Hard to believe it, but yet another new restaurant has opened in Evanston.
It’s a banner year for the North Shore suburb that’s already a dining destination.
World, meet Todoroki Hibachi and Sushi, a restaurant with two identities. There’s the modern décor sushi side and the goofy, throwback hibachi room, with not much going on but the huge grills with guests seated around the entertaining hibachi chefs.
Everybody Hibachi!
After visiting both, my verdict is in: sign me up for hibachi, which is a sentence I could never imagine I would type. Sure, I went to a Benihana for prom an undisclosed number of years ago, and to be sure, the grill chef’s shtick is much the same. But it is fun, whether you go with a group of 8-10 friends or leave your dining companions to fate.
From the standard Japanese restaurant salad (icy cold iceberg lettuce, topped with a few radishes and that addictive carrot-ginger dressing), you graduate to the grill work. The affable chefs keep the fun going by squirting sake shots directly into your mouth while they deftly chop and sauté dinner, which includes fried rice, mixed vegetables, and sautéed shrimp that jump onto your plate with the help of a flexible spatula.
All you have to choose is your protein. I can recommend the tuna, which when griddled medium rare, is the steakiest fish I know; the chicken, in a tasty marinade, and the filet, cooked to a turn. Prices for combos range from $20-30, well worth it for the amount of food (and fun) to be had.
Sushi’s Turn
As for the sushi side, presentations were beautiful, from the towering Spider roll ($8.50) with it’s prehistoric soft shell-crab arm sticking out of the top, to the Age Dashi Tofu ($5), an appetizer of lightly fried tofu topped with waving bonito flakes. The problem was flavor.
Either dishes were under seasoned, like the above tofu, or strangely flavored like the Gyu Kushi Yaki ($8), skewers of well-cooked beef with a tiny nubbin of scallion topped with a weirdly sweet sauce.
The Spicy Tuna Maki ($5.50) had a mushy texture – too pureed instead of finely diced as I prefer. The Nabeyaki Udon ($13) was not the dish I thought I had ordered; perhaps the server misheard me? I was expecting udon noodles and vegetables in broth with chicken, egg and tempura shrimp, but no chicken was in sight. Instead, there were chunks of salmon and something scallop-like. The broth was fine but nothing special.
Bottom line, if I was going out for sushi in Evanston, I would prefer Kansaku, where the preparations are more inventive and the flavors are spot on. But if you’re talking hibachi, look no further. That side’s a winner.
2.5/ 5 stars
Todoroki Hibachi & Sushi
526 Davis St.
Evanston
847-750-6565
