Cheap Eats

The Noble House rocks!

Cape Cod gets its own Japanese Hibachi Heaven
Good food at reasonable prices in an exciting atmosphere

It must take days of practice to successfully flip a piece of fried egg into a customer's open mouth, but the chef's at Noble House on Route 28 in West Harwich at the Dennis town line have it down pat.

Like all hibachi chefs, it's their job to turn meat, fish and vegetables into small feasts within a few dazzling minutes, no small feat on a busy Saturday night in this popular, new family restaurant.

Another reason we visited was the glowing report from Maggie Kulbokas, a Cape Cod TODAY editor, who hates Asian food.

She loved Noble House, so go figure. 

Great setting, greater food, low prices

The Noble House sparkles. The shiny steel grilles are embedded in marble, and the seating guarantees a convivial occasion. The ambiance is classic Japanese steak house as the photo above shows.

We now have a whole slew of Asian eateries on the Cape,  in fact, a  half dozen Thais, countless Chinese, and Indian and even a Vietnamese restaurant on our bucolic peninsula, so it takes a lot to impress us.

And we visited Noble House under the worse possible conditions - Saturday night at 8 pm.

Seldom have we received better attention on arriving at that day and hour, and we were seated within one minute at a spotlessly clean grill-table for nine which we shared with a Plymouth family named Grountree celebrating their son Truman's ninth birthday. 

The entrées  include a flaming shrimp appetizer, miso soup, house salad, white rice and hibachi vegetables  starting at $10.95.  The children's menu  starts at $8.95. 

Happy family food & fun

The hibachi (literally "fire bowl") is a traditional Japanese heating device.

In North America, the term "hibachi" is used to refer to a small cooking stove heated by charcoal (actually called shichirin in Japanese), or to an iron hot plate (teppan) used in Teppanyaki restaurants which serve a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word "teppanyaki" is derived from teppan, which means iron plate, and yaki, which means grilled. In North America, it is also known by the name of hibachi.

The new Noble House in West Harwich is as bright, clean and friendly as any hibachi restaurant we've ever visited, and we visited our first one in  New York in the 1970s.

We brought two children who immediately bonded with the two Grountree kids.  The two girls ordered chicken,  one boy had steak, and birthday boy Truman surprised us by feasting on some sushi.

The adults ordered the salmon or filet mignon, and the whole ensemble is shown being prepared in front of us on the right above.  This may be the first restaurant meal you've ever had with your children where they sat quietly and watched the action.

Noble House also offers sushi, sashima and tempura and the prices for lunch are starting at $7.95 and include soup and salad.

At dinner we started with an appetizer of mixed vegetable tempura ($5.95) which was excellent.

When you really want to impress your party, the restaurant also offers a huge Nantucket Island Ferry boat with three rolls, 12 pieces of sushi and 12 pieces of sashima for $49.99 shown on right.

The chef's pyrotechnics shown above entertained us all, especially as he rapidly sliced a large, white onion and piled the slices to resemble a volcano which he filled with cooking oil and set aflame, see the photo on right above.

Good food, good value

The entrées include a very good miso soup followed by a large, spicy salad, a complimentary flamed shrimp serving and the main course  is followed by a pile of sautéed vegetables shown on right above of every description. On right, the girls couldn't resist making fangs out of the orange slices which came with their drinks while birthday boy Truman looked on.

The entire meal for four, including the chef's floor show, came to under $50. 

Noble House Hibachi Grille & Sushi Lounge
21 Route 28, West Harwich, MA 02671
(508) 432-8855  email; joeliu78@hotmail.com