Confusing results when searching for "Daitokai" in Munich
The Internet forgets nothing....sometimes it confuses. Especially when you are looking for really good Japanese restaurants in Munich...
So today (end of 2018) the restaurant DAITOKAI is allegedly still to be found at Kurfürstenstrasse 59 - which is of course, unfortunately, wrong.
The Daitokai closed its doors in Munich many years ago, most of the information or pictures found in 2016-2019 under "Daitokai Munich" had nothing to do with the former restaurant at all.
What was the Daitokai restaurant and why is it closed?
Once there was in Munich - similar to today still in Berlin and Cologne - a large restaurant with many large Teppanyaki-tableswhere fresh Japanese cuisine was celebrated. Where, strictly speaking, Teppan-Yaki, as it was done in the Daitokai, is not so much typical Japanese, but already internationalized Japanese cuisine, but that's another story....
That was at that time in any case for the Munich quite unusual: one sits at large tables, where someone else sits perhaps with it or one feels lost. And you only get a certain menu, which is then only made at a certain time directly at the table. Of course, this also means an enormous amount of work: one cook per table. And if the cook is not at the Teppanyaki, then he has been busy with preparations in the kitchen - that drives the personnel costs and thus the prices in for Western Europe often not understandable heights.
Perhaps Munich simply wasn't ready for that. Or today, people prefer more individual concepts that cater more to the guest.
One reader told us the following interesting fact: he remembers that the Daitokai was not very well regarded in the Japanese community in Munich at the time; it was seen as a kind of attraction or circus for Western guests. This makes sense on closer inspection, because ultimately it was just a big, expensive teppanyaki restaurant.
Offshoot in Karstadt Sporthaus and gathering place for many Japanese chefs in Munich
By the way, at that time the Daitokai also had a small branch in the then Karstadt Sporthaus at Stachus, in the late 1990s an insider tip for Japanologists and Japan lovers in Munich.
Fun Fact: Kenichi Sugawara, one of the first two chefs to share with us the Restaurant sansaro built up and which, for a decade up to 2018, had maintained the former good reputation of the Restaurant TOKAMI has also previously worked at the Daitokai in Munich for almost ten years.
He was also the senpai (the older, more experienced colleague) of Kiyoshige Takeuchi, who ran the traditional J-Bar in Munich. It's always worth a visit, but only by the way.
If you searched for "Daitokai" in Munich in 2016, you would surprisingly find a newer "Japanese" restaurant with a different name and in a different location, which didn't really have anything to do with the Daitokai or its tradition. That has since changed.
It's sad that the Daitokai closed its doors completely soundlessly sometime in the early 2000s.
Alternatives to Daitiokai in and around Munich
The tradition of teppan yaki restaurants is currently only carried on in Munich by the Toshi restaurant in Wurzererstr. (near Maximilianstr.).
(Update: Toshi unfortunately also closed March 2022 - in his new restaurant Japatapa Toshibar Toshi unfortunately no longer has Teppanyaki)
For those who venture a little outside of Munich, Augsburg is home to the Restaurant Manyoabout which one also hears good things (at least Japanese and Japanese cooks work there, from the ambience it sometimes seems to be a bit sober - we must try again).
Japanese cuisine inspires us and is our passion - we are happy if you share it and visit the really good, authentic restaurants in Munich that show the many sides of Japanese cuisine. If you have a great tip for a Japanese Teppanyaki in Munich, write us! And of course we are also happy if you visit us - see you soon at the sansaro!
PS: A sad update in the summer of 2019: the two remaining Daitokai restaurants in Berlin and Cologne apparently to close in September 2019. It is not quite easy to establish Japanese cuisine in authentic quality in Germany - unfortunately, we know that...
Worldwide, there is now (2019/2020) an enormous demand for Japanese chefs - at the same time, we often experience that significantly higher salaries are paid for Japanese chefs worldwide than in Germany, where rents have also risen to international levels. At the same time, these Japanese chefs are often demanded internationally much less than when they work, for example, in our country, in the restaurant sansaro (here is a Behind-the-scenes look at the work of chefs and management at Japanese restaurant sansaro).
