It was election night and we had opted to head out for a quiet dinner rather than follow the milieu around the changing of the political guard. 

We were looking for something casual but fun. 

I've long been a fan of teppanyaki – where the meal is grilled on an iron plate (a teppan) and the chef becomes the show – so that fitted the bill.

Like many Pacific Rim cities, Auckland is spoiled for choice when it comes to teppanyaki restaurants. The city’s best known include Daikoku, Katsura and Tanuki’s Cave.

But in the spirit of crowd avoidance we opted for Heizo, an understated family business in Short St, Newmarket, owned and run by Takeshi Iioka. 

The place is easy to miss, tucked away on a street with a wide and eclectic array of eateries in the vicinity, including the Khao San Eatery, Tombo Buffet, and the Flying Burrito Brothers around the corner.

That the diminutive place has managed to carve a loyal following in one of New Zealand's most multicultural foodie precincts is testament to its quality.

I checked out some customer reviews and the word "authentic" jumped out frequently.

Cooked ice-cream?

Iioka, a former long-serving head chef at Daikoku, is about as genuine as they come. He isn’t flamboyant but he moves around the kitchen with measured efficiency, has a twinkle in his eye and is a wizard with a knife, scraper or spatula. 

It's transfixing watching him cook bananas and ice-cream on the grill. Ice-cream, whaaat?

An ice-cream reduction? Chef Iioka displays his grill skills. (Image: BusinessDesk)

It’s extremely popular. And with seating for only 30, booking for dinner is a necessity. Old school – by phone. And only after 1pm. 

We were put in the middle two seats of a teppanyanki table. Pride of place. Two couples to our left and a four-person family to our right. 

Diners are immediately accosted by the heat of the kitchen. The serving team knows this, so ice water is liberally provided.

The menu holds the classics – tempuras and sashimis for the entrées, and beef fillet, chicken or salmon on the à la carte, where prices range from $24 for chicken or prawns to $30 for the salmon fillet. 

Full meal deal

Don’t ignore the teppan sides menu, either; this offers squid, miso and edamame. 

The full-meal-deal experiences include the "Sumo", at $70 a person, but we opted for the "taste of all" menu for two, at $106 all in.

I can only describe it as a culinary commitment of some proportions. 

The two young boys to our right tucked into their grilled chicken and rice with abandon, their eating interrupted only by Iioka's periodic splashes of flame to the oohs and ahs of his young diners.

Fillet steak is one of the many heroic dishes. (Image: Heizo)   

But for us, the star of the show soon emerged as the yum yum prawns; they were grilled and smothered in a yumi sauce – a fiercely guarded family recipe. 

And the food kept rolling out: teppanyaki vegetables, salads, steamed rice, fish fillets and chicken thighs. 

The food roller-coaster was mercifully ended with a perfectly cooked, melt-in-your-mouth 120-gram scotch fillet – one for each of us. 

That was all washed down with a warm sake and finished off with a very refreshing lemon sorbet. 

With the sake, the bill, all up, came to $119.50. 

Even on a journalist's salary, I'll be going back – not least for the cooked ice-cream.

Heizo Teppanyaki Restaurant
3D Short St, Newmarket, Auckland 1023
Phone (09) 529 0808
Open Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 2pm, 6pm to 9.30pm. Closed Mondays