We’re excited that reporter Joel Gorthy interviewed franchisee, Farhan Khan for a story featured in the “Entertainment and Life” section of The Register-Guard.

Joel shared detailed information about the delicious food offered at Teriyaki Madness, as well as a brief background about Farhan and details of the opening in Eugene. Read the story below! 

Register-Guard: Franchise’s first Oregon restaurant opens in Santa Clara Square

I have a cousin whose childhood palate was so picky and plain, she took her pancakes dry without a drop of syrup or even a dollop of butter. Then through her young adult years, she ordered only teriyaki chicken at every restaurant she ever went to; she knew she could rely on most kitchens for a safe, straightforward, unsurprising treatment of the once-ubiquitous entree.

I hear that her tastes have matured over the years and she now welcomes new flavor experiences, at least within reason. Given that and her history with teriyaki, I think she would enjoy experimenting with the customizable Asian bowl-based meals available at Eugene’s new Teriyaki Madness location at 45 Division Ave., Suite J.

Local entrepreneur Farhan Khan opened the fast-casual grill — part of a fast-growing chain based in Denver — in north Eugene’s Santa Clara Square on June 17. It’s the first Oregon location for the franchised Seattle-style teriyaki house concept, which allows guests to tailor bowls to their own tastes with various rice and noodle options; protein choices including all-natural chicken, beef and tofu; more or less spice heat; and with or without stir-fried vegetables.

“With the Asian food trend continuously growing over the past decade, we’re thrilled to be giving residents of Eugene access to big, satisfying bowls filled with high-quality ingredients and mouthwatering flavors,” says Khan, a Northwest Christian University alumnus who also owns two Eugene 7-11 stores and Wayback Burgers just a few storefronts from Teriyaki Madness. “This is not your typical franchised food,” he adds of his newest venture.

Teriyaki Madness’ sauces and dressings are made from scratch in-house. Chicken potstickers and eggrolls, crab rangoon and edamame are available starters; sides include green salad and macaroni salad, the latter a staple of popular Hawaiian plate lunches that often feature chicken prepared with sweet, teriyaki-like “huli-huli” marinade and sauce.

Khan shared a couple of useful tips during my first visit to Teriyaki Madness. First, if you order the edamame, he wants you to actually enjoy the lightly steamed and salted soybeans served in the pod. The trick, he says, is to hold one end of a pod and pull it between your front teeth to dislodge the plump, tender, slightly sweet beans right into your mouth. The pods themselves are too fibrous to eat, yet Khan has noticed many first-timers gnawing on them with grim determination before realizing that they are nothing like sugar snap peas, which are best when crunched whole, crisp pod and all.

And if you get a green salad to go, it comes in a cardboard container, like Chinese food takeout, with the housemade dressing in a small plastic tub. Khan says the idea is to pour the dressing right into the box, then close it, shake it good, and reopen to reveal a perfectly, evenly dressed salad. There was a time when that cousin of mine would have skipped this step and munched, rabbit-like, from her little box of dry salad, but now I think even she would appreciate this flavor-enhancing hack.