Tokyo Hana — Restaurant in Rowlett

Pulling up to Tokyo Hana you immediately notice the new paint, and overall sharpness of the building. It looks rejuvenated, the former Kyoto was well known to be in disrepair and run down, but this is no longer the case. The new owners even repaired the lighthouse, and it was spinning a bright light beacon around and around letting everyone passing by that they were open at long last.

Inside, again I noticed details like new flooring, new paint, new ceiling tiles, and new stainless equipment. Though the layout is the same as precious, you feel like you’re in a new, clean restaurant that’s properly lit.

This place is a beast. I walked the restaurant and counted 14 Hibachi Tables. Thats a LOT. Post pandemic this place will be able to serve like 115 people Hibachi simultaneously. The place is seriously huge, they have 6 different dining areas, a sushi bar, a regular bar, and even a private party room with a fireplace. Crazy.

We were sat promptly, at a table all our own. My assumption is that with Hibachi during the pandemic that they simply sit you with your own family at a table. Easy. We sat alone.

Service was prompt and on point, refills came as needed and without request. You really couldn’t have better service in my opinion. High marks.

This is a sushi and hibachi restaurant, they serve both, and we got a “On the border roll” which is a deep fried roll with jalapeño and cream cheese. The kind of thing a Texan would like. Ridiculous. One of the best fried rolls I’ve ever eaten.

Soup was fresh and light, salad was crispy and came in a cool bowl, and dinner was amazing.

I’ve you’ve had live hibachi before you know the drill, but our particular cook was especially talented, and did a lot more tricks and entertainment than “The Volcano” and “The Choo Choo”. This guy could juggle, flip knives and plates, and even did tricks with the rice platters. I saw new tricks, which is rare when you’ve eaten hibachi 100 times, but he still surprised me.

The fried rice. Wow. WOW. 10/5 for the fried rice. Perfect flavor balance and salt, slightly crispy yet soft, buttery, a true delight. Equal to the best fried rice I’ve ever eaten, which was in Las Vegas at the Wynn at a world class Japanese spot called “Mizumi”. Google that one later.

Dinner continued and the portions were HUGE. Either share, or prepare for leftovers. In my opinion they give you 2-3 servings per person, literally a mountain of food. Amazing.

The steak was juicy, perfectly cooked and flavorful. No complaints.

The cook was great with our 5 year old, and I would say this place is in fact kid and family friendly. Our 15 month old baby also had a great time here.

All together, this was a solid solid solid Hibachi experience locally in what is a new, revamped and remodeled location equally convenient for Rockwall and Rowlett citizens alike. We had an amazing time, and I think they are going to do VERY well. If you like Edohana in Rockwall, you’ll love Tokyo...

We dined here over the weekend.

Food: Incredible! Chef Howie was charismatic and hilarious. The food was plentiful, delicious, and even the leftovers re-heated well. Appetizers were very good, as well, and came out quickly. We had the Gyoza, Edamame (salted), and Chicken Karage. The food definitely saved the experience. Absolutely delicious!

Drinks: The bartender "T" was attentive, quick, and had great recommendations as well. The drinks weren't too weak or too strong, and delicious. Definitely worth the money.

Service: This was tough. It may have been an "off" night, but it was hard given this was my first experience. We were told that we would be seated after an hour. We took a seat at the bar and waited as families were piled in the doorway for hours. We waited 2.5 hours to be seated, and that's after we had checked in at the front three times to see where we were in line (all after the hour wait). Once we were seated, we had another 30 minutes or so until the chef arrived to be able to eat. Thankfully, we took the bartender's advice to get some appetizers, so we weren't starving, but a few of us weren't pleasant and this point. My friends who had been in the past told me it wasn't "normally," like that. That was the hardest part of the experience, as it was my first time there. We had about three people that were behind us seated ahead of us. There was birthday music playing back-to-back, so maybe it was an especially busy birthday night, or everyone goes for their birthday. The servers tried, but that was not ideal.

Atmosphere: The outside had lights and is right along the water, which was gorgeous. The inside was inviting and had some good seating for the hibachi tables. Instead of one large hibachi table, there were several throughout the restaurant, and a dining area...

If you go to this restaurant and expect to get a Japanese Hibachi experience, be sure to ask if the cook knows what he is doing. We have been going to this location before it was Tokyo Hana. My wife and I took our daughter, 3 yo grandson and son in law out for my daughter's birthday. It started off great. They took our orders and after that it went sideways. The cook was wearing a facemask (none of the other cooks did this) and was quiet with virtually no hibachi show at all while cooking! The other tables were cheering and laughing at their cooks while we were just watching him go through the motions. Also, he got 2 of the meals totally wrong. He didn't have the meats for 2 of the people wrong. He brought out the same meat for 2 people who had different meats ordered. We didn't say anything at the time because we didn't know what he was going to do with each dish. He finished his cooking, and off he went. We complained and they listened but didn't offer any reasonable explanation. They said he was new and from a different place or something. Also, we told the waiter it was my daughters birthday and they completely forgot until the end of the meal. The cook never said a thing. We go to a Japanese Hibachi Restaurant for the experience and they price the food with the cook experience included in the price. They never acknowledged any issue and we were extremely dissappointed. We will go back but will be extremely careful upfront about expectations and I would make sure you do the same thing if you want your moneys worth. Management...