What's Cookin'

Cookin' WHAT'S

WITH MATT LAINE

DOMO JAPANESE HIBACHI GRILL, SUSHI & RAMEN

215 NORTH GREEN RIVER ROAD, EVANSVILLE, IN

This is a place I’ve seen a lot of people mention to me for a review. I love some Hibachi and sushi so my wife and I had to check it out. I will say I didn’t get any ramen because it’s just so hard to pass up some hibachi food, but I had their ramen back when they were part of the China Bistro and really enjoyed it!

This place is new and looks like it! It is just clean as can be and looks very modern. The decor is extremely warm and inviting. I’m so happy that a great local restaurant picked up this spot because it’s a great location right off the Lloyd Expressway. When we came in we decided to go with a table instead of the grill just so we could enjoy and review the place to ourselves. Service was everything you would hope it would be at any restaurant you pick, and nowadays that goes quite a long way! In order to give it a fair shot, we decided to try a couple different sushi rolls and each got a hibachi lunch plate. I will say that it seems like they have a pretty large menu for a hibachi place but I guess that is because they also

specialize in ramen, which is great during these colder months of the year.

For our meal, we ordered two similar sushi rolls; mine was just a Valentine's Day special and came as a pink roll shaped into a heart (nice touch by the sushi chef). My wife ordered the steak hibachi and I had the calamari. The sushi was good, not great, but I think I ordered one that would probably be that way anywhere I went. Usually I stick to a handful of sushi flavors, but today I tried to venture out more, so that was my mistake. The salads were also very good; the dressing had a very slight hint of sweetness to it, but it didn’t overpower anything in the bowl. It’s up there as one of my top 5 dressings on a salad! I will say the calamari was cooked very well, which is hit or miss at a lot of places because it gets very chewy fast if overcooked even slightly. There was a beautiful char on it while also remaining soft as could be when biting through it. The light seasonings on it gave it a burst of flavor - I just wish they would have finished it with a drizzle of lemon to go that extra step in bringing out the flavors of the calamari. Don’t get me wrong, this calamari was still really good and tender! As for the steak, to me, it lacked a lot of seasoning in the crust. I know with hibachi a lot of the flavors are from blending the protein, rice, and veggies together, but it just seemed like a bland steak thrown on the plate. I don’t know if this is the norm or if it was just that our steak was under-seasoned before it met the grill. Either way, I hope next time they load that puppy up with some seasonings! The rice and veggies were all expertly cooked and delectable, including some of the best mushrooms I’ve had in quite some time!

As far as hibachi goes, I’d put this place in second after Roppongi. I used to have that spot reserved by Ninki, but it was overtaken on this day. All are still great choices and you can’t go wrong with any of them!

I’m so happy that a great local restaurant picked up this spot because it’s a great location right off the Lloyd Expressway.