On Friday night, the Husband and I went to Nakato, a japanese steakhouse, to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  Our friend has been going to hibachis for his birthday almost every year and we were happy to join him.  After having hibachi so infrequently over the last few years until a few weeks ago, we were looking for some entertainment and good food!

On our way to our table, we passed the large sushi area…

with sushi boats!

Our table set-up was slightly more traditional than other hibachi restaurants we’ve been to.  We took off our shoes and thought we were going to be sitting cross-legged on the floor.  Luckily, there was space for our legs to hang under the table, but it was a bit difficult to get seated!

I love chopsticks!

We started off with the usual miso soup…

and ginger salad…

We then all received a shrimp appetizer

and watched the onion volcano

Then the meat and seafood were cooked.  Clockwise from the top – sirloin, filet, calamari (we had the most difficult time figuring that one out! and it was the Husband’s   ), prawns, scallops, and shrimp.

The final product!  I had scallops and filet and fried rice.  Yum!

After dinner, the staff brought a birthday cake for our friend and sang to him both in English and Japanese.

You can pretty much put sprinkles on any dessert and I’ll love it

I’m more partial to chocolate, but this was quite enjoyable.  There was another birthday at the table so there was lots of cake to go around!

Ambiance: Nakato was very similar to any other hibachi place we’ve been to.  The sushi boats seemed like fun if we had been there for sushi.  The “no shoes” at dinner was unique and somewhat annoying to get seated in, but we appreciated the desire to look more traditional.

Menu: Just like any other hibachi place – lots of meat, seafood, and combination options.  The prices are comparable to all of the other hibachi restaurants out there.

Something you won’t find on most menus: What stood out to us but was apparently common to our friends is having noodles with your hibachi.  We enjoyed them, but just haven’t seen that before.

Service: Our waitress was good with getting drink refills and was very personable.  Our chef was entertaining but a bit messy when serving (a lot of food made it onto the table instead of our plates), but there was a lot of food so we didn’t “need” what didn’t make it to the plates We were surprised at the limited number of asian employees – something which differed from other hibachi restaurants; not a problem, just something that we noticed.

Food: Tasty and not overly salty which was good

Overall: Nakato in Pineville was a satisfactory hibachi experience.  The food was good and not overly salty (which can sometimes happen) and we thought the filet (which we ordered medium rare) was very well prepared!

Recommendation: If you’re looking for hibachi in the South Charlotte/Pineville area, this is a good option!