It's Evansville — Food Review Followup: Zuki’s Hibachi!

Food Review Followup: Zuki’s Hibachi!

Last week we reviewed the sushi portion of Zuki, and this week we bring you a small update about the restaurant. Last night we went back and visited the hibachi side of the restaurant. Most of the information about the restaurant can be found in last week’s review, so please see that if you haven’t already.

As stated before, the hibachi area is clearly defined and consists of 8 tables between two rooms. Just like Nagasaki, each grill seats eight customers, but these seem to have smaller grill spaces that give a more intimate feeling due to that factor. Also, these tables are of imitation black granite, giving a more stylish feel that suits the rest of the restaurant. The plates for the hibachi area are specially designed for Zuki, white with the Zuki logo on them: Zuki in quick black letters, with a red rising sun, and some characters. I again found the tacky, wooden, break apart chopsticks next to my plate.

The menu was split between ordering the entire entree, combos, or a la carte. Each menu offers meats such as steak, filet, chicken, teriyaki chicken, shrimp, salmon, and lobster. There was also one option that I forget the name of: apologies. It was a Japanese name and I saw a woman at the next table get: very very thin steak that was chopped and cooked with onions. Of course, there are combos to order that combine two of the various meat options. With these meals are served soup and salad, vegetables, and fried rice. The soup tastes exactly like Nagasaki’s soup, like a salty chicken broth, but the salad differs in the dressing, which seemed to be something of a mustard-ginger. The vegetables are zucchini, mushroom, onion, and broccoli.

Overall, the food was pretty good and I really liked how the flavors were more subdued than those at Nagasaki. Also, there was a touch less food. The chef did the regular tricks like tossing the knives, volcano onion, or fire. However, he also tried some new things and was much more engaged with the customers during everything he cooked. I think next time I am craving some good hibachi food I’ll come back to Zuki.

Zuki is located at 1448 N. Green River Rd., behind Rafferty’s. (812) 477-ZUKI. Mon-Sat 11am-2pm, 4pm-10pm; Sun 11am-9pm.

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Tracy

March 03, 2008 @ 05:48PM

Went to Zuki Friday night with my sister and bro in law and we liked the look of the place and the service was ok but we were not impressed with the food….ate at the hibachi our guy way overcooked everything…most of our vegetables were a bit burned! I didn’t like that there was no choice of bean sprouts or cabbage along with the other vegetables. We really disliked the salad dressing but the salads themselves were decent. We ordered two sushi rolls but did not receive them until we had started to eat our meal…I was not very impressed with either. We really like Fujiyama on the northside….defintely not as fancy but much, much better food!

Jenna

March 04, 2008 @ 10:52AM

@tracy: That’s disappointing that you had such a negative experience there. The sushi does get very backed up there on nights when the sushi area is busy, despite two chefs. I’m not sure if it’s a speed issue, or a backorder issue. A couple sitting at our table ordered sushi before they even sat down to the table and decided to cancel their order because it wasn’t going to arrive in time. I wish you had a better experience, maybe a few months down the road when all the new-opening kinks are out of the system you’ll give it another try, my food was all cooked very well I thought.

Thanks to your suggestion, I just put Fujiyama on my “to review” list, thanks!

Jenn

March 04, 2008 @ 03:10PM

My fiance and I ate at the hibachi grill on Saturday night. The restaurant was very busy, which is always expected for a new restaurant in Evansville….but aside from the wait, the food was delicious and the chef’s performance was excellent. I am actually going back tonite to sample the Thai roll at the sushi bar.

In response to Fujiyama…I’m not a fan. The service was better than Nagasaki’s (which isn’t hard to beat) but the food at the hibachi grill wasn’t very good. Maybe it was too authentic for me (I don’t know)… I won’t be going back.

Justin Williams

March 04, 2008 @ 06:44PM

I don’t understand the appeal of hibachi. I don’t want someone performing a show with my food. I have Food Network for that.

March 04, 2008 @ 08:20PM

Yeah I don’t really prefer the hibachi…I’d rather eat off the menu and sushi etc….and yeah I don’t enjoy the “show” either….its always the same corny crap…I really think the sushi is better at fujiyama.

March 04, 2008 @ 08:28PM

@jenn, I wonder if it was you then sitting next to me with a little girl when I was there

zrx1200r

March 05, 2008 @ 12:20AM

having worked in kitchens, having been a waiter/bartender for a few yrs, i can say that sometimes it’s best to see your food cooked in front of you, not having to imagine—much less see—who’s handling your food…and how it’s being handled………..

Diane

March 05, 2008 @ 08:10AM

My husband and I went to Zuki Saturday night as well. It did take a long time to get our sushi, and the waitress told us it was because there were many sushi orders that night and they were just backed up. Our sushi was fine, but we felt the nigiri pieces were small. My husband and I got on a sushi kick a few months ago and tried every sushi restaurant in the area. We think Jaya’s is the most consistent and good quantity for the money. Also, the guy at Blush does a great job, but he’s a little slower, so be patient.

Robyn

March 05, 2008 @ 09:19AM

Although I haven’t been to every place in town that serves Sushi, I have been to a few and like Jaya’s the best, too. How many places in Evansville serve Sushi as a specialty? I would like to expand out and try other places besides the ones I have been to. Any suggestions?

March 05, 2008 @ 09:50AM

I’ll preface this with the statement that the comments are only my opinion. I usually compare everything back to Nagasaki because that seems to be someplace most people have tried.

Nagasaki - average service, rolls seem to be sloppy and often fall apart, average price.

Jaya’s - Downtown on 4th and Walnut I think. The sushi bar is (I’ve heard from several sources) the orignal Wasabi restaurant where Zuki is now. This is my favorite place for sushi. The rolls are consistently well made, the nigiri are always generous in size, and the price is comparable to Nagasaki. They have these wasabi dumplings as an appetizer that are amazing if you like wasabi.

Iwataya - North side, in strip mall off Mt. Pleasant and 41. Better quality than Nagasaki, about the same price. Good service, the place has never been packed when we’ve gone.

Blush - the service is slow, but the guy is very meticulous and everything is always very well made and good sized. Price is slightly higher I think than Nagasaki.

Schnucks (Green River & Lynch) - just throwing this in because I heard the guy from Blush makes the sushi for Schnuck’s. The temperature is always too cold, but it will do in a pinch.

I don’t know the name, but there is a place on Washington, near Green River (across from Schnuck’s) - the service was terrible, the sushi was small and not very well made (just my opinion). We’ve only tried it once, so maybe it was an off night. There was a decent saki selection (filtered and unfiltered) if that’s your thing.

I haven’t tried Fujiyama I must confess. I’ll make a point to try it in the next few weeks.

That’s all I know of around here. My hubby actually took a sushi making class at Kitchen Affairs before Christmas, so we’ve been making it at home lately. Very messy and time consuming, but we make enough to get our money’s worth.

March 05, 2008 @ 11:12AM

Thanks for the suggestions! I have been curious about Iwataya and Blush so maybe those will be tried soon.

I have been to Fujiyama, but haven’t tried the sushi there.

The place on Washington across from Schnuck’s is Kanpai. A couple of my friends go there on occasion and love it, however, when I have been the service is less then stellar. One time I was there with a group of 8. We were expecting the service to be a little slow because of the size of our party, but it was ridiculous. One of the people with me didn’t even get served. Despite the poor service, the food is actually pretty good.

The sushi bar at Jaya’s is the same as the old Wasabi. For a while the sushi chef was the owner of Wasabi, which Jaya had hired. I believe the chef there now is the same guy who was working at Kanpai.

March 05, 2008 @ 12:58PM

@Diane, the place across from Schnucks is called Kanpai, not my favorite, but I thought it was decent enough to eat again, but yeah, pretty bad service and very small rolls (but I sorta like that they are small)

I dunno who the guy is who works at Jaya’s sushi bar (previously wasabi’s), some white dude, who makes absolutely killer sushi…everyone try the Volcano Roll

mike

March 05, 2008 @ 09:00PM

Up at Purdue, the best sushi my wife and I ever found was at kokoro … the only thing we didn’t like about it was Tony made the rolls so enormous you pretty much had to cut up each piece to eat it. We went to kanpai once and will never go back … the only good thing they had going was smaller, manageable sized sushi. the service was horrible and the sushi chef sat for about 20 minutes just chatting with his friends while we waited for him to make our order (it was not busy at all).

We’ve been going to nagasaki for sushi since its fairly close to home, but we’ll have to try Jaya’s and Iwataya since they both seem to be getting such rave reviews on here

cody

March 06, 2008 @ 11:09AM

i have left mad the last 3 times i have ate at nagasaki. i am new to the sushi world and will have to try out jayas because by far it is my favorite hidden treasure in evansville

Kate

March 07, 2008 @ 08:33AM

The Courier and Press reports that a sushi place will be moving into the old Captain D’s on Diamond and Stringtown:
http://courierpress.com/news/2008/mar/06/06web-Tokyo/?ebj=1/

Erica

May 09, 2008 @ 10:28AM

Zuki’s sushi is amazing…try the Thai Roll, Crunchy Shrimp Roll and the Fried Lobster Maki!!!

Food Review Followup: Zuki’s Hibachi!

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