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Hibachi at East- Berkeley Heights, NJ

10 Aug

 

My father just bought a new house in NJ (Congrats again daddy!) and we decided to have a celebratory dinner at East, a local Japanese restaurant in Berkeley Heights, NJ.  At first we sat in the regular section, but out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of fire and realized that the room just next to us was for… HIBACHI!

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We still got some sushi to start, however, including a Philadelphia Role (a completely blasphemous but tasty role of salmon and cream cheese).  It was tasty, but I’ve had much better.

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The Hibachi was very typical, with the show of cooking that is completely tacky and overdone but always a good, nostalgic fun.  Our guy started with a greasy smile…

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Then lit it on fire… OOO FIRE!

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He made a heart shape out of the rice (and then made it “beat” but pulsing his spatula underneath it in the effortless style that only a Hibachi chfef can know)

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I LOVE Hibachi Fried Rice.  Why it tastes so much better from Hibachi than almost anywhere else, I do not know. But I do now need to solve the mystery to eat FAR too much of it with utter joy.

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We ordered an assortment of dishes.  The veggies (on the left of this pic) come with the meal (as did miso soup, the fried rice, and 2 shrimp each).  There was also steak, scallops, chicken, shrimp, and lobster tails.

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And then the classic onion volcano.

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FIRE!

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And then a very cute display of a toy that pissed water to put out the tire.  Nice evolution of the show for the adults.

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I chose the scallops, which were awesome.

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Plust the steak… which was just okay.

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Overall, as far as Himachi goes, this was perfectly fine.  Not outstanding, but still enjoyable.  I was glad that they didn’t force anyone to catch shrimp in their mouth at this one.  For that, an extra 1/2 nom point!

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10