Teriyaki Madness Austin

The food here often seems sinfully rich yet healthy. I start with a tempura shrimp appetizer ($4.49), which is tasty and hearty with four crispy tempura-battered shrimp stretched out in the Japanese style. Teriyaki Madness has me select my bowl entree in three simple choices: for protein I choose tofu from among a variety of chicken preparations and teriyaki beef. I choose a base—the foundation of my lunch which will like in the bottom half of my bowl. Bases include white, brown, or fried rice, or Yakisoba noodles, and I go rather enthusiastically with the noodles because I've had them before here and love them. Yakisoba noodles are a Japanese dish of fried buckwheat noodles (similar to Ramen noodles)—they aren't crispy but soft like thick and enriched spaghetti. For my final choice, the accompaniment, I prefer stir-fried vegetables as opposed to steamed. This magical combination of tofu, marinated and mildly redolent of both teriyaki and sweet onion, veggies, and noodles, along with a fountain drink, tax, and tip, cost me $20, but I was extravagant. A budget-minded eater could have a healthy meal for half that. Though I ordered a bowl, the plate holds even more food, and with a plate you have more options, like two proteins, and green salad or macaroni salad. There are kids bowls with fountain drinks, most for $6. I am a slow eater by temperament, and I love lingering over my bowl and slowly taking apart its treasures with my chopsticks. Despite their sometimes busy-ness, Teriyaki Madness doesn't seem to mind my contemplative eating of my lunch, and they leave me alone to savor every bite, and that brings up an important point: it occurs to me that in many fast food places, the height of the drama lies between the ordering and the delivery of the food. Yet at Teriyaki Madness, the mechanics of getting the food to the table is merely a prelude, and the drama rests in the slow eating and savoring, which is what really should happen, isn't it?

Really great Japanese fast food. Their menu is pretty straightforward and simple, and their portions are just right and filling for the price. Make no mistake this is nothing fancy, much more like a quick stop-n-go along the lines of a Pei Wei or Chipotle, but the food is way better than either of those places in my opinion. This is one of my favorite new North Austin lunch stops.