Ron of Japan — Restaurant in Chicago

Oh dear, dear Ron of Japan. This is one of my favorite restaurants, in Chicago. Anytime I have something to celebrate, we go there. Let me give you a quick rundown of how it goes, for the Crown Combinations (personally, I always go with the Sukiyaki Steak or the Shrimp):

We start-off with a 'chicken soup' aka a few tiny chicken cubes in chicken broth with a few green onion slices. The soup is quite basic, yet, it tastes SO GOOD. In the winter it is the perfect starter!

Then, we are served a 'fresh garden salad' aka a ton of romaine lettuce and 1/2 tomato slice, however, the killer here is the dressing. I am not sure what it is exactly but I know that there is soy sauce mixed within and I LOVE SOY SAUCE!

THIS DESERVES ALL CAPS: THEN, WE GET TO THE SHRIMP KOGANE-YAKI. THIS. IS. LIKE. CRACK. TO. ME. IT. IS. SO. GOOD. And the reason why is because they put some sort of 'egg sauce' (yellow sauce or butter) on them and then it sorts of melt on the shrimp and it is like your taste buds went to freaking heaven. Bonus: you dip them in teryaki sauce and OMG!! Con: you only get two shrimps! Pro: if you get the shrimp, as your seafood of choice for the main meal, you get the same shrimp and this time you get about 8, I think.

Then come the Teppan Veggies aka onions, mushrooms, carrots (I am having a bit of brain fog about if there is a fourth veggie that I cannot remember right now).

You get your rice; white, brown or fried. If you pick friend DEFINITELY ask for more of the 'yellow sauce' to be placed on top and thank me later.

Meat or seafood you chose. Nothing special about the way the meat/seafood is cooked. I have to say that I have always gotten perfectly cooked meat.

Dessert: Iast time I was there, we got ice cream. Upon prior visits, I used to always get the pineapple sliced, which, I believe they no longer serve (booo!)

The only thing that poses an issue is that if your table is full, or close to, you sometime eat all your rice and veggies by the time your get your meat or seafood. When you're hungry it's hard to wait for everything to cook and wait your turn, especially if the table orders all types of seafood and meat and your served last or second to.

Service there is good but It's nothing special and the chefs are not very talkative nor engaging. This is no Benny Hanas type of cooking where the chefs play with the food and engages the whole table.

I do love this restaurant and have always...

I've only had one other hibachi experience. Hibachi isn't really something I crave. Anyway, a couple of family members of mine were just RAVING about Ron of Japan and how much they were craving it. In all fairness, I'm always a bit skeptical when someone hypes a restaurant that much (cos they really were hyping it to be the best.food.evar!), so I told them I'd join them the next time they go.

We went this past Saturday, and had reservations for 8pm. We checked in with the hostess and told them everyone in our party was here. First thing we noted was how relatively dead it was. It was Easter weekend after all.

We sat down at their bar/waiting area and started with drinks. We had the "Super Duper Mai Tai." It was pretty decent. I'm not a fan of sweet mixed drinks like that so I wasn't expecting to be wowed by the drink.

We were sitting there chatting when we realized we had been waiting for over 20 minutes. My brother went to ask them how much longer for our table. The hostess said she was waiting for our entire party to show up. Never mind we told her everyone was there when we arrived...she passed us up at least 4 times when calling other people.

It was about 35 minutes after we arrived that they finally sat us at a table. Luckily, we had our own table (6 of us total). I was told that most of the time they try to squeeze in a full 10 people per table, so maybe they were waiting for others. Regardless, that's silly, especially on a slow night.

Anyway, we all ordered the steak and lobster entree and added extra salads and rice. One entree is more than enough to be shared between 2 people. It's so much food! I really enjoyed the steak, and the eggsauce on the lobster and rice was good. Our chef wasn't too chatty, but was definitely engaging. Our waitress was really nice and was on top of refilling our drinks.

Overall, the food was good, had lots of flavor (especially the steak!), but for the experience it was JUST OKAY. Not the most amazing meal I've had, but it's worth checking out. Definitely over-hyped...

Its ok and thats about it. My date wanted to try it, so we gave it a go. There were very few people there at around 7:30 which is always a concern as most places in the city are way busier. It soon became clear why. The workers/servers seem uninterested and it just seemed depressing. We ordered the crown entrees, i got the prime rib and my date got the filet mignon, both were over $50 each so i was thinking this would be good.

The chicken noodle soup arrived and it was honestly a joke. A very small bowl of watery tasting broth with a few random noodles and 2 pieces of chicken the size of a pea. My gf laughed as she had 3 pea sized pieces in hers. Not good.

Then came the salad. It was super basic, tasted like it came from a bag as nothing seemed fresh. A few leaves of iceberg lettuce and overly dressed with a mayo dressing. Not good.

The "standard" fried rice included with our $50+ entrees was the "beef" fried rice, which specifically is hamburger meat (according to the server). We paid extra for chicken fried rice, but is was oily and lacked flavor and the veggies in it had zero crunch. The amount of oil in the fried rice should not be underestimated. Its a lot. Not good.

The shrimp were next and they were actually ok and i ate them, even though they were saturated with a heavy sauce. My gf didnt like all the sauce on them and gave me hers.

Finally the worker cooked the steak. It was ok, a smallish piece which i asked to be cooked medium rare. He was able to do that and it was pretty good and i ate most of it, but on the small side. It looked more like a strip steak, but i trust it was a ribeye.

Overall it was a greasy oily mess. Adding a few drinks and the mandatory 18% tip brought the total to just over $200.

The place is rundown and needs an update and the food wasnt good. For $200 there are countless and i mean countless better options for much better food and...