I’ve been a huge fan of Asian cuisines my entire life, but one form always comes back to me as I’m forever on a quest to find my favorite, hibachi.

I’ve gone to many different restaurants in the area over the last few years and have compiled my list of favorites. I’ve been loyal to those favorites over the years but I may have found one that shakes my rankings.

I took a trip to Kingza in Kingston, a different location from my normal dining escapades, which tend to be in Wilkes-Barre.

I heard of Kingza from a friend of my brother’s a long time ago, resurfaced the memory recently, and decided, with my ever-growing craving for hibachi, to take a trip on a Saturday evening.

The exterior of this building is unique and catches the eye, featuring traditional Japanese art. I don’t usually mention the physical look of a restaurant, but this time I had to because it’s beautiful.

The restaurant is located on Market Street, making it easy to get to, which seems like a small detail, but as someone who dislikes driving, it was certainly a plus.

The place itself seems a bit dated, but I never judge a book by its cover, and the dated look in restaurants can oftentimes mean you’re about to have the best meal of your life.

I started off with the typical salad and soup that more often than not comes with your dinner. This salad was a rather small serving, but tasted great. The soup? Well, we never actually did get our soup, it’s our own fault for not speaking up and asking, but I imagine it would have been just as good as the salad.

As an appetizer, I got fried pork gyoza, which are basically just pork dumplings. They were served with a soy sauce based sauce and were perfectly hot and crispy. The dish came with just enough that I was satisfied, but not filled from it.

Now onto the show stopper – the hibachi. When trying a new hibachi place, I always get chicken as it’s what I’m familiar with, and this chicken was spectacular. Perfectly sauced without being drenched, the sauce was a good consistency. Sometimes it’s too runny or too thick, but this time it wasn’t an issue. As always, I got vegetables and two pieces of shrimp, which is always a fun treat.

What made this meal shine, however, was being served both rice and noodles. Usually you get asked to choose, but they gave both and I was more delighted than a 5-year old on Christmas morning. It’s always a tough decision to make, as noodles tend to be overbearing and rice sometimes just “doesn’t hit” the same as noodles, so having both put a smile on my face of soup-less disappointment.

I had enough to take leftovers home, which I ate that night on my couch. It tasted wonderful reheated. For good Japanese food at a reasonable price and not much of a drive, Kingza is definitely in my top three Japanese restaurants.

As we conclude this semester, I would like to say that, after about seven editions of Mis Main Eats, I still cannot spell “restaurant” without spell check lending a hand. Shoutout to spell check for helping me through this academic year.