It sounds like you just want a griddle. That is all "teppanyaki" is, i.e., food cooked on a flat griddle. The guy who did my cabinets has 9 kids and his stove (it's a bigger model, probably 60" across) has a dedicated griddle.

Typically, griddles are cleaned by scraping excess burned bits and grease into a channel with a drain. At the end of the day, a cleaning solution is poured on the surface and scraped into the channel, from which it drains. If there is no drain on the griddle you are eyeing, I would think twice.

One thing you could do is buy one of those stainless steel griddles off of ebay. They are designed to fit on a stovetop or on your barbecue grill. They have the channel but no drain (not necessary if the grill can be tipped over to empty it.) That way you could try out the teppanyaki thing without having to bet the farm on it. If you really like the style and find that everybody wants to make flaming onion volcanoes, then look for a large range or cooktop with a built-in griddle and sell the portable one on ebay.

Just be careful doing all those Benihana knife tricks around the kids! ;-)

quick disclaimer, i am a rep for gaggenau, but also a cook.
1-yes, i use it a lot, on 240 v its about 15-20 min to heat. the chrome surface doesn't turn brown, cleans with water and lemon juice really easily. i have boiled a pot of water, made pancakes, stir fried veggies, steak skewers, new york steaks, eggs, etc. oily and greasy foods are not a good plan, but its about healthy cooking so you wont do that type of food anyway. let me know if you want more specifics.

Foodie3, I'd like more details on all the things you use your teppanyaki for. We have had ours (Gagg) for almost 3 years but I'm sad to say it is used the least in our kitchen because we're more familiar with other appliances. I understand about not doing greasy foods because there's no drain. I'm a bit unsure of getting foods too dried out on it so I'm interested in how you do stir fries. I'm also afraid of hurting the surface, so I'm surprised that you put a pot of water on it to boil--the manual says nothing about this. When you do pancakes, do you avoid the hot center? I am impressed at how easily it cleans up, so I'd like to use it a lot more than we do now.

Thanks for the input. If you have kids - do they use it? Is it a fun appliance? We view cooking as a fun family activity so that does count. I guess the one thing that concerns me is the amount of time it takes to heat up. That might keep us from using it a lot. Do you cook fish on it? Is sticking a problem? How big is the cooking surface area on the Gagg?

We are going with induction and I am considering either a 30 inch induction with the teppanyaki or a 36 inch induction by itself. The new Thermador has a 13 inch hob that my big cast iron pizza pan would fit on and I could use that as a griddle. From what I have read I do worry a little about the Thermador quality.

thanks again for your input!

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if you go to the Gagg web site you can download the manual in English and read the inst. for care and use. YOU DONOT put pans of any kind on it. Also it gets HOT, and states not to let children anywhere near it. Only brush on a small amount of oil w/ a silicone brush. It gets to 464 degrees . Page 10 of the manual has a list of foods you can cook and the temps to use.

I really wanted on of these and got the miele built in deep fat fryer instead. You can't duplicate it w/ anything else. For $2200 you can get a lot of beautiful Stainless steel griddles:) all sizes...cast iron too...anything you want. I think they are cool looking but really a lot of money for an item that you can duplicate and also will never need to be serviced. Just my opinion of course. Good luck and gizo...please post pics on Kitchens of you using yours...I would LOVE to see! c