Takara in Kelley Square was this month’s gathering for Foodies and while I had eaten there before, it had been quite a long time ago so, I looked forward to getting reacquainted with the restaurant. Located in Kelley Square, Takara is a small, teppanyaki-focused establishment featuring 4 hibachi tables and a sushi bar, colorfully decorated with traditional Japanese adornments, lights and various knick knacks. What makes it more interesting is that the restaurant is owned and operated by Sony Cao, a 10 time recipient of the Benihana Chef Award during the time he cooked at the popular restaurant chain.
As with most hibachi restaurants, the show performed during the cooking of your meal is entertaining, albeit similar from restaurant to restaurant. The performance at Takara was on par with others I have seen, the onion volcano, breaking of the eggs and overall knife play was interesting, but if the food isn’t prepared well, the show is meaningless. Luckily at Takara my meal was very good and worthy of all the flying food and flashes of fire on the grill.
For my appetizer I chose some Maguro (tuna), Sake (salmon), and Hotate (scallop) sashimi, all of which arrived quickly and was fresh and very tasty. After our appetizer, the traditional salad with ginger dressing and cup of soup were served, both of which were good but unremarkable. For my meal I chose the Beef Tenderloin. Prepared on the grill top, the steak was plentiful, well seasoned and perfectly prepared. Grilled outside and still rare inside, the meat was extremely tender and flavorful. For me the portion size was slightly smaller than I would have wanted, but the quality was very good. The fried rice and mixed vegetables were well seasoned and cooked as I had requested, slightly over done so the veggies were tender and the rice crispy. I added some additional hot sauce to bring the heat level up and they were the perfect side dish to my main meal.
Hibachi can be tricky, trying to prepare everyone’s meal to be completed at the same time can be challenging but our chef timed the meal’s delivery just fine. There was some slight confusion as to who ordered what at our table, but overall the service was very good with our server adding some laughter and jokes to keep mood light and the smiles plentiful.