Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.
Restaurants come and go, and that is why we have been writing this column for seven years, and have never repeated a restaurant. There is a relatively new restaurant on Randall Road, which took the place of a barbecue restaurant which was obviously not as “famous” as they would have hoped to have been. This location is now the home of Sapporo Tanoshii, which means “happy village” in Japanese. This is actually a sushi and a hibachi restaurant. The chef and owner, Mike Ham, was previously an accountant. He spent way too much time in a sushi restaurant and decided that becoming a sushi chef was the career for him. He opened his first restaurant in Andersonville in 2004, and recently he opened the second Sapporo Tanoshii in Algonquin.
Sapporo Tanoshii
1521 S. Randall Road
Algonquin 60102
(847) 854-3388
sapporotanoshii.com
Directions: Take Rte. 47 North to Algonquin Road, East to Randall Road then South to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 18 minutes
Nancy and I both love Asian food. When we heard that this restaurant opened, we hurried on over there for lunch. Unfortunately, the hibachi tables do not open until 5:00 p.m., but they will serve you either sushi or a hibachi entree at your table. Why miss the show? So we decided to come back for dinner and a show, and that’s exactly what we did.
When you walk in, to the left is the sushi bar and tables that are used during lunch. To the right is a beautiful full bar area with a few high top tables. In the center is where the action is with their 12 hibachi tables. Just where we wanted to be!
If you have never been to a hibachi restaurant, let us explain. All entrees come with chicken soup, salad with ginger dressing, hibachi shrimp appetizer, assorted vegetables, noodles with teriyaki sauce, either white or fried rice, and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. Nancy and I both agree, the soup was exceptionally tasty, and Nancy who is not a big fan of ginger (she liked Maryann more), even enjoyed the salad. So far, so good.
Tonight Jim ordered the Hibachi Steak ($25.95), teriyaki style, which came with mushrooms. I ordered the Hibachi Shrimp ($22.95), but added the spicy garlic topping for no extra charge. You knew that was coming, right? This topping basically is a mixture of butter, breadcrumbs, garlic, and cayenne pepper that is cooked on top of the shrimp. We both went with the fried rice.
Now on to the show. The chef appears pushing a cart loaded down with our food and assorted paraphernalia to produce a delectable entree. He begins with setting the hibachi grill on fire to chase away evil spirits and your eyebrows. This was followed by eggs that were spinning all over the hibachi grill (Japanese egg roll?). Last but not least, the ever popular onion choo-choo train, also doubling as a smoking volcano. Wow, what a show!!!
Compared to other hibachi restaurants in the area, Jim and I both agree that everything we ate was seasoned to perfection and delicious. They gave us two sauces for dipping, ginger and yum yum. The yum yum sauce was really yum yum!
The cost for our trip to “A Happy Village” was $53.90, itadakimasu (bon appetite in Japanese).
FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible and will accommodate reservations for large parties with separate checks.
Jim’s take: My steak was very tender and take a tip from me, put some yum yum sauce on your fried rice.
Nancy’s take: I really enjoyed the ginger salad dressing and I like the yum yum sauce with my shrimp appetizer.
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com
