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!
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.
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…
Then lit it on fire… OOO FIRE!
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)
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.
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.
And then the classic onion volcano.
FIRE!
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.
I chose the scallops, which were awesome.
Plust the steak… which was just okay.
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
