WARNER ROBINS -- Hibachi Joe’s adds Japanese food to the list of cuisine diners can order at fast food establishments throughout the city.
Set up like a traditional fast food restaurant, Hibachi Joe’s is no frills, no fuss. Customers order at the counter from a menu posted on the wall. They pay a nominal price and are given a number.
By the time they fill their Styrofoam cups at the drink dispenser, they need wait only a few more minutes for the food -- served on Styrofoam plates and bowls -- to be delivered to the table.
A drive-through is available as well.
The food is much like most fast food -- salty and greasy, but passable if that’s what you’re going for.
The options are basically fried or steamed rice or noodles served in a variety of forms with your choice of meat and vegetables. Meat options include chicken, steak, shrimp and scallops. Vegetable offerings are zucchini, cabbage and onion.
You can get your meal on a plate -- where the meat and rice are separated -- or in a bowl -- where they are mixed. You can also get it in a wrap. That special, orange-colored hibachi sauce, which to me tasted a little too much like mayonnaise, is always served on the side.
I found the hibachi plate the best of the bunch, though, overall, the food was underwhelming. The chicken was salty and the vegetables were greasy. The rice was fine.
The teriyaki rice bowl does not come with vegetables, so the chicken and rice left me pretty unfulfilled, although the teriyaki sauce that came on the side was pretty good.
The noodle bowl did come with vegetables, but it also came with a puddle of oil at the bottom. The slick noodles were borderline mushy. The wrap was mostly rice.
There are also appetizers of egg rolls and spring rolls -- which were only average and did not come with a dipping sauce -- and dumplings and buffalo wings. The kids menu offers a corn dog and french fries for young eaters.
Overall, I could think of a number of better places to get quick Japanese hibachi.
To contact writer Jennifer Burk, call 256-9705.
Hibachi Joe’s
Two stars
Address: 825 Russell Parkway, Warner Robins
Phone: (478) 929-4200
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Price range: $1.99 to $11.99
Payment: Cash, credit cards
Smoking: No
Alcohol: No
Kids Menu: Yes
Noise Level: Medium
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Health score: 94
