Crowd-wowing DELIGHT
Theatrical grilling a crowd-pleaser, but Hanzo Japanese Steakhouse offers many quieter delights
Rensselaer County’s first hibachi restaurant worth the drive.
AChinese-run Japanese restaurant in a strip mall is not unusual, but the arrival of Hanzo Japanese Steakhouse in the new Shoprite plaza on the Rensselaer side of the Hudson River certainly is. Its high elevation on Route 43 has spectacular sunset views and an occasional slice of Albany skyline, so when local owner Michael Kwok describes plans for sidewalk seating facing the lot, it doesn’t seem silly. It might also be because his newly minted space is huge and stylishly designed for maximum appeal. Not only is this the first hibachi restaurant in Rensselaer County, it’s worth a drive.
Of course, hibachi is the draw. Behind one side of a modern partition wall, 10 hibachi tables are paired into five zones. Over several visits, including one midweek in a snowstorm, the mass of couples, families and groups occupying or awaiting seats, with the dining room half empty, underscored the point.
The rush since its November opening means hibachi is now first come, first served; reservations are taken for groups of 10 or more, and tables require a minimum of four to fire up the theatrics: chefs plinking tools on hot surfaces, pinging food into gaping mouths and fueling onion volcanoes with squirts of sake. The shrieks of delight are real. The food is fine, exactly as you’d expect, and hard to mess up: rice and noodles, steak and dancing shrimp, salty and tasty with an excess of soy from the show. The kids will glug sugary Japanese sodas — those with a clear marble in the neck — and love it all.
But beyond hibachi in 18 dinner combos, and lunch-sized versions too, the menu is an overwhelming array of lists: Kitchen appetizers, sushi appetizers, sushi rolls, sushi a la carte, and special rolls with dubious names like the Mean Streets of Rensselaer and a pearl-clutching Oh My Lord. We accept recommendations for the TNT roll with spicy yellowtail and jalapeno, and the Texas Cross, a crunchy blue-crab roll wrapped in avocado and grilled eel decorated with fresh flowers.
We’re having a lovely time, grabbing vividly
red, candied “newborn octopus” (tako tamago) that are crunchy yet soft, and polishing off sunomono salad, a raw fish and cucumber medley splashed in vinegar. There’s deep-fried soft-shell crab, sweetly soaked fried bean curd pockets, pink-tipped red clam and fried gyoza snacks. Nothing is wildly priced, and with so many from $6 to $10 it’s easy to rack up a hefty tab, particularly if persuasive servers and a color-changing board render you powerless to decline the specials. Luckily, those are the ones to have.
One night we try the rainbow tartare, a tower of diced tuna, salmon and escolar with avocado, mango and sticky soy-yuzu sauce; another night it’s fresh scallop diced in its shell, though they chuck its soft orange coral before I can stop them. When I do, they are interested: Upstate, it’s an unusual request. Kwok, whose family has owned sushi and hibachi restaurants from Connecticut to Virginia, later explains guests rarely stray from what they know, so they order these treats in quantities small enough to ensure freshness and move them fast.
Order the Kumamoto oysters, if they have them, and see what else is fresh. You might be rewarded with uni (urchin), or the outrageous delicacy of butter-soft toro or cho-toro (Japan’s revered tuna cuts). Each were pristine on the days they had them. The more guests ask, the more we’ll get.
Since half of Rensselaer and both Greenbushes seems packed around the hibachi tables, we in the dining room are lavished with attention. Chatty servers are happy to make recommendations.
One suggests the octopus and is excited enough to mix up a spicy citrus marinade in which we glide pieces and slide jalapeno, cut gossamer thin, on top. The octopus is fridge-cold, but the marinade makes the win. Later, when my youngest excitedly orders ice cream mochi, they cut them into quarters (to prevent choking), and prop them cutely against squirts of cream.
Of course, there are still a dozen entrees from katsu curry to tempura or a $50 Hanzo steak-chicken-and-shrimp dinner for two. Each comes with soup, so we alternate between miso and a bone broth as fine and clear as French consomme.
In the curiously named Florida Meets Japan entree, the juxtaposition of firm broiled shrimp and silken Japanese eggplant in kimchee cream is superb; the Hanzo Triple is a tumbling hillock of shrimp, vegetables, sliced steak and scallops smothered in a sticky soy glaze, and I’m not convinced the chewy steak is a quality pick. Fried rice is fried rice; noodles in stir-fried yaki soba are soft, as if slightly overdone. Sauces veer sweet and often treacly, sometimes leaning closer to Chinese.
On this side of Hanzo, the bar and dining identity is fused: Lights dangle through exposed ductwork from a cavernous industrial ceiling while flat-screen TVS and blue under-counter LED lights make it feel part sports bar, part loosely Japanese. Of course you can order sushi at the hibachi counters, but, here, tables are large enough for princely shipments of sushi and sashimi on plates shaped like open books, ovals and narrow rulers. Tent cards promote cocktails and champagne — Moet and Veuve Cliquot? Bravo! — and the bar bristles with a dozen taps and spirits under samurai swords. That my guest’s margarita is made
with a sweet mix and served in a cactus glass is neither criticism nor surprise; luckily, the bartender’s lychee martini is something I unabashedly love.
Hanzo is already popular, so you don’t need me to predict its success. You already know the deal, sight unseen. Decide who to take and what to spend, then pick a side.
Dinner for two costs around $160 for a sushi selection, entrees, cocktails and dessert, or $100 for hibachi and cocktails, with tax and tip. Lunch is around $13 for a bento box with tax only. (There is also a $50 Hanzo dinner for two, without tax and tip.)
Susie Davidson Powell is a British freelance food writer in upstate New York. Follow her on Twitter, @Susiedp. To comment on this review, visit the Table Hopping blog, blog.timesunion.com/ tablehopping.