppan Edo is a fun communal dining spot where guests can get a close up view of a chef at work.

As I mentioned, the Japan Pavilion’s two table-service restaurants sit atop the steps on the right side of the mini land. If you’ve been to Japan, you know that having to climb some steps in order to eat is fitting!

Once inside of the building, Teppan Edo is on the left side. There’s some beautiful paneling mixed in with paintings that feature animals doing human activities, among other things. Let it be known that Wandering in Disney is always in support of animals doing funny, human-like things. These paintings look good and are cute.

Reviewing the atmosphere in Teppan Edo is a little difficult because much of it is dependent on the chefs entertaining. The restaurant has clean lines and sticks to a red, black and white color scheme. Those were also my high school colors, for the thousands (ha!) of readers curious about that. The walls are kept white without artwork and the whole space does look similar to several restaurants we’ve dined at while in Japan.

That said, people aren’t eating here for the decor. Guests will either like or dislike the atmosphere based on if they enjoy the communal seating and chef performance. Like I mentioned, the chefs are incredible, adding a Disney flair to their cooking with Mickey heads made of oil and more. In our experiences here, chefs have always been engaging, funny and impressive.

The communal seating has 8 people at the table. If you fall into a situation where you’re traveling with a group of 8, then I’m not sure you’ll find a better spot than this! If not, then you’ll likely be seated with strangers. Most of the time, that’s fun and people are pretty friendly. Obviously, that’s case dependent but I wouldn’t avoid the restaurant because of the communal seating. It takes a backseat to the rest of the experience.

Moving to the food, here’s a look at the menu. The meal largely consists of diners choosing what protein they want the chef to prepare and then there are a number of items on the side that everyone gets. There are several appetizers or enhancements to add, as well.

Melissa and I both tried drinks. Above is the Tokyo Sunset which includes coconut rum, crème de banana, peach schnapps and pineapple juice. We also had the Violet Sake consisting of sake shaken with purple pear and lime juice. Both drinks were quite sweet, with the Tokyo Sunset being very fruit forward and the Violet Sake having a little more nuance. I preferred the latter but both were good, not great.

The meal starts with a garden salad topped with a ginger dressing. The dressing was heavy handed in this case and neither of us loved the salad. I do appreciate that it’s included and getting some vegetables while at Disney World is important (or so I’m told).

The meal also came with udon noodles, vegetables and steamed white rice. Apologies for the close up photos, we were packed in tight for this specific meal and I didn’t have much room to maneuver. The noodles and veggies were both tasty, mixed with a little soy sauce. They were nice accompaniments. As for the white rice, it wasn’t necessary for this meal as the plate was plenty filling on its own. I’m a little surprised that they do both rice and noodles and certainly wouldn’t complain if they just did fried rice instead, but I digress. As far as sides go, these were all tasty!

Melissa had the Asakusa Combination which includes a 5 oz sirloin steak and 5 pieces of shrimp. The shrimp were plump and juicy. Shrimp is a strong point of Disney World dining so these weren’t the best we’ve had on property but they were tasty and, obviously, grilled right in front of us. The sirloin steak was also delicious, cooked to a nice medium. Neither of these were game changers but we both were impressed with the quality.

I skipped the shrimp and ordered the Julienne Steak, which comes with 8 ounces of thin sliced beef strips cut into pieces. With the Disney Dining Plan, I’ve eaten plenty of steak at WDW. I was surprised that this was one of the best I’ve ever had on property! The meat was tender, melting in my mouth, and the simple salt and pepper seasoning (there was probably a little more to it) really let the beef show off. I was very happy with meal!

Desserts were less successful. This is the soft-serve match ice cream. It’s definitely not bad but you could also get it outside of the restaurant so it doesn’t feel special. Thankfully, there’s not a big upcharge on this as it’s only $6.

The Mango Mousse Cake was more interesting, topped with a strawberry drizzle. The cake was just okay, not overly moist. I liked all of the flavors though, with a bright and fruit-filled taste. This isn’t a top-tier Disney World dessert but it’s decent. If you’re not on the Dining Plan then I’d just opt for dessert elsewhere.

Speaking of the Dining Plan, Teppan Edo is a strong value as a table-service restaurant with a dinner that could top $70. That’s especially true if you can get a dining package for one of the Epcot shows. If paying out of pocket, then the value is on the higher side of World Showcase restaurants but the food here is better than most of those places so pick accordingly.

A few years had passed since we’d been to Teppan Edo and we came away pleasantly surprised by all of it. Authentic or not, the experience is downright fun with the talented chefs putting on a great show. Melissa and I weren’t expecting to like the meal as much as we did. That has us thinking more highly of Teppan Edo now, making it one of the better World Showcase restaurants.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10

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