I love hibachi grill restaurants - the food is always pretty much the same - but I love it. I can't get enough of that yum yum sauce and there's always enough food for dinner + lunch the next day.
We have one very close to our house by Northgate Mall called
Kabuto. We have been a couple of times but never taken the photos and done the blog thing - so I decided it was time for it!
As is typical - you're seated at a communal table that seats 8 - sometimes people are chatty and other times - not so much. Either is fine by us - sometimes we're chatty and sometimes we're not. :-)
Most of the hibachi places start with miso soup and salad. The miso soup is basically chicken brother with mushrooms - I like it. The salad is hit or miss - I really like the ginger dressing at some and not so much at others. I'm not a fan of the ginger dressing at Kabuto - it's too chunky and not creamy - so I just go with ranch (#shocker).
What I do love is the yum yum sauce (top right)! Every place calls it something different but I heard that name at one in Marion, IA and have been hooked ever since.
My friend Nate has a recipe for it that I MUST try - it's creamy, spicy and just plain awesome! I think it's meant to dip your meat/veggies in the sauce - but I just pour the whole thing on top - LOVE IT!
The brown sauce is an egg-free sauce that maybe has ginger in it - I don't love it and never touch it.
We had our friendly and talented hibachi chef that did tricks with broccoli and made us a wonderful onion volcano. He had a great personality and was a fun chef for the table. It's sort of a crap shoot - sometimes you get someone fantastic that does a lot of tricks and other times - they're more quiet and all about the business. Part of the price is the "show" factor - and we enjoy it.
They make quite a log of fried rice (white rice upon request). I always love the tray of goods the chef brings to the table. There's this GINORMOUS block of butter that just keeps getting smaller and smaller throughout the dinner - no wonder the food is good! After getting the rice ready - they start the meat and veggies. The most popular orders are chicken, steak (of different qualities), shrimp and scallops. They also cook the steak to order - my order was medium rare steak & shrimp.
They parse the food out to you in pieces parts - rice - then meats - then veggies. Some people nosh along the way while others wait until it's all there and they're salivating significantly. I'm in the camp of the latter. Drool...drool...drool.
Here's a shot of Larry's white rice, steak & veggies. There are onions, carrots, zucchini and broccoli - all sauteed perfectly. Dammit - now I'm hungry again! They also give each table member a couple shrimp as well - so if you only like shrimp a little - you're good. :-)
You can also order sushi - I'm not sure how you'd have room - but if you're with a group - you could share it. It did look good (couple next to us let me take a pic).
Why Should You Go? There's one of these in most every big neighborhood in the city and we love it! I never see much difference in the food except in the salad dressing & yum yum sauce. It's all good and we really enjoy the food. I will say I've had better service at the knockoffs over the actual Benihana - but it's fine too.
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