Pepper Lunch is a DIY restaurant chain that has been spreading since its creation in 1994 by chef Kunio Ichinose. With over 200 stores spread throughout Asia, they attract customers with their philosophy of providing fast and affordable, yet quality steak. As well as the ability for customers to cook the dishes themselves with their "Sizzling it your way" motto.
Pepper Lunch graciously invited us to their blogger event for the launch of their winter menu. I had some preconceptions coming into the event as I have dined at the CBD branch of Pepper Lunch before with some mixed experiences, however I was pleasantly surprised by Hawthorn store.
Hawthorn's Glenferrie Road
Pepper Lunch
Agedashi tofu
We were offered a complimentary agedashi tofu to start off the night. Although the dish lacked a couple of elements from the traditional style of agedashi tofu, it was still quite nice. The lack of the tentsuyu broth and grated daikon from the traditional dish meant that the block of tofu managed to stay crispy on the outside while the sauce drizzled on top gave it a slightly sweet and salty finish.
Onion rings
Sweet potato chips
We ordered the onion rings and sweet potato chips as the sides. The onion rings were crispy and well seasoned with a good ring of onion in the middle. They were fantastic and both my friend and I wished that we could just get a big bag of them to go. Even though the sweet potato chips were seasoned and fried well, they varied in size by quite a large margin which made some of the larger chips too firm for my liking.
Chicken katsu curry rice
I ordered the chicken katsu curry rice as my main, which is a dish that can be found on the new winter menu. A mild curry sauce was given to us in a sauce boat for us to add to the dish, which was then mixed through the rice. I loved the way that some of the rice became crispy on the bottom of the hot plate which gave it some texture, however the chicken katsu was a little on the dryer side.
Giant rib-eye
As the Pepper Lunch chain specialises in their philosophy of providing fast yet quality food and more specifically steak, we decided to try the giant rib-eye steak, which is one of their newer offerings. The steak, which is served on the signature 260° iron plate stayed both tender and juicy even as it overcooked slightly as the hot iron plate cooked the meat far too quickly. They also offer two types of sauce, the garlic soy and a sweeter honey based sauce, both of which are bursting with flavour.
Pepper Lunch is a restaurant that does what they say they do and they do it well. They advertise themselves as a restaurant which offers fast and affordable teppan steak and pepper rice dishes with quality ingredients. There are many other restaurants which you could go to if you wanted to get the absolute best steak or the cheapest food, however Pepper Lunch offers you the best of both worlds as well of a little fun along the way by allowing you to cook the food yourself.
We were invited by and dined courtesy of Pepper Lunch.
Food Rating 8/10
Overall Rating 8/10