Shogun - Woodlands

We visited this location for a birthday dinner. We did teppenyaki and got steak, salmon, and chicken dinners, along with a Shogun roll and a yellowtail hand roll. I got green tea for a beverage. Finished with a mango sorbet and a mud pie.

The meal started with salad with ginger dressing and onion soup. The dressing was fine, and I prefer onion soup to miso, so we were off to a decent start.

The teppenyaki show was pretty basic, some fun stuff but not particularly advanced. Shogun's teppenyaki is all seasoned mainly with teriyaki sauce. All of our food was a bit overdone, not a lot but enough to notice. Vegetables were fine. We got the fried rice, which is more fun since it's prepared in front of us, but it was just fried rice and eggs and ended up very sticky. I didn't eat much of mine. The yellowtail roll was ok, the flavor did not jump out but it was good with soy sauce. The sushi was also just OK, the flavors kind of run together. Not a lot of crunch for a crunchy roll. We got our shrimp appetizer last because one of our party had a seafood allergy and they do the shrimp separately if you ask, which is good. The shrimp were prepared just right.

The mango sorbet was probably the best thing about the meal. The sorbet is tasty and it's served attractively in a halved mango. I can recommend that. The mud pie is a purchased frozen dessert but it was good.

Service was fine, the server was attentive and helpful and the chef did his bit competently. The overall impression I got about the place is that it's tired. The decor is very simple and hasn't been updated in awhile--everthing is brown. The wallpaper was installed some time ago with obvious seams. It is showing wear in several places. The bathroom was reasonably clean but the urinal had flushing difficulty. What the place needs is a makeover, from the decor to the menu to the teppenyaki presentation. It's acceptable but I've had better teppenyaki in several places.

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