This welcoming sushi spot tucked away in Gentilly has a giant menu with plenty of raw options that live up to its name. But chef Wei Li’s cooked items don’t disappoint, from agedashi crispy fried tofu and grilled hamachi collar with ponzu sauce to mazemen stir fried ramen noodles with minced pork or beef and veggies. The restaurant offers hibachi-style steak and seafood too.

A sushi go-to in Metairie for years, Daiwa also boasts a sizeable number traditional cooked specialties. Try the scallops baked in a garlic butter sauce; shrimp tempura with almonds; or baked green mussels with smelt roe — and keep an eye out for pop-up omakase menus from chef Ken Wong, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife Jay Hui. The variety of creative maki rolls is impressive.

Yakuza House known for its fabulous omakase menu, which has terrific cooked options in the rice bowl and noodles category. Top seasoned rice with shaved beef, katsu chicken, or pork and egg salad. Chef Huy Pham’s yaki soba noodles come with chicken or pork and there’s a veggie mushroom carbonara dish with three kinds of fungi and a tasty garlic butter sauce.

A fixture on Carrollton since 1999, Mikimoto has a comprehensive menu with a few dishes that depart from the norm. Oysters come fried in a tempura batter; mussels in a spicy mayo sauce; and and baked scallops are served on the shell on a bed of enoki mushrooms. Along with a range of teriyaki, the restaurant also offers shredded beef stir-fried with veggies and fried shrimp with ginger sauce.

Folks of a certain age remember when Benihana made such a splash with its theatrical chefs and teppanyaki grills. Geisha delivers the goods without the theater, with a full menu of hibachi grilled meats and veggies at dinner. Start with an order of steamed shrimp shumai, then dig into a marinated New York strip or a meaty piece of salmon.

Raw fish isn’t on the menu at this yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant that specializes in DIY grilled marinated meats, seafood and veggies. Despite more than 700 locations worldwide, Gyu-Kaku doesn’t feel like a chain. Servers are close by as guests have fun DIY grilling over a built in charcoal grill at the table. Choose from marinated short ribs, steak, chicken, pork belly and sausages, which come with rice and veggies. Non-grill options like Japanese-style fried chicken and shiso ramen are equally appealing.

This Uptown spot has been a go-to for Japanese flavor for more than 30 years. Hana’s kitchen offers six kinds of donburi (rice bowls) with toppings like chicken katsu and barbecued eel. Entrees range from grilled tuna and salmon to a combo of shrimp tempura, grilled chicken, teriyaki beef steak and green mussels, plenty for two. 

Specialty rolls get the spotlight here, but Rock-n-Sake cooks too. Share a few small plates — gyoza beef dumplings, or scallops in creamy dashi garlic sauce — then move onto entrees. Pan seared chicken and steak get an upgrade with housemade teriyaki, miso-gorgonzola, or Japanese chimichurri sauces, each with a choice of two sides (get the chicken rice).

Bisutoro prides itself in offering an array of raw fish sourced from global waters. But there are cooked options too, like battered fish cracklings, miso udon, bulgogi-filled gyoza dumplings, steak, and a daily fish special. The stylish restaurant is sleek and modern, with a cobalt color scheme and an eye-catching graphic octopus hanging over the bar.

Fried octopus fritters, crispy calamari, and sake-marinated barbecue ribs are a few of the creative dishes at Sake Cafe in Uptown, founded by chef Tony Zheng. Lemongrass goat cheese gyoza and baked salmon with snow crab also tempt. For mains, jumbo shrimp stuffed with snow crab in a peanut wasabi sauce is a modern riff to sample — or selection one of the varieties of pan-roasted or fried fish.

This West Bank favorite caters to families and groups with chef-led hibachi meals and plenty of crowd interaction. Fuji Hana offers hot noodles and rice bowls along with hibachi meals that range from steak and lobster to chicken, fish and veggies. Dinner includes a show around 14 hibachi grill stations. You can skip the action and sit at a regular table if you like, too.

The long-established Shogun in Metairie changed owners earlier this year, with restaurateurs Xikai “Neil” Yao and Yanrong “Davina” Wang now at the helm following founder Masako “Peggy” Kamata’s retirement. The couple, who also own Sake Cafe on Magazine and Five Happiness on Carrollton, kept the expert staff in place. Known for pristine beyond the usual sushi, Shogun also serves hibachi meats and seafood, grilled and baked seafood, ramen, udon and tempura.