Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill is one of seven restaurants and a catering company owned and operated by the Hamachi Group. I have only had the pleasure of eating at two locations, Hamachi Steakhouse and Hamachi Kita Sushi and Asian Flare. I recommend both and I plan to visit the others in time. The Steakhouse is located on Halifax’s beautiful waterfront and is partly characterized by huge windows that look out onto the boardwalk and harbor. Inside the restaurant there is a mix of seating options. There are taller tables and spots close to the bar and sushi bar, tables in the main dining areas, a few booths and then there are the Teppan-yaki Stations. The Teppan-yaki tables are long wooden cutting board style planks wrapped around three sides of a large stainless grill and flame hood. The chairs are the same as at the regular tables and are sturdy yet comfortable. Another detail that has not been over looked is eating utensils. Hamachi place settings offer chopsticks as well as a fork and knife to each guest, which gave some of our group a chance to practice with chopsticks, others a chance to use them for the entire meal, and some a chance to skip the embarrassing dribble stains on shirts and pants and just use the fork.
Eight or Nine people can sit around one station and there are two stations back to back in one end of the restaurant. Our party of 8 fit comfortably around the table and everyone got a good view of the action. I can’t remember our servers name but she was very friendly and polite. On other occasions we have had Anthony as our server, and he is also wonderful. The good wait staff makes the experience even better. Our server explained the menu to everyone, brought us drinks and took our orders. Then the magic starts to happen. Everyone that orders off the Teppan-yaki menu gets a small serving of Miso Soup and a House Salad with their meal.
Miso Soup is a traditional Japanese sipping soup made with tofu, green onions and seaweed in a miso broth. The flavor is slightly salty, with hints of soy sauce (which makes sense because miso is fermented soy bean paste) and doesn’t taste like seaweed until the very end when you are left with the bits at the bottom of your little cup and you see that there are actual bits of leafy green sea plant settled there. It is an acquired taste and not everyone in our party liked it. It didn’t offend because they just passed the small cups down the line until they got to someone who wanted more soup. I think the miso at Hamachi is lovely. It’s one of those flavors that I wasn’t quite sure of the first time I tried it, but I wasn’t ready to give up on it just yet. The second time I tried it I liked it a little more. And the third time I had Miso soup while dining out I knew it wasn’t something I would trust myself to make and eat at home but it was something that I enjoyed while eating out on sushi lunch dates with my best friend and on special occasions like this one at Hamachi House.
The House Salad at Hamachi is wonderful for at least two reasons. The salad is mixed light vegetables. Lettuce, thin sliced carrot, cucumber, a little cabbage and corn kernels. The veggies are crisp and flavorful and come in a small side bowl. Just enough salad (about a cup) for you to be satisfied but not over-stuffed, and enough for you to enjoy eating it but not be bored with it by the time you reach the last bite. The salad is dressed with house made apple vinaigrette that leaves you happy to have eaten your veggies and not weighed down by a heavy cream dressing.
Hamachi Steakhouse has recently added a sushi menu to their existing fares, and a few of our party tried it. There was a spicy delight roll and a dynamite roll (I think). Both looked amazing. I tried the spicy delight roll and it certainly did not disappoint. It was spicy, but not overwhelming, and it had an amazingly smooth texture. It was a larger roll and it even managed to stay together after I took the first bite and continued to hold it in my chopsticks for the second. That could have just been luck though. **Note to self and others: must return to Hamachi Steakhouse for sushi feast!
Now that we have the first two courses underway, our chef comes out wheeling a cart full of fresh ingredients and sauces. This is the evening’s entertainment. The chef wipes down the grill with oil, which is piping hot and greets everyone. He reviews the menu which has been divided to show where everyone is sitting in relation to what they ordered. Then he gets down to business. Teppan-yaki style cooking means he cooks our whole meal before our eyes and he does it with style and flare. Everyone has decided that instead of getting the steamed white rice that usually comes with your meal, we are going to have Japanese fried rice instead and this is what the chef prepares first. A heaping bowl of white rice and another head of pre-chopped peppers and onions go on to the grill with a sizzle. Then butter, sake and the first fire of the evening is started. The chef uses sake and a barbecue lighter and flame enveloped the food to our table’s ‘ooohs’ and ‘aahhhhhs.’ We are treated also to a mix of grilled vegetables including zucchini, mushrooms, baby corn and a flaming onion volcano, pictured here.
While the veggies cook we are served our fried rice in the same size small side bowl as the miso soup came in. It gives you a lovely serving size that at first seems small but soon you will have more food in front of you than you know what to do with. The fried rice is paired with a sweet and zingy ginger sauce that is extraordinarily delicious on top of the already tasty rice. The ginger sauce is also good on your veggies if you can save some long enough to try it.
The last thing the chef prepares is the meat. Hamachi offers a wide range of meats and combination choices for their teppan-yaki style dining, and their regular table menu is the same. Most of us wanted to try a combination plate but are not too adventurous, so we ordered combination A, which offers 3 oz each steak, chicken and pork. Two friends ordered a sharing combination that offered scallops, chicken and steak. The steak is cooked perfectly to everyone’s individual liking and covered in a light and tasty sake/teriyaki sauce combination. The pork and chicken are sautéed the same way but served with a black bean ginger sauce. All of the meat selections are very tender and juicy. My friends have had the seafood selections there and enjoyed them. Everything looks super fresh and definitely tastes great. In addition to our combination, Robert and I ordered Bean sprouts and Edamame (soy beans- delicious!), which are prepared the same way as the other vegetables and are great to share around the table as a little something extra. The ginger sauce from the rice= delicious to dip your edamame into. Yumm.
And just when we thought we were finished, having become too full to contemplate desert and thinking of the brownies I had made for us at home, our server comes back to the table with a free desert for Robert. Apparently she listened when I mentioned that we were all here to celebrate Robert’s birthday. The desert got shared around. It was a decadent hot chocolate brownie/cake with powdered sugar, ice cream and whipped cream. It was drool-tastic.
Once we were finished it took a long time for us to get our bills. We eventually learned that our server had gone on her break and another server took care of us. One of our party had ordered off the regular menu and received a discount because his meal took longer to prepare than anyone else’s. This also added to the wait time and confusion but we were really too satisfied to be upset and they were quick to fix the mistake. While we waited we also became delighted to see that at the table next to us was sitting three celebrities! Victor Garber and Sam Jaeger, whom both have many credits for television and movies but both of whom were also in one of my all time favorite shows, Eli Stone, were having dinner here, in lovely Halifax. And then they were joined by Gabrielle Miller who played Lacy on Corner Gas. Let me tell you. The gentlemen were handsome, but Gabrielle Miller?! The woman is gorgeous. We swooned and gushed. My friends and I giggled and whispered and then realized we were being foolish and got back to minding our own business. We wanted to pay our compliments to them but at the same time we wanted to be respectful. If you ever happen across this post, Victor Garber, Sam Jaeger or Gabrielle Miller, know that you are wonderful and that we expressed our dorkiest fandom as soon as we left the restaurant, and for most of the rest of the evening.
If you are wondering about the financial side of things, Hamachi is a special occasion favorite for a reason. It can be pricey but it is well worth the experience. Before tip, for three of us to get a combination plate, fried rice, two drinks and two additional veggie sides was $160 and in my eyes, completely worth it. If I had to rate Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill, based on the experiences I had this weekend and previously, I would give it five out of five stars, two thumbs up, a big smiley face, or whatever symbolizes really really good in many many ways.
To make a long (but hopefully entertaining) story short, you must try Hamachi Steakhouse at least once!
To make a long (but hopefully entertaining) story short, you must try Hamachi Steakhouse at least once!
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