Head to A1 Japanese Steakhouse for a Hibachi Experience

If you’ve never had a Hibachi dinner experience, make sure you try it out.  It’s not just a delicious dinner, but it’s an entertaining and a social event, as well.

Each table at seats eight people around a huge griddle, where a Japanese chef prepares your dinner right in front of you.  Most have playful tricks while they cook like tossing veggies into your mouth or launching raw eggs towards the ceiling and catching them in a hat. 

And before the entertainment, while you’re waiting for the table to fill up, you can get to know a little about your dinner company.  (One lady and I swapped stories about waiting tables in a hotel.)

Each Hibachi restaurant usually has a special Hibachi menu.  At A1, each dinner entrée comes with homemade soup and a salad topped with awesome Japanese dressing.  There is a vegetable entrée along with a variety of meat entrees such as chicken, salmon, steak, lobster, and shrimp.  And if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s a list of combination dinners (22, to be exact) such as chicken & scallops, shrimp & filet mignon, and lobster tail & salmon.

If you’re a sushi lover, A1 has great options that you can add on to your dinner, like the “Summer” combination: six pieces of sushi that include tuna, salmon, yellowtail, eel, shrimp, and striped bass in California rolls.

My meal: A Zombie cocktail and the Hibachi Chicken which came with zucchini, onions, mushrooms, carrots, and broccoli, all cooked on the griddle.  It was delicious, and the amount of food you get is pretty good, so I’d give it a 5/5.

Where:  3300 Lehigh Street, Allentown
              
When: Open every day 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday) 

Info: website or 610-709-0998          

Pricing: $$ ½ (the average entrée is about $16 and the average combination dinner is about $19)