Doesn't Recommend

KananRoad

Joined 5 years ago

Benihana for the masses. To begin with, it's hard to say how "authentic" a Japanese steakhouse is, because the teppanyaki steakhouse is a postwar phenomenon. That being said, those looking for an authentic Japanese food experience should look elsewhere. The food was like something a Japanese American family stuck in rural Wisconsin for 20 generations might create. Rather than miso or wakame (seaweed) soup we got an onion soup, which wasn't Japanese but was pretty good anyway. The salad had a dressing that tasted more like Thousand Island than Japanese. The teppanyaki food itself was cooked with margarine and vodka, not the traditional ingredients of soy sauce, sake, etc. The plum wine was not real plum wine but the plum-flavored white wine. (To be fair, most Japanese restaurants in this area seem to stock only this kind, even though it is not nearly as good as the real stuff.) I ordered the scallops, which were pretty good, if salty. I didn't need the sauces they set out at all. My friend ordered steak, which was unfortunately overcooked amidst the hoopla of preparation. The preparation is a treat to see. I wish that the food matched.