Osaka Japanese Sushi and Steakhouse: Hibachi-style Grill at its Finest

It's eight-thirty on a Saturday evening, and the baseline of noise is high in Osaka Japanese Sushi and Steakhouse. Cheers erupt from the corner as one surprisingly sober diner catches a bite of grilled chicken in his mouth, slung across the grill by a chortling chef; from the next table comes a gasp of delight as four-foot high flames swoosh off of the grill.

Meanwhile, across the dining room, a chef armed with a squirt bottle squeezes a thin arc of sake into the mouth of one grinning diner. Diners at the table take up the fist-pounding count of "One! Two! Three!" until, somewhere around "Eighteen!" the drinker begs off, wiping a wet dribble of sake from the corner of his mouth.

Hibachi is a show, and these grills are the stage. This same combination of Japanese grill cooking and showmanship, similar to the style found around teppanyaki tables, rocketed the Benihana restaurant chain to popularity in the 1960s.

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