Honami Sushi Hibachi & Lounge opens in Huntington Station
The Carnival sushi boat at Honami Sushi Hibachi & Lounge, a new restaurant in Huntington Station. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
The sushi arrives by boat, a vast blue vessel recalling the intro to a DreamWorks title, the one with the boy fishing from a crescent moon. And just as in the movies, its presence announces a spectacle, one that, in the present instant at least, is richly satisfying and rarely disappoints.
Yes, the boat contains sushi’s usual corny-copia: Artificial twigs of orange berries, bamboo ladder to nowhere, tiny Japanese maple tree, its foliage both autumnal and plastic. But the deck, crowded though it is, also makes room for fish of both flash and substance — buttery salmon, opalescent raw scallops, fanned out planks of color-colored chutoro and shima-aji and sea bream, a head of the latter anchoring the proceedings. The restaurant has christened it the Carnival and it’s a fun ship indeed. Single-occupancy cruises start at $80 for one (larger, shareable boats are available for $120 to $200) and go up from there, all featuring fish freshly flown in from Japan. Anyone doubting this is welcome to Simon Chen, who mans the sushi bar and is only too happy to provide receipts.
“I came from Fujian, and started by washing dishes, but now have been a sushi chef for 20 years,” Chen said with a smile from behind the counter at Huntington Station’s Honami Sushi Hibachi & Lounge, whose clunky name at least announces what it prides itself on, unlike the previous establishment, 110 Japan, which apparently prided itself on being astride one of the Island’s major north-south routes.
“We wanted a place with high-end-style sushi that’s still affordable,” added co-owner Wei Xiao, showing off his cavernous, three-week-old restaurant — airy, bright, with blond wood everywhere — that seats up to 350, including 10 at its sushi bar, several on the patio (weather-permitting), many around a dozen hibachi stations in an area off the main dining room, plus a dozen more in an attractive private room with tatami mat-style seating. A casual survey suggests that Honami’s lychee-tini ($13) was the drink of choice, a perfect prelude to sushi appetizer plates of yellowtail slivers topped by a bit of jalapeño and sturgeon roe ($15) or, even better, a $20 Honami sampler that on this day boasted torched salmon with spicy mayo topped by ikura, Hokkaido uni hanging heavily over toro sushi and more.
Over in the hibachi room, meanwhile, single-item dinners center around proteins like shrimp ($25), salmon ($23) and lamb ($28)--all come with soup or salad and rice — and combos ranging from $25 (chicken and shrimp) to $56 (lobster tail, filet mignon, shrimp).
Honami Sushi Hibachi & Lounge, 179 Walt Whitman Rd. in Huntington Station, 631-673-5888, honaminy.com. Opening hours are Monday-Friday from noon to 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
