Tokyo Cuisine - West Springfield, MA

Tokyo Cuisine is a new restaurant that opened up not too long ago on Riverdale Street near the Clarion Hotel. It is a Chinese and Japanese restaurant that also features Hibachi so I definitely was excited to check it out as I love Hibachi.

We went in on a weeknight so it was not busy at all. We were seated right away at the Hibachi table with a few other couples. There were three other Hibachi tables one of which was full of people and the chef was finishing up their entrees. Now I don't know how many Hibachi Chef's they have on staff, especially on a weeknight, but from what I could tell he was it, so unfortunately we had quite a wait ahead of us to get our food. The couple next to us said that they got there about 20 minutes before we did and then we waited a good half an hour after we arrived so total wait time to get a Hibachi Chef over was approximately 45 minutes (maybe longer) Ouch!

Fortunately, there were servers going around offering drinks and we had the opportunity to order some appetizers from the sushi bar. Thank goodness we did or we might have eaten our menus!

For appetizers, we ordered a california roll and a "sexy girl roll" which was a house specialty roll. Both rolls were brought out very quickly and they tasted great! Very fresh. They were both large in size and enough to share which was great especially since they were a little pricey compared to some of the other places in the area.

Once the Hibachi Chef made it over to our table things really got going. I imagine that this would be even more fun if you had a large group of people to go with. Luckily for us the couple next to us was really funny so we had a good time chatting with them.

The chef was really great, pouring sake into our mouths, flipping food at us and having us catch it in our mouths, and doing really fascinating tricks with his knife and with the food. Onion volcano anyone?? It was also great watching him cook because you knew exactly what he was putting into everything. Andy and I both ordered the steak from the Hibachi menu and it was cooked to perfection with a ton of garlic - just the way I like it! The entrees also came with miso soup, a salad with ginger dressing, two pieces of shrimp from the hibachi grill, and fried rice and noodles made on the hibachi. All of the food was fantastic. The noodles were my favorite cooked with teriyaki sauce and sesame oil. The people next to us had lobster tail and sea scallops which they said were both delicious. Yum!

As far as pricing goes entrees start at $17.99 and going up from there but I do have to say that you get alot of good food for the price so I would consider it a good value, especially since you are getting a little entertainment with your meal.

It should also be noted that they do have a seasonal liquor liscense so starting the end of March you will be able to get a beverage of an alcohlic nature but for now it is just soda and water.

I definitely want to give this place another try, the slow service at the Hibachi was a little annoying but the food definitely made up for it. I think I will try it out again with a larger group and I will go on a weekend when they might (hopefully) have more Hibachi Chef's available. I will give an update once I do go back and see if it has gotten any better. I am going to wait until the liquor liscense is in season because you know I gots to have me a scorpion bowl!

Tokyo Cuisine
1105 Riverdale Street
West Springfield, MA 01089