New Japanese steakhouse!

Ok, if you know me, you know I don't eat red meat including steaks, but that has never kept me away from Japanese Steakhouses. We had a new one open up a couple weeks ago, it's less than 1 mile from my house so you know we had to try it out! There's another one in town, but it's not that good and then another about 15 miles away on beachside but that one's always been such a pain to drive out to, so this close one is very welcome in our town!

I'll have to get photos of the inside next time (yes, there will be a next time) because they put a lot of work into this place. It's in a fairly new strip with Quizno's, nail, hair and tanning salons and our local pet supply store. When it was first built, it was Bada Bing Pizza and Wings, a very overpriced pizza shop. That lasted about a year. Then it turned into Italia which was a pretty decent Italian place - the food was good, but it lacked in atmosphere. Plus there's stiff competition from another Italian place right down the street. Then I heard this place was going in. It said Hibachi on the window, so I was excited!

They've got 6 hibachi grills and can seat about 45 people on the hibachi side. They've also got another side, not sure what it's called, where you can order off the menu, and a full fresh sushi bar. The main focal point is a huge fiber optic display hanging from the ceiling that changes color gradually. Very pretty - looks like huge crystals.

They've got typical Japanese steakhouse menu items - chicken, shrimp, steak, scallops, and more plus many appetizers and tons of different sushi and sashimi rolls. I got chicken, my parents each got chicken and steak and DH got steak. Each meal is served with onion soup, salad, veggies, rice and shrimp appetizer.

The onion soup is very smoky flavored, pretty good though, even DH liked it. The salad's got standard ginger dressing but there's a little hint of sweetness in it - also very good. Then it was time for the show. The below pic isn't from our dinner, it's to show the show. Our fires were even bigger than this one!Our chef's name was Allen and he was sure an entertainer. It was only us at the table, as we had an early dinner, but he gave us the full show. I'll give you some of the highlights. He started out with the knife and utensil show - flipping and tossing and catching, all so fast it was making me nervous. Once, he acted like he missed it and at the end, he brought the spatula about a foot away from my dads face and scared us all. We were all cracking up.
Then he brought out a zucchini. He sliced it up and told us to open our mouths. He then tried to flip pieces into our mouths - funny! There were zucchini pieces all over the floor. I did catch 1 in my mouth though! I do have talent ;) Next was the egg. Throwing and balancing a whole egg until it cracked. Which we all cracked up at too. Then he cracked open another egg, separated the yolk and tossed the yolk several times without breaking it. This guy was great! Next, the flaming volcano - stack layers of onion, fill them with Saki and light it on fire, standard show. But then, he pulled out this little doll and squirted the fire. It took me a second to realize the squirting was coming out of the lower half of the doll - he was peeing on the fire to put it out! Where do you get that type of toy?! Silly guy!

More food slinging and many many more laughs and our show was over and it was time to eat our delicious food. All in all, a great experience. We'll definitely be back, just probably not soon because we still have leftovers here at home!