Sumo
In a word: Dinner and a show.
The specs: #01070
1745 Parkside Dr., 53704
Details at Yelp, official web site, Facebook
Latest Sumo news and reviews
David ate the scallop hibachi.
JM ate the steak and shrimp hibachi.
Nichole ate the ribeye hibachi.
The bill was $12/person, plus tip.
JM and David gave Sumo a B+; Nichole gave a Sumo a B (see our grading rubric).
Sumo (much Like the as-yet-unvisited Fuji on the west side) is a dinner-and-a-show style hibachi restaurant. It is not a buffet (we somehow got that idea in our heads, probably because Sumo replaced Madison's only OCB/HomeTown Buffet). Sumo is instead a sushi lounge/hot grill place where you can have broccoli fired at your mouth; onion volcanoes built, erupted, and destroyed; peepee jokes made with dolls; and knives thrown and caught for your amusement. Our party caught all of the broccoli that came our way. Win!
We had the steak, the shrimp and scallops for lunch. Lunch seems like a nice deal given that it is mostly the same show but the prices are little less, presumably since the portions are a little smaller. But because it follows a show, watch out that you do not go hangry because things could go from bad to worse. Further, our rice arrived relatively early and entrees arrived at different times (cooking times of course vary). But lots of butter - carved from a giant butter mountain, probably five pounds or more - was used and we all agreed that the food was better than we expected. The yummy and ginger sauces deserve note because they both worked so well together with any meat.
That said, the hibachi menu is pretty narrow; this is fine since it would be hard to pull off of these different meats while still putting on a good show. Two of us even got to-go boxes, which stretches the $12 price across another half meal. Sumo is making a decent go of it since the east side Ginza closed, but we'd probably eat at Takara on State for our Japanese performance art cooking.
Takara shut down it's State St location last year, the Whitney Way one is still open.
Posted by: Gail | March 24, 2018 at 07:16 PM