The management at Chef Honda Restaurant may be new, but to its members, running a Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar is old hat.
Joe Cheng’s first day as new owner of the restaurant was Sept. 1. He took the reins from the restaurant’s namesake, longtime Otani’s Sushi and Karaoke Bar chef Kazushige Honda, and his business partner, Steven Yee.
Honda and Yee opened the Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar, located at 420 Polaris Pkwy., in January of this year.
Cheng previously served as manager of now-closed Pacifica restaurant. His business partner and head chef, Wayne Tam, was a chef at House of Japan for more than 15 years, while chef Mop Ly has worked at House of Japan and Sakura Japanese Steakhouse
Among the keys to the restaurant’s revamped menu are the combination plates. Chef Honda offered them before, but the new owners have ramped them up significantly, Cheng says, offering to combine its main hibachi ingredients – filet mignon, teppan steak, scallops, shrimp, salmon, yellowfin tuna, lobster, chicken, hibachi chicken, chicken with yakisoba noodles and vegetables – in any number of ways. All combinations come with soup, rice, salad and vegetables.
“Before, a lot of people were asking for combinations,” he says.
Another newcomer is the Supreme Combination: house plum wine, filet mignon, chicken and lobster, and ice cream, available in single and double portions.
Japanese steakhouses are usually known for the theatricality of the hibachi chefs, and Chef Honda is no exception.
“We do a little of everything – joking around, tossing the eggs, making onion volcanoes,” says Ly.
Sushi is the other half of the Chef Honda whole. Rolls include the Fire Dragon Roll, with shrimp tempura, cream cheese, asparagus, spicy tuna, sriracha, spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce; the Tom and Jerry, with soft-shell crab, spicy tuna, cream cheese, cucumber, seared salmon, jalapeno pepper, spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce; and the Caterpillar, with avocado, cucumber and unagi (grilled freshwater eel).
And the chefs are always open to requests. One adventurous customer, for example, asked Tam to put together a bacon sushi roll.
“The next time the customer came in, (Tam) made it for him,” says Cheng.
Cheng is also looking to drum up business by expanding lunch options, dropping prices, offering free meals for children on Sundays, even reaching out to students at Otterbein University.
“A student ID will get you a 20 percent discount,” Cheng says.
College students often find themselves hard up for cash, so the discount program provides an opportunity for them to eat good food – as opposed to the stereotypical ramen noodles and cold pizza – for an unintimidating price.
The hibachi lunch offerings aren’t too different from the dinner offerings – only the tuna, the lobster and the soup side are exclusive to dinner – but portions are smaller, and everything is priced $10.
On top of all that are appetizers, such as edamame tossed in sea salt, spring rolls, gyoza dumplings with spicy sweet and sour sauce, and avocado bowls with spicy crab, shrimp and Japanese mayonnaise.
Chef Honda also has a full bar with beer, wine, sake and drinks such as Mai Tais and Cosmopolitans, as well as a smoking volcano drink.
Garth Bishop is editor of Westerville Magazine. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
