Bowie Restaurant Project: (19) Hibachi Japan

Hibachi Japan Is Now Closed.
For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Hibachi Japan, 3856 Town Center Boulevard
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/4/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins:1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Yes
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Every food court in America worth its salt has a bourbon chicken place. What I find weird is that it might be disguised as a Cajun food place or a Chinese food place, but it's basically a place where you can get bourbon chicken, rice and corn in a styrofoam container.  In Bowie, that place is a "Japanese" restaurant.

Now, on the menu, it's listed at "bon bon chicken", but the guy giving out samples of chicken on toothpicks (see picture, lower right) called it "bourbon chicken". That's another feature of these places -- they always offer you a sample on a toothpick. I always try both the bourbon chicken and the non-bourbon chicken (in this case, honey chicken), and then order the bourbon chicken.

The bourbon chicken here is pretty much exactly like the bourbon chicken at every other mall -- which is as it should be. I'm not going to give too high of a rating to a stand in a food court, but given that it plays an essential role in the food ecology of Bowie, I'll give it 3 stars.

Note that you can get other food like egg rolls (at a Japanese restaurant?) You can also get sushi. I'm not sure I would get sushi at a food court. (I take that back -- I have, but it's probably not a good idea.) When I last visited, they had menus sitting out for the East Moon Asian Bistro. So while I don't think there's an actual sushi chef hanging out at the mall hawking bourbon chicken, it's possible there's one at East Moon who's shipping fresh stuff over. But there are other sushi options in Bowie, so I'm not desperate to press my luck.