~~ here we go with another one of my long reviews! :) ~~\nOk kids, I'll admit that my expectations of this place were kind of low going in. I just assumed it was another one of these \"wanna be\" Japanese express-style places, that survive solely on location since good Japanese restaurants aren't plentiful in Charlotte. However, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Edomae. They're no Kabuto, but they'll suffice.\n\nThe interior was surprisingly non-theme-y....you know, where it looks like they just vomited all the obligatory kitsch they could find thinking we as the public somehow won't believe that we're eating Asian food if we aren't looking at all the golden swing-arm cats, bamboo calendars and kimono drawings they could find. Instead, it was very contemporary, with juuust the right amount of Asian flair mixed in. I appreciated that - good job! The men's room was also nice with decorative mosaic tile work like a home bath and very very CLEAN!!! May seem strange to talk about the rest room, but you know how THAT can go; at a lot of places you don't really wanna touch anything & the endless caulking around the sink is growing mold! I see you shaking your head :)\n\nAnyhoo, let's move on to the FOOD. It was quite yummy I must admit. My partner and I both enjoyed our lunches. I had the chicken & shrimp hibachi combo and he had the chicken & steak combo. Each came with rice and a salad (which automatically comes w/ginger dressing, but you can get another type if that's not your thing). We also shared a Miso soup which was quite yummy with bits of seaweed and tofu. I went with the ginger dressing as usual & found theirs to be a bit on the sweet side (I like a bit more of that ginger 'kick'), but it was still tasty, and they add cucumber in their salad instead of just lettuce. \n\nThe real disappointment here was their portion sizes - rather small for the price. For instance, I only had three shrimp on my plate...three. A half-way decent amount of chicken. The veggies were also rather miniscule as well. The other half said his well done steak was really quite tender & tasty, but would have liked more. For about the same price ($11 for mine) I get QUITE a bit more at Kabuto (University location); there's no room to move the food around on the plate there, whereas here there was LOTS of room on the plate. Sure the flower was nice to look at, but... \n\nOh, I almost forgot. I thought this was a cross between funny and odd - they bring a syrup container full of shrimp sauce (you know, the pink dipping sauce you always get), but the sauce is so thick it was very difficult to get it OUT of the container! An IHOP style container of shrimp sauce was just too funny to me. \n\nWould we eat here again? Yes (primarily b/c of convenience since it's close to the house. Is it worth the price? Eh, not really, since most every other place gives much more food - BUT, if you're in the Northlake area & are craving Japanese, then it IS a good option.
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