From the moment you walk in Takumi-Tei, you will begin a culinary experience that rivals any at Walt Disney World. Here you are enlightened to Japanese culture through an amazing dining team and incredible artisan food. In this blog, I will tell you why I chose this new restaurant at Epcot to celebrate my birthday at Takumi-Tei.
Takumi-Tei is Japanese for “house of artisan” and your entire dining experience is one that is truly that. You are greeted by the dining staff outside the restaurant door. Here you will be guided inside into a hallway with water, wood, earth, stone, and washi paper displayed. This is an intimate area where you are educated on the importance of each and how your dining is influenced by them. It’s important to note there is no waiting area inside. Once you walk in you are now part of the dining experience.
You are taken to one of the five dining rooms, each representing water, wood, earth, stone, or washi paper from the hallway. We were sat in the room representing wood. On the walls were handcrafted, beautiful pieces of wood. The other decor is simple but elegant with the main focus on the theme of the room. The dining rooms are intimate as well with far fewer tables than the typical Disney restaurant.
Once seated, we were greeted by our server who further went into detail about how your night will go and then the menu. The average adult meal will easily run you $60 or more. They have a great selection of specialty Japanese alcoholic drinks and beer found nowhere else at Disney World. We started with a beer and cocktail and ordered the Kinoko Dashi and Agedashi Tofu. Before our appetizers were brought out we were given warm scented towels to freshen up with. This was a nice touch.
Our appetizers were amazing. The Kinoko Dashi is made up of mushroom broth, baby shiitake, white rice, and furikake. It was a wonderful combination. However, the Agedashi Tofu which is fried silken tofu, tentsuyu, brown butter black rice, shimeji mushroom, daikon tsukemono, carrot ginger purée, and lotus root stole the show. It’s unexplainable the flavor combination of this dish.
They offer an amazing entree menu with Japanese A-5 Wagyu as the star of two dishes as well as seafood and duck. However, I am a huge fan of sushi so we decided on choosing our entrees from that area of the menu. The star here is the Aburi Wagyu, Japanese A-5 Wagyu beef, asparagus, shiitake mushroom, cured duck egg yolk, and warishita. This is the best of both worlds. The A-5 Wagyu beef is nothing short of one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten. Combined with the other elements of sushi it was perfect! Other menu items include Nigiri and a great looking and tasting menu.
I was impressed with this new addition to Epcot’s Japanese pavilion. For my birthday meal, I was treated to a great artisan experience through the environment, dining team, and food! I definitely recommend it for those wanting a higher-end, quiet dining experience.