Friday, Oct. 02, 2009
Iron plate grilling with a smile
Hana Teppanyaki House
Photo by Becky Billingsley
Setting the table
Hot fresh food certainly makes a good first impression, and an attractive décor makes the food more palatable. But knowing that when you step foot in a restaurant you will be greeted by name, with genuine affection and warmth, trumps all other factors.
Mickie Wang, who owns and operates the new Hana Teppanyaki House with her chef/husband, Stanley Wang, has this skill perfected. Years of experience as a tour guide in her native Taiwan, and more years as a server in American Japanese restaurants, gives her an edge in friendliness skills.
The couple opened the doors June 4 on their Japanese eatery located in the Forest Village Shopping Center in the Carolina Forest section of Myrtle Beach. They serve lunch and dinner daily in a lovely space with thoughtfully selected amenities. The name was also carefully considered: Hana means "flower," and teppanyaki means "iron plate grilling."
The dining area is one big sunny room with booths ringing tables. Tables are set with linen tablecloths, pink napkins and small potbelly jewel-tone vases holding single roses. Serving dishes are speckled jade-green Miya Japanese china, and at night the tables have candles.
Over the booths hang elegant Japanese lanterns, and on the walls are décor accents that conjure images of Japanese room-dividing screens. Servers and chefs wear coordinated outfits with shirts of indigo blue featuring white patterns of either bamboo or chrysanthemums, which Mickie Wang said is a traditional Japanese symbol of royalty. Chefs also wear matching skullcaps.
Diners can watch chefs work in the exposition kitchen.
Down the hatch
Lunch and dinner appetizers ($3.25-$11.95), soups ($2.75-$3.25), salads ($6.25-$8.95) and noodle dishes ($6.95-$8.95) are identically portioned and priced.
Appetizers include Lobster, Shrimp, Vegetable and Chicken Tempura, Calamari, Squid Salad, Scallops Dynamite, Fried Tofu, Edamame, Seaweed Salad and fried Japanese dumplings called Gyoza (pronounced JOWD zuh). There's Miso Soup, and the House Soup contains chicken, bacon and corn. Seafood Salad has shrimp and imitation crab, or you can have a salad topped with grilled or fried chicken or shrimp, or grilled steak.
Noodle bowls are round Japanese noodles in broth, and they can come with beef, seafood, chicken or a stir-fry.
Lunch and dinner entrees are all cooked hibachi-style. Lunch portions are $5.95 to $18.95 and come with fresh vegetables, fried rice or noodles. Dinner portions are $10.25 to $28.95 and include miso or house soup, salad, vegetables, and fried rice or noodles. You can choose from vegetables, chicken, several kinds of steak, salmon, mahi-mahi, grouper, shrimp, sea scallops, lobster tails, king crab legs and crab cakes. Several combination entrees are also available.
Between two visits I have tried the filet mignon and scallop lunch entrée and the crab cake entrée, and a friend had the chicken. The beef was fork-tender, and the scallops were large (two-biters), plump and perfectly cooked. The rice contains peas, diced carrots and corn kernels, while the vegetable side was a sauté of broccoli florets, rough-chopped onion, juicy button mushrooms and baton-cut zucchini. The twin crab cakes were plump and meaty, and portion sizes are so generous that my friend and I took half home for leftovers.
The Wangs make their own sauces you can choose to accompany your entrees. The one called "creamy" comes with every meal, and it is your standard slightly pink mayonnaise-based creamy sauce that you get with take-out hibachi meals. The ginger sauce also comes with every meal, and it has the thinnest consistency of the five sauces. It has a robust flavor without the bite that some gingery foods have that can make your eyes water and your nose run.
On request you can ask for their hot sauce. Mickie Wang warned me that it is very hot, but even though I am normally a heat wimp, I thought this hot sauce was great. If it's too hot for you, you can mix it with some of the creamy sauce. My favorite sauce, which is also available upon request, is the mustard sauce. It's made with grain mustard, has a slightly hot bite at the finish, and has an extremely smooth and creamy consistency.
Check, please
For dessert there is Green Tea Ice Cream. Japanese ice cream is not as sweet as American ice cream and is denser, but if you love the flavor of green tea, you'll like this palate-cleansing treat.
I love that when you order tea here, it is served in a big ceramic pot. No single Lipton tea bags here.
The Wangs are committed to customer service and welcome large groups; they can easily push together tables in the dining room's center.
The Wangs have specified discount periods throughout the day. You will receive 15 percent off your food tab from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 5-6 p.m. and 9-10 p.m.
Hana Teppanyaki is at 4036 River Oaks Drive in the Forest Village Shopping Center, and the phone number is 903-5151. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily; lunch service ends at 3 p.m.
Becky Billingsley serves daily restaurant news at www.MyrtleBeachRestaurantNews.com.