Tomo - Hibachi

As a family, all of us love a good Japanese Steakhouse. Well, I should say, we all love Benihana. It is one of the few chains we visit a few times a year. I’m not sure why exactly, but it started as a pregnancy craving for me, so maybe it was just an inborn thing with my kids. And when they were little, it was always fun to have someone to occupy their attention. It also started my daughter on a short-lived goal to be one of the first female hibachi chefs (this really bothered her for awhile).

I always feel slightly guilty about the fact that we are going to a chain, and am always hopeful to find an independent option instead. Tomo is right by our house, and while I think it is known more for sushi, there is a hibachi area, and we decided to check it out. I liked that on the menu you could order what you want in various combinations, and my son liked that filet mignon was an option on the kids’ menu ($13.95) (they will do it at Benihana but you have to ask).

To start with, much is the practice at every Japanese steakhouse I have ever been to, you get a clear soup and salad appetizer (kids get one or the other). The soup was good- a little beefier tasting than others with sliced mushrooms and fried onions. The salad was your typical iceberg with a cucumber and tomato slice (not the season for those and it showed). The dressing is always a variation of a ginger dressing but I did not care for the creamy aspect of this one. I prefer the zingy taste of the pure ginger vinegar-type dressing. Hubby and I both had one bite and pushed the salad aside (they did give you a lot of dressing though).

The meals all come with fried rice included in the price (including the kids’), which is nice. Everyone really liked this version of fried rice. It had a lot of seasoning coming from sauces—soy and a creamy sauce they put on top. There was egg in there and onion, but less of any other veggies. It was popular at our table.

I ordered filet and shrimp and hubby ordered filet and salmon ($25.95 for either combo). You also get a couple of shrimp as an appetizer. You get a ginger sauce and a creamy mustard type sauce to dip in. The shrimp were pretty tough—cooked a little too long and without much finesse. And everything that was cooked on the hibachi seemed to be coated in a sweetish teriyaki-type sauce. I wasn’t a fan. It’s one thing if you order teriyaki chicken or whatever, but I like the cleanness of the shrimp, maybe a little  lemon and butter and then the ginger sauce. With all the different sauces, and the fact that they were sweet, it just became a little cloying. And as for the ginger sauce—it too had a sweetness to it. I have read copycat recipes online for Benihana’s ginger sauce (I told you, it’s a favorite in my family) and many contain ketchup. I think this one certainly did and tasted like it had too much of it.

Hubby’s salmon was the best thing. Being a sushi place, we were hoping for a decent piece of fish that wasn’t overcooked and he did a good job, even though it, like everything else, was also coated in the same sauce. It was nice and medium rare in the thickest parts and was by far the best thing we had.

The beef unfortunately, looked like decent quality when it was raw, but after it was cooked way too much (even though we all said we wanted medium rare) and drenched in yet more of the sauce. We took most of the beef home to the dog, which was a shame.

The best part of the dinner was probably the theatrics—they were certainly more showy here than they are at Benihana. There was a lot of bursts of flames and our chef liked squirting things from bottles directly into patrons mouths as well as flipping bits of veggies into your mouth as well (I passed on both). Speaking of veggies, they did a decent job on these—there was zucchini, onions, broccoli and mushrooms and he let them cook on the grill long enough that they had cooked, but still had a bit of crunch left in them.

All in all, it was a bit of a miss for us. Ok, hubby said he would never do the hibachi there again—but we had a decent sushi experience in the past, and the sushi part of the restaurant was packed, so we will likely come back and try that again.  I also really like the addictive Japanese gum they give you at the end. Intense burst of flavor that lasts about 5 seconds, making you want more. I could chew this stuff all day.

Tomo

7411 North Keystone, Suite A

Indy  46240

317/254-8666

www.tomo123.com 

Tomo

Tomo is another really close restaurant to me that I have never been to—and recently has been recommended by a couple of people, so we thought we would check it out.  The first thing I noticed was how well it was doing on a random Tuesday night—nice to see a small business like this with such good business. The other thing I noticed right away was the interior is pretty darn nice.  I guess for a strip mall outside of Wal Mart, I didn’t have high hopes.  But they have done a good job on the interior.  There are a few teppanyaki tables (a la Benihana) and then a larger restaurant area with a full bar.  We figured if we liked what we had, we may bring the kids back for the teppanyaki as Benihana is one of their favorite places.

The menu is quite large—the regular sushi type items as well as lots of other Japanese options (teriyaki, udon, etc) and even a few Thai dishes.  Of course huge menus always worry me, but you never know.  We started with an order of shrimp tempura ($6.95) for an appetizer (they have it as a dinner and an appetizer, we got the appetizer portion).  It was pretty good actually.  I always find it interesting to see how much tempura can vary from place to place, but their batter was very light and extremely crunchy.  My favorite part was that along with the shrimp (there were 2), they served several veggies, as is usually the case, and they served broccoli as one as well as eggplant, which are two of my favorite things to be done in this style.  I’m not sure why, but in San Francisco, they almost always offered both, and I got used to it—I get tired of the traditional squash and carrots you seem to see so many places here.   The zucchini was also really good.

We almost didn’t order the tempura, because it didn’t seem that exciting, but I am glad we did because it was probably our favorite thing of the evening.  We had some miso soup ($1.95) which was your standard miso soup, totally fine, nothing out of the ordinary.  Then we had the beef tataki ($9.95).  Normally I wouldn’t order beef in a Japanese restaurant (well a sushi place anyway), but because they did all the teppanyaki stuff, I knew they would turn over beef (and all of those tables were full while we were there).  It was lightly seared on the edges, and sliced thin, served nearly raw (except for the sear on the edges)and cold.  This dish was fine, but nothing about it made us really excited.  The beef was pretty tender, but there were some pieces that were a little too fatty.  The “chef’s special sauce” was a little overdone—the beef was really almost floating in it.  It was soy based, with some sweetness to it as well.  A little less of it would have been better.  There were lots of chopped chives on top as well, which I liked for some texture.  It is a very generous portion though.

Finally, we went with the sweetheart roll ($12.95) which was spicy tuna crunch on the inside (tuna mixed with little pieces of tempura bits) and then topped with fresh tuna, which was served in a cute way (it’s upside down because they put the heart facing hubby, go figure).  The heart was actually made up of several sauces, which were good with the rolls, and kind of necessary, because the roll on its own wasn’t that exciting.  But while I thought the whole thing was a creative presentation, I think I would have preferred the whole thing served as a regular roll with some sauce dressing it. The “spicy” tuna in the middle didn’t really have a lot of flavor and the first piece I ate had a large piece of tempura that was quite hard and made me think for a second I bit into something else.  This roll would be a skip for me.

The service was good all night—not super friendly, but extremely efficient and they never let your water glass get more than 1/3 empty before they were refilling it.  I also really really like the fruit flavored Japanese bubble gum they give you with your check.  But then again I have a weakness for it.  Honestly, it is possible I will go back just to get the gum.

Interestingly, the clientele (other than the teppanyaki grills which were dominated by families) on the night we were there was mainly made up of women—probably varying from their 20s to 40s.  Not sure why this is, but I was facing the door and just kept watching group after group of women coming in.

We have quite a few good sushi places around us, and several that are better as far as my food experience has gone, but I did like the interior, and I would possibly be willing to go back to try some other things. Recommendations?

Tomo

7411 North Keystone, Suite A

Indy  46240

317/254-8666

www.tomo123.com