I have been wanting to try the "new" Hibachi Japan location in Cuyahoga Falls for months now. My husband and I have avoided the old location due to my concerns about cleanliness (sticky floors, bad smell).
I arrived at the new Riverfront location early on a Thursday evening... around 4:25 PM. I was looking forward to a relaxing meal since hubby was working late. I was also looking forward to the hibachi sideshow (that I've always loved)!
My first issue was parking.... where in heaven's name does one park to eat at this restaurant? I drove into the driveway to the right of the restaurant and found myself stuck in a cul-de-sac behind a confused woman who was backing up through said cul-de-sac to park in an area next to the dumpster. No parking lot is included at this location. I ended up parking on the street and walking to the restaurant.
Ok... so the restaurant doesn't open until 5. I literally walked around Cuyahoga Falls for a half-an-hour playing Pokemon Go because I really wanted to eat here. Got to Level 10!
When the doors to the restaurant were finally unlocked I was seated at a hibachi grill with 7 other diners. The interior of the restaurant is beautiful and clean! It is dimly lit and has a nice bar. The ambience can't make up for the shortfalls though...
WHERE is the fun chef? Where are the noodles? Why aren't eggs being flung around by spatulas? Why isn't the chef catching all manner of food in his hat? Where is the comedic character that squirts water on the fiery grill? Why wasn't sake streaming out of a squirt-bottle towards my mouth? Why did my dinner taste like propane (and is this detrimental to my health)? Why did 6 diners have to wait for food because one patron "doesn't like mushrooms... eww!" OMG! Pick them out!!!
My salad (which used to be delicately laced with a thick creamy fresh ginger dressing that clung to the lettuce for dear life) is now slopped with a watery peach-colored sweet ginger broth that I'm convinced will remain on the front of my white cardigan forever. My filet was NOT rare (as ordered)... like another reviewer mentioned - I kept thinking "that isn't MY STEAK on the grill... it's too well done!" When it was tossed on my plate I was sad. I would like to interject here that, if the filet mignon was ACTUALLY THICKER than the ribeye or the other (nameless) steak on the hibachi menu, an alert diner (such as myself) could alert the chef to the fact that my filet needed to be pulled off of the propane-enhanced, mushroom-less, shoe-leather-eating-fellow-diner grill before it was pulverized to a temperature beyond medium.
As much as I want to be a cheerleader for the town we live in, I have to admit that Shogun in south Akron is my choice for hibachi from now on.