Restaurant Review: Rokbonki Japanese Steak House of Arlington Heights, Illinois

Rokbonki Japanese Steak House, located in Arlington Heights, Illinois, is situated in a mid-size mall. One may almost miss it, given the plethora of other stores and restaurants on Dundee Road. The restaurant is minimally advertised, and could probably use a web site. Still, nightly traffic to the place is pretty good, with one well advised to get a reservation before showing up.

I was recently at Rokbonki for a bachelorette party outing. We arrived at 6PM on a Saturday night. Luckily, our party of 12 already had a reservation, so we were seated quickly at one of the place's hibachi tables.

For those of you who may not know, hibachi refers to the iron hot plate upon which food is cooked. In North America, restaurants have popped up which seat people around these large iron hot plates, and make a show of cooking the food right in front of the customers.

Our waitress took our drink orders immediately and provided us with menus. We then perused the item offerings at Rokbonki. I debated getting sushi from the place's sushi bar, since I'm not the biggest hibachi fan. In the end, I opted for some kind of hibachi. Rokbonki offered all manner of hibachi, from full seafood (shrimp, scallops, and lobster), to filet mignon, to chicken with vegetables, to mixtures of steak and chicken, steak and fish, and steak and lobster.

The platters were not cheap; anything other than chicken ran $20 or more. Since I wasn't that hungry, I decided to forgo the higher-priced items and just take the chicken and mushroom hibachi for $14.95. The meal came with a side salad. Other members of my party took all manner of things, from shrimp and vegetables to steak and chicken.

Our salads arrived in due time and consisted of iceberg lettuce, carrots, and bit of red cabbage covered in peanut sauce. During this time, our hibachi chef arrived and began preparing the grill. As expected, he made the typical rounds of setting the grill on fire, etc. Finally, he got to work making the vegetable and shrimp appetizer. Initially, this consisted of him building an onion "volcano", pouring some kind of alcohol into its center, and then lighting it. It did look impressive. He then served up our shrimp, followed by a few vegetables.

As I was munching on my appetizer, our chef began part two, the making of the actual dinner. He again set the grill on fire, then loaded up all the vegetables and meats. All the cooking took about 20 minutes, after which our food was placed on our plates (no food throwing, thank God). In between, we received more water from our ever-present waitress. She never did ask us if we wanted alcoholic or any other drinks, though, which I thought to be odd.

At long last, our main meals were prepared and served out to us. By this time, though, my vegetables were long gone; they would've made a nice accompaniment to my chicken and mushrooms. Still, I ate what I could of the dinner before asking that the rest be boxed up to go.

With my meal price of $14.95, I didn't have to pay much more than just tax and tip. While the meal was good, I found it a bit too salty for my taste. I'd certainly return to Rokbonki, but would probably just get the sushi instead.

Here is some more information about Rokbonki Japanese Steak House:

Address: 876 West Dundee Road

Arlington Heights, IL 60004 Phone: (847) 506-1212