Yokoso Japanese Steak house & Sushi Bar, Pittsburgh (14th Feb, 2009)

This is another new experience for me as I´ve never been to a Japanese restaurant, seeing as I don´t really like fish or seafood. However, as it is also a steak house I thought I´d give it a try. I´m not sure whether this is an Americanized chain of Japanese restaurants or whether it is actually an authentic Japanese restaurant. The restaurant has a very stylish, modern & chic decor and you can choose whether to sit at the sushi bar or at the grill where the chef cooks your meal in front of you...we chose the latter of course, which I highly recommend.

If you're a carnivore through and through and are not too keen on fish & seafood like me, then although this restaurant has a couple of meat dishes, this is not the place for you. As the main meal comes with a choice of green onion soup or salad plus hibachi vegetables and rice, we decided not to have a starter. I chose the salad and my boyfriend had the soup. I wasn´t too impressed with the salad as it had this really sharp, acidic dressing of maybe garlic and ginger and the soup was a bit lacking in flavour. The main course was definitely worth the visit though and not only for the show! It was like the film Cocktail, only with food! I had chicken terriyaki and my boyfriend had hibachi scallops. The chef was tossing the egg up in the air and catching it with a metal scraper etc and piled the onion ring on top of one another, poured some wine (maybe sake?) onto it so it lit up in flames,like a volcano. As I said it was very entertaining and great for a special night out! The food was delicious and very tender. I even tried a bit of the hibachi scallops and to my amazement liked them! They didn´t taste too fishy and were very tender...they reminded me of calamares or squid a little, only not as chewy! All in all I´d say this restaurant is great value for money as you get wonderful food and entertainment at an affordable price.