Review: Mt. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse

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Recently I went to “Mt. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse” located at 296 NY-17, Hillburn, NY 10931 for my best friend’s birthday. It’s a beautiful restaurant way up in the hilltops of New York.

This venue is specifically known for their Hibachi and is on the expensive side. Seeing as how unique their views are you can understand you’re not only paying for the food/experience but the view/location. Additionally, you will need to make a reservation as this is a very popular restaurant and tables fill up quick! For best results I would try to call a week in advance. We called a week in advance and the only tables available on a Saturday night were at 7:30pm and later, just FYI.

You will know you have arrived once you reach this huge red Japanese gate. It really makes you excited driving through it, as if you are entering a fun new location! From here you will drive up an extremely steep, narrow, and winding road so be careful, especially at night!

If you love pictures, like me, I would suggest arriving a little earlier as they have pretty views right before you walk in the front door!

There’s a pond, bridge, and statues. It really is gorgeous.

After taking some photos we had some time to kill so we took a buzzer, that would go off when our table was ready, and decided to head over to the bar.

There was available seating all over with tables and chairs or you could sit at the bar. The looks from the bar area oversaw the mountain tops which was very scenic.

The drinks were tasty but we warned the Margaritas were super strong!

We sat down exactly at our reservation time at 7:30pm. They bring you to your Hibachi table as a whole group of around 8-10 guests.

If you have never been to Hibachi before make sure you go on an empty stomach! They give you a three course meal. First is soup, then salad, and then they cook your food right in front of you for your dinner! I ordered the “Hibachi Chicken” which includes chicken, noodles, rice, vegetables, and few pieces of shrimp. It was SO good. I told the chef it was my friend’s birthday and he definitely made sure to cater to that idea. He made all the food he was cooking read “I heart you” on the stove (this can be seen in the middle of the long view photo above). Lastly we order fried ice cream for dessert. Yum!

They did a bunch of tricks such as lighting onions on fire in a volcano form and throwing food into your mouth to see if you could catch it. He also repeatedly wished my friend Happy Birthday which was nice! They even had a headpiece as a dragon they would dance around in and sing Happy Birthday. Such a fun event!

If you don’t like Hibachi but want to try out this cool venue, you are more than welcomed to sit at a normal table and order other items along the lines of sushi. So no pressure!

This was such a fun time with great friends and I highly recommend it for a fun night out! It’s definitely a change of pace and was thoroughly enjoyable!