Get a meal and a show from Dr. Hibachi

Kitsada Hongsakrai had been cooking at Hibachi Japan, tossing shrimp and clinking utensils on the grill during entertaining performances for eight years when the pandemic hit. It was then he decided to open his own business, sticking with hibachi.

“I was a Thai chef before. I was only in the kitchen,” he says. “But hibachi … I have to cook, show, talk and entertain. That’s why I feel like that is my style.”

But the Thailand native didn’t have a spot he liked for a sit-down restaurant, so he opted for a more mobile option, opening Dr. Hibachi Food Truck in July 2021. He still gets to provide the entertaining cook-in-front-of-you experience from the food truck window.

“We keep talking and joking around,” he says about cooking for customers. “Sometimes I throw the chicken, throw the shrimp in the people’s mouths.”

Some of the most popular entrees are the tender and juicy chicken ($14), steak ($16) and salmon ($16) hibachi meals, which come with fried rice or noodles — one customer said they were the best hibachi noodles they’ve had — and fresh vegetables like zucchini, mushrooms and onions. Or you can go all in with a combo meal with two meat options, which customers say comes in ample portions, often enough for two meals. Another popular choice is the vegetable hibachi meal ($14), which has the standard veggies, as well as bell peppers, carrots and broccoli. Seafood lovers can get shrimp ($16) and scallop ($16) meals.

Add on a side salad ($4) with house-made ginger salad dressing. And of course, people love the house-made yum yum sauce, which fans can buy in a 16-ounce bottle ($5).

You can usually find the truck in the Target parking lot on Howe Avenue Tuesdays through Sundays or at events where people often wait in line. His favorite feedback is when people tell him how fresh his food tastes and how much they like it, and he loves sharing his food with them. The message on his yellow truck puts it best: “Make me happy, eat all my food.” 

449 Howe Ave., Cuyahoga Falls; Aug 20 & 21, Streetsboro Bicentennial Birthday Bash; Aug. 26, Rock the Park Twinsburg; facebook.com/dr.hibachi