Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A streak of sadism helps when eating dinner at Kazahana at the Conrad Hotel in Tokyo.

A smiling, kimono-clad waitress brought two 10-inch prawns, numbed by a bed of ice, to our private teppanyaki chef. The hapless crustaceans jerked spasmodically as the heat of the grill overcame them, before the chef sliced off the shells and dropped the still-twitching bodies onto our plates.

``They don't really feel pain,'' he assured us with a smile.

We had come for the steak and the 28th-floor view. Below the hotel are the 62 acres of bamboo forests and tidal pools of the Hama Rikyu garden, a former game reserve for shoguns during the Edo era. Beyond, hydrofoils rush across Tokyo Bay into the ferry terminal, while water taxis meander up the Sumida River.

Even with such a vista, it's hard to take your eyes off the performance in front of you. I've always enjoyed watching a skilled chef slice and cook meat and vegetables, then serve them directly. No waiting, no intermediaries, and the bonus of chatting with an expert on food.

As the evening darkened into night and the lights of the Rainbow Bridge sparkled over the bay, our chef cooked up a series of vegetables -- eggplant from Kyoto, chestnut squash from Kyushu, green beans from Mie prefecture -- all tasty, yet all preludes to the meat, which is the real draw.

Kazahana specializes in Matsuzaka beef from Mie prefecture which has the highest grade in Japan. The cattle are raised on beer and massage and the taste is spectacular. You barely have to chew the meat as it melts in your mouth. My dining companion and I looked at each other in amazement.

This doesn't come cheap. A course costs 20,000 yen ($172) per person and there is only space for six people at the two teppanyaki counters. We shared a cut of sirloin and fillet which was just enough.

New Otani

At the New Otani Hotel, Sekishin-tei offers an even more traditional atmosphere for teppanyaki. The restaurant is located in a gazebo with glass walls in the middle of a 400-year-old Japanese garden, which once belonged to the Ii family, one of the most powerful daimyos during the Edo era.

From your seat at the counter, you look out onto a koi pond with manicured dwarf pines growing out from between rocks. A red arched bridge leads through the trees to a raked stone garden. On the evening we were there, a late summer cicada made its way into the restaurant and began screeching, much to the amusement of the guests.

They serve beef from Kagoshima prefecture, rated one grade below Matsuzaka. The difference is easy to tell in both price and taste. The meat was tender and juicy and cooked to perfection, but it didn't have the same melt-in-your mouth quality. The set menu was also 7,000 yen cheaper.

Cow CV

The restaurant has an intimate feel with space for about 25 customers, seated at a semicircular wooden counter around 12 grills. Our chef brought us a card listing the cow our sirloin and fillet came from, where it was raised and the farmer that raised it. Ever since ``mad cow'' disease appeared in Japan in 2001, it is obligatory for restaurants to offer customers proof of where their steak originates, he told us.

After a starter of grilled Sazai shellfish with diced tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms for my dining companion and cold cuts for myself and a course of lobster, we tucked into our steaks. Our chef grilled the sides and then the edges before serving them up, nicely juicy. Afterwards, we were led to a second gazebo in the garden for a dessert of vanilla ice cream with sesame sauce, spiced up with freshly ground pepper.

Homesick Americans

In contrast to Kazahana and Sekishin-tei, Porterhouse Steaks draws homesick Americans. It caters to a foreign clientele to such an extent that, when we called to make reservations, the staff answered the phone in English.

In the basement of a nondescript building at a traffic fork in Nishi-Azabu, Porterhouse has no windows and no view. Instead, there is a rather cold interior of cream walls lined with black leather cushions. The staff brings the raw meat out on a platter for inspection, massive slabs of aged beef from Miyagi prefecture. I ordered the 18-ounce rib-eye steak for 8,000 yen. My companion, rightly sensing my dish would be too much for one person, decided to share.

This was not the soft steak of a pampered cow. It was charred to a crisp on the outside, raw and juicy on the inside, with lots of fat along the edges. It was about an inch and a half thick and demanded strong jaws. It was the kind of meat I grew up with.

At the table behind us, a group of U.S. military contractors compared their steaks favorably to those in Boston and Texas. Perhaps, but I'd still rate Porterhouse the lowest of the three, squirming seafood and all.

The Bloomberg Questions

Prices: Kazahana: About 20,000 yen a person, Sekishin-tei: 13,000 yen, Porterhouse: 10,000 yen.

Sound level: Kazahana: hushed. Sekishin-tei: chatter of guests. Porterhouse: noisy.

Special features: Kazahana and Sekishin-tei: the views. Porterhouse: American atmosphere.

Best table: Kazahana: only two teppanyaki grills to choose from. Sekishin-tei: all seats are equally good. Porterhouse: no discernible difference.

Business meetings? Yes to all three.

Date place? Yes to all three.

Will I go back? Yes to Kazahana and Sekishin-tei. No to Porterhouse.

Kazahana, at the Conrad Hotel, 1-9-1 Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku. Tel: (81) (3) 6388-8000 or go to http://conradhotels1.hilton.com. Sekishin-tei, at the New Otani Hotel, 4-1 Kioi-cho Chiyoda-ku. Tel: (81) (3) 3265-1111 or go to http://www1.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo/Restaurants/JapaneseCuisine. Porterhouse Steaks, Faro Nishiazabu 1F 1-15-4, Nishiazabu, Minato- ku. Tel: (81) (3) 5771-5322 or go to http://www.porterhouse.jp/howto.html.

(Bret Okeson is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on this story: Bret Okeson in Tokyo at bokeson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 27, 2006 15:19 EDT