Bites Nearby: Hibachi/Midori Matsu

The Japanese word “hibachi” can be translated into English as “fire bowl.” Probably invented around 800 A.D., it is a container made of heatproof material that was originally used to burn charcoal for warmth.

Warmth hibachis were everywhere in Japan, even in public restrooms, until oil heaters became the rage after World War II. However, the hibachi has found new life as a grill for food that is prepared by trained chefs who dramatically slice, dice and flip morsels of meat and vegetables as they cook.

This week, the Bites Nearby column visited a Forest Hills restaurant where this kind of dining is not only the main attraction – but it’s also the eatery’s name.

, which is also listed under the name “Midori Matsu,” offers a wide array of meat, seafood and vegetable dishes prepared in the hibachi way and served with Japanese onion soup, green salad, shrimp appetizers, steamed rice and hot green tea.

Patrons can order one hibachi-style entrée – i.e. chicken, steak, lamb rack, shrimp, scallops, Chilean bass, lobster tail, vegetable medley, tempura, udon noodles, beef julienne – or mix and match. Steak and chicken, chicken and shrimp, shrimp and steak, etc.

For those who don’t desire a cooking performance, or any cooking at all, Hibachi also offers an extensive sushi and sashimi menu. Items such as fluke, salmon, squid and eel can be ordered by the piece or by the specialty roll – i.e. Crazy Roll, eel, cream cheese, cucumber and scallion with salmon on top; Queens Roll, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado and caviar wrapped in a cucumber; and Kings Roll, soft-shell crab, cucumber and avocado with spicy tuna on top.

The menu also lists 21 different kinds of hand rolls, which are smaller than the specialty rolls, and a similarly wide range of sushi and sashimi entrees, which come with miso soup, green salad and hot green tea.

Appetizers include six kinds of tempura (shrimp, scallop, salmon, chicken, vegetable and sweet potato), spring rolls made with shark and shumai, a steamed shrimp dumpling.

Although the outside has bright, flashy lights, the atmosphere inside Hibachi is a bit dark. A babbling, manmade pond/cascade lies in the middle of the eatery, which has eight-person hibachi stalls on one side and a sushi bar with stools on the other.

Address: 111-16 Queens Boulevard. Phone: 718-263-4110.

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 1 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Prices: The lowest hibachi dish, white meat chicken, costs $14.99, but most other entrees are over $20. Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail ($35.99) and the MidoriMatsu Special, California roll, steak, lobster tail and shrimp or scallops ($39.95) are the most expensive options. The sushi and sashimi choices hover around $2.50 per piece, while the specialty rolls run from $8.50 to $13.99. All hand rolls cost under $7, while the sushi entrees go from $12.50 to $22. There is a children’s hibachi menu which offers smaller portions of chicken, steak or shrimp – and any combination thereof – for anywhere from $10.75 to $14.75.