Today I parked my rig at the TA. Walked a few blocks to this restaurant, wasn't too difficult of a…read morehike. Having seen a billboard AD driving along the i70, I thought huh, hibachi down the road on exit 160, let's do this. Originally had other plans, like hitting up the NAF NAF for some Mediterranean food couple miles further. But haven't had any Bennihana style hibachi in ages, I did sort of crave the grilled veges, NY Steaks and hibachi butter fried rice.
So got in here today, and it was pretty quiet. Wasn't even sure if there were any parties at the grill. Back in the days I use to work at a pretty high octane hibachi in the Permian Basin (ya, think Billy Bob Thornton in Landman on steroids). We'd have oil field crews pack our entire restaurant, and I'd be doing daily sales of 3,000.00 to 4,000.00 just under my own tab. Those were the days you can order a bowl of Udon noodles and it probably came out to 8.99--- good ole pre- inflation days.
So onto the food here. Steak was over cooked, wanted medium rare, tasted well done. Chicken was decent, moist, not dried out. I've had hibachi chicken in certain restaurants where the meat was straight up dried. So good job. The fried rice was a 7/10. Not the best, but better than Panda Express. The grilled veges were alright, the teriyaki sauce was decent not too sweet. And overall the hibachi combo plate of NY Steak, Chicken w/ fried rice was overall a 7.5/10. I want to give a thumbs up to the restaurant for their portions. This being lunch hours, the lunch portion here can play out in many other places as dinner size.
The Miso soup was your typical hot soup + instant dried seaweed + supermarket house brands tofu. Can't screw this dish up.
And the salad was sugar overkill...along with the Yum Yum Sauce.
What I wished they did with the Salad sauce. Okay, blend carrots, apples, increase ginger, couple slices of lemon, and cut down on the sugars.
For the Yum Yum Sauce decrease the sugar, more garlic, and please add a tad bit more MSG for that flavor bomb.
Now because I figured I might still be hungry, I ordered their 2 roll sushi lunch special-- the Bay bridge, and the Volcano. Sushi rolls were both pretty solid. The sushi chef here gets a 8/10 for his sushi rice making ability. I've seen complete failures at restaurants serving sushi where the rice isn't even cooked through. Worse I've had sushi rice that tasted like those Supermarket sushi franchises Snow Fox and Fuji Foods. Special mention: the wasabi is spicy. Very good.
For a hibachi grill restaurant, this place is a solid 7/10. Is it worth walking over here if your semi truck is parked nearby? Yes. Is it worth a detour if you're on a road trip and don't want burgers and fries? Yes. Is it a nice setting to sit down and talk with your colleagues or watch their hibachi chefs perform? Sure. In the end, for price, portion, and just a no bs Japanese teppanyaki meal, I think Fujiyama can fill that void. Why the 3 Stars? because there's room to improve, food wise, like the fried rice: more white peppers, onions, garlic butter, soy sauce, scallions.
To my Chinese passerbyers:
覺得路過的客人，可以過來關顧一下，整體食物質量管控還行，就是甜了一點；要是有哪位華人卡車師傅在附近停靠，過夜，我也還是會推薦過來這家日式鐵板試試，想當年羅蘭剛一家老字號的上林鐵板燒已經被蒙古餡餅給取代了，也就是抱有這種懷舊才使得我過來品一品這村莊的日式鐵板。
