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.