Shintori Teppanyaki

Black is black they say and that is certainly the predominant colour in Shintori Teppanyaki.

Avenida de Francia was built on a site that used to contain factories as Valencia expanded and modernised. Today its high rise flats are inhabited largely by middle class families with quite a few foreigners. Consequently the restaurants in the area are fairly upmarket but not especially pricey.

Shintori Teppanyaki was one of the few remaining Japanese style restaurants with performance cooking; what I like to call Banzai cuisine, where you can sit in a kimono around a chef impersonating a kamikaze pilot and enjoy yourself as he throws food in the air among a lot of sizzling and spitting (of the food variety; that’s why you get the kimono).

The rest of the restaurant has three large areas where you can enjoy a leisurely meal (this is not the Chinese style restaurant where your first course is on the table before the waiter leaves it) and admire the lobster-filled aquarium where, should you so desire, you can select the crustacean you wish to be slaughtered for your pleasure.

There are several set menus to suit all pockets, and genuine Japanese beers to help you feel genuine.

The set menus will leave you gasping for less, like a dysfunctional Oliver, as each course arrives, attractively presented with its appropriate sauce or sauces.

There is also a Buddhist menu, although I’m not quite sure how far that goes, apart from being vegetarian.

The Vietnamese rolls are especially tasty, as are the sushi, makri and mushi (I think I might have invented one of those).