Extreme eating: Japanese restaurant adds flair to food

By Robert King -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL -- A new Japanese restaurant in Front Royal will bring customers close to the action.

Lee Il, head chef at Mikado, a new Japanese steak and seafood restaurant at Riverton Commons Shopping Center in Front Royal, grills some vegetables, shrimp, chicken and rice on the grill. Food is prepared in front of patrons. Rich Cooley/Daily> Steak and seafood are prepared on the grill at the new Front Royal eatery. Rich Cooley/Daily

Mikado Japanese Steak, Seafood House and Sushi Bar is set to open Nov. 12 in Riverton Commons Shopping Center off U.S. 340-522 north of Front Royal. The restaurant offers a unique Japanese dining experience with chefs cooking food right in front of the customers.

"This is an open kitchen," said General Manager Sean Back. "They make it in front of the customer."

Back said he wanted to bring an international restaurant to Front Royal and create a Japanese atmosphere.

"A customer that comes here feels like he is in Japan," Back said.

Mikado, which means "imperial" in Japanese, offers the open kitchen dining room, called hibachi, and a separate sushi dining room that offers various sushi dishes.

At the open kitchen, the chef makes an assortment of dishes on an open grill as diners sit around him.

Lee Il, the restaurant's head chef, said there is a lot of action during the dining experience, with the chef making big flames and other types of entertainment.

The food is pretty good too, Il said.

"Everything is fresh here because the customers see the food," he said.

The restaurant gets in new ingredients every day, Back said.

In addition to a different type of dining experience, Mikado offers a twist on the birthday song. During the celebration, restaurant workers will use a traditional Japanese drum to sing a song.

Mikado is open for lunch and dinner.

The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The lunch menu includes a unique type of lunch box. The customer can choose from chicken, beef, salmon or shrimp teriyaki and also get Mikado soup, salad, three pieces of Gyoza, which is a dumpling, steamed or fried rice, and three pieces of California roll.

The lunch box varies from $8.95 to $11.95.

Diners also can get lunch entrees that vary from $8.95 to $11.95. The entrees come with soup, salad, vegetables and steamed rice.

Mikado also offers a sushi lunch special for $9.95 that includes 12 pieces of tuna and a California roll, and six pieces of fresh sushi.

Dinner entrees range in price from $13.95 to $30.95 depending on the choice.

Entrees include Hibachi chicken, shrimp, filet mignon, scallops, salmon steak and lobster.

The entrees come with soup, salad, an appetizer, vegetables, steamed rice and noodles.

Mikado also offers combination entrees that allow diners to combine dishes. Prices range from $11.95 to $30.95.

The restaurant has a menu for children under 10, and offers desserts such as Mochi ice cream, which is Japanese bonbons, and cheesecake.

Back added the restaurant has a full service bar.

"We have all the Japanese beer," he said, adding there are other international drinks.

Back said he hopes the restaurant will create "a new international experience" for his customers.

Mikado is open for dinner Monday through Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

On Friday it is open from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The restaurant is open on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information about Mikado, call 631-0050.

* Contact Robert King at rking@nvdaily.com