Japanese Hibachi restaurants are one of our favorite choices for dining out. Usually, we visit the one located close to our home, which never disappoints us. Tonight we felt adventurous and decided to try a different Japanese restaurant in the Alexandria area – Sumo Sushi Hibachi. It’s located in a plaza with plenty of parking, which is rare for this city (!).
It was a beautiful summer day and there were many tables available for the outside dining.
We came to the restaurant around 4:00 on weekday to beat the crowd, and luckily there was nobody in the hibachi area. So we had really private dinner with a personal chef and we enjoyed this dinner very much! 🙂 The hibachi grilled table experience is always a blast at any restaurant that offers it, but the food, chef and service here exceeded our expectations. Besides, Japanese hibachi restaurants have an emotional value for me, since my husband and I had our first date a long time ago in one of Florida’s hibachis.
The restaurant is beautifully decorated. Sumo’s decor conveys the celebrity of sumo wrestlers in feudal Japan by showing their contests of strength beneath the rising sun and the adoration of kimono-clad fans as they walk the streets of cities and villages.
The chefs of Sumo prepare hibachi-style meals for their guests by frying rice and grilling fresh proteins on giant skillets built into the middle of the restaurant’s tables. Although the delicious aroma of their food certainly commands attention, they capture the full admiration of their guests with stunning knife and fire tricks, such as summoning flames or juggling blades as they cook.
Behind the sushi bar, they practice a less flashy form of knife work as they carefully slice rice, meat, fish and seaweed into bite-size colorful rolls and morsels.
Our hibachi chef was funny and attentive. Of course, he created a traditional onion volcano for us. The hibachi chef’s performance was certainly entertaining, and it was a unique experience.
