My husband was craving Chinese food and my kids voted with him. I'm not a Chinese food fan, so I did a quick Google search for a restaurant that could satisfy all of us.
Hanako, on U.S. 521 in Indian Land, fit the bill perfectly. With its six-page menu, variety is Hanako's specialty. The restaurant offers Chinese food but also has Japanese teriyaki and hibachi-style cuisine. An entire menu page is devoted to sushi and sashimi, prepared fresh on site by a sushi chef.
The restaurant has vestiges of the Italian restaurant that used to inhabit the space in The Shoppes at 521 strip mall. There's a lot of dark wood and stonework that makes the restaurant warm and inviting. It's small, with tables clustered in the center and booths on the sides, but the effect is cozy. Two booths in the back of the restaurant offer privacy for a date night or for families looking for a quiet meal.
I went straight for the hibachi-style dishes on the menu. I love hibachi-style food, but I am not crazy about the hibachi restaurants that feature chefs throwing around knives and setting onions on fire. (Do you ever worry that it's the chef's first day on the job? I do.)
There's none of the hibachi theatrics at Hanako, but there is plenty of that delicious white shrimp sauce. And while the wait staff won't be cooking in front of you, they are incredibly attentive and ready to answer questions about items on the menu.
Before dinner, we enjoyed crispy fried wonton strips with a sweet sauce (free to all customers.) Next, we tried out the Hanako Trio sushi, which was fresh and plentiful for $8.95. The sushi was salmon, tuna and yellowtail wrapped in a soybean sheet.
The sushi we selected did have raw fish in it, but rolls with cooked fish (or no fish at all) also were offered. For the real sushi lover, an 18-piece assorted raw fish dish awaits. For the adventurous, a sweet potato tempura and asparagus roll is also on the sushi menu.
For picky youngsters, the kids' menu was perfect, including chicken nuggets, wings and fries, among other kid-friendly foods. The staff also offered coloring books and crayons to keep them occupied while we waited on our dinner, a bonus that every mom can appreciate.
For dinner, I ordered a hibachi-style shrimp with fried rice. My children split a Chinese-style shrimp fried rice and my husband ordered the Chinese-style Garlic Chicken.
The hibachi-style shrimp had all of the flavor you'd get from a Japanese steakhouse, but cost a little less at $10.25. The kids were happy with their shrimp fried rice for dinner and even enjoyed it again the next day at lunch. (Not bad for $8.95)
My husband's Garlic Chicken was deemed spicy but good. The huge platter also seemed like a bargain at $8.25.
Though we probably should have stopped there, my conscience wouldn't allow me to leave without sampling the desserts. After all, I have to complete a full review, right? Before I could even ask for a dessert menu, the staff brought out a sample platter of desserts for us to try.
Fried pineapple? Yes, please. Fried ice cream? Heaven. Sesame balls? A little on the unusual side, these doughy balls had a cinnamon filling and were rolled in sesame seeds. They were a little bland but a fun out-of-the-ordinary treat.
The final bill, just under $60, was a little over our typical family-night-out budget, but we did splurge with beer and wine and sushi. It's definitely possible to visit the restaurant and stay within a budget. The portions are huge, so we all took to-go boxes home, making it feel like a better bargain.
As a bonus, a Google search will bring up several coupons for the restaurant, but call ahead to make sure they are valid.
Hanako has only been open a few months, and the staff seems eager to make customers happy. The free dessert samplers went out to all tables, and I even saw a few sushi samples offered around.
On the Friday night we visited, the restaurant was full, but the wait staff easily kept up with the demand. Our dinner was leisurely but we never felt like we were kept waiting for food or drink refills.
The kids have asked to go back and as I write this, my taste buds are crying out for hibachi. I have a feeling it won't be long before the staff at this Indian Land restaurant knows us by name.
