Before tabletop grills, chefs could only entertain their diners by penning limericks in salad dressing or baking tickets to the circus into soufflés. Savor engrossing eats with today's Groupon: for $15, you get $30 worth of Japanese teppanyaki fare and drinks at Osaka House in Vancouver, Washington.

Osaka House's teppanyaki chefs force empty forks into extinction by cooking a menu of Japanese fare tableside. Before tasty theatrics transpire, eaters can jab chopsticks or upside-down popsicles into appetizers of shrimp tempura ($4.95) or pieces of california roll ($5.95). Partially sated appetites next welcome the arrival of raw ingredients, such as sukiyaki steak ($13.95), shrimp and calamari ($15.95), or chicken and scallops ($14.95), which the restaurant's masterful grill gurus toss into open flames in the center of diners' tables. Along with an edible spectacle as entertaining as setting fireworks off in a bowl of chowder, each entree also includes a shrimp appetizer, soup, salad, vegetable, and seasoned rice. Over-stimulated senses can wind down with sips of sake ($3.75–$5.50), Japanese beer, ($3.50–$5.95), or house wine ($2.75).