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REVIEW: Konomi features great food, delightfully prepared

By LaDawn Edwards

The first time I ever experienced a Japanese steakhouse was in West Des Moines for my 18th birthday. Imagine the exotic delight of having my parents host three of my freshmen buddies . The six of us thought we’d have a tepanyaki chef all to ourselves for the dinner show, but the host seated another couple at the end, because that’s the custom when table space is at a premium. But when the Japanese chef arrived to spin his knives, forks and spatulas in front of our dazzled eyes, chopping and grilling everything from fried rice to shrimp on the steaming surface before us, the awkwardness melted.

In the 25 years since then Japanese grill-style restaurants have become much more common, to the point that my husband is greeted like an old friend at our local one. So, reviewing Konomi steakhouse at Coralville Iowa River Landing requires that I shake off my blasé restaurant-goer attitude and recapture the enthusiasm of the impressionable girl I used to be.

At 5 p.m. on a football Saturday, we fully expected to have trouble getting into the tepanyaki tables at Konomi. Perhaps people don’t realize they have reopened since the flood, but my husband and I found ourselves having a table for eight all to ourselves. Things still seemed a little disorganized, with our rookie waiter handing us dirty menus, and ignoring the soy splatters on the salt and pepper shakers, but the overall experience was good.

While waiting for our appetizer, we witnessed the ritual of “saki bombs” at the next table. The waitress brought each person a glass of beer, carefully laid a pair of chopsticks across the top to create a little bridge and then balanced a shot glass of the sweet rice wine on top. She counted off for the drinkers “ichi, ni, san” and showed them how to slam their fists on the counter. The vibration shakes the shot glass into the beer, which foams up, and the people tried to chug the mixture without getting a shot glass in their teeth. They clearly enjoyed it, with more rounds to follow.

About this time our salad arrived — fresh spring greens with ginger dressing and carrot coins that was tasty and delicate. The firecracker tako spring roll followed. Unfortunately, the octopus and vegetables wrapped in rice paper were fried, defeating our attempt to find something low-fat. However, the duck with spicy orange sauce appetizer was much more my style — duck has more flavor than chicken, more like turkey dark meat, and it needs a strong sauce to go with it.

Chef Tuan came and started the show. A seven year veteran of personal dinner shows, he did all the classic bits — drumming and spinning with his spatula and fork, tossing a raw egg into his chef’s hat, and seeing who could catch a flying piece of broccoli in their mouths. (This was when my years of experience really came in handy.) He began by confirming our orders — chicken for me and steak and scallops for my husband. He likes his beef rare, so Chef Tuan confirmed exactly how red he wanted it. Tuan got the party started pouring oil from a red ketchup bottle into a big smiley face. With a flick of a lighter it flashed hot enough that we almost needed to jump back.

For the fried rice, he stacked thick rings of onions into a makeshift teakettle, then dropped an ice cube inside to create a thin plume of steam. As he pushed it along the grill he encouraged us to do a “toot-toot!” train whistle. Seconds later his butcher knife had converted this amusement back into dinner.

Next he ladled out two sauces for us — a brown ginger sauce and version of Thousand Island dressing known as yum-yum sauce. It’s tricky to handle slippery veggies like zucchini with chopsticks, but we managed to dunk them and deposit them in our mouths without any major mishaps.

My chicken was cooked just right, the steak tender and cold in the center, and the scallops were steamed under a bowl, for a wonderful sweet seafood flavor. What I really love about tepenyaki is that it’s a whole experience — a great way to celebrate a birthday or some other special time. Come make some new memories for yourself at Konomi.