Hibachi — how ’bout you?

While drama and showmanship usually don’t make the meal, the hibachi grill chefs at Sea40 — one of Lewiston’s newest restaurants — will certainly add an element of excitement to your dining-out experience.

Sea40 is L-A’s first taste of teppanyaki — usually called hibachi in the U.S. — in which cooking griddles are integrated into the dining tables and chefs cook the meals right in front of diners, often with a theatrical flair that includes juggling, food sampling and other hoopla.

Sea40 Manager Franki Tam said the restaurant, located in the Lewiston Mall at 40 East Ave., has 12 grills and features “more than 80 percent seafood,” including lots of sushi. But there are numerous vegetable, chicken and beef choices on the extensive menu too. Rounding things out is a selection of pad Thai, fried udon noodles and fried rice.

For both lunch and dinner, the grills are fired up and your choice of shrimp, chicken, salmon, scallops, beef or vegetables will be prepared with a flair — seasoned, sizzled and grilled right in front of you. Sea40 offers combination plates, so it’s easy to include scallops with your fillet mignon, chicken with your steak, or salmon with your chicken. An added plus: The chefs will help you hone your perhaps less-than-perfect skills of catching bites of vegetables in your mouth, which they periodically toss toward willing diners using their steel blades.

With each meal, a ginger/soy dipping sauce is served, along with a sweet house condiment that Tam calls “Yummy-Yummy Sauce.” While other Japanese restaurants might use a similar “master” sauce, he said, Sea40’s is considered both “a secret recipe” and a bit unusual. With a bit of inquiry, Tam gave us just one small hint: The sauce is “sweet and mayonnaise-based.”

Served as appetizers are small iceberg salads topped with a refreshing pureed fruit dressing (pineapple and apple with a hint of ginger) and small bowls of clear miso soup.

Sea40 meals, paired with grill-fried rice and fresh grilled vegetables, are simple but very flavorful, and substantial in size. Even my lunch-sized meal was large enough to bring a little stir-fry home.

The variety of sushi – in which fish and/or vegetables are placed on top of sticky rice and rolled up — is quite extensive, along with Sea40’s sashimi (varieties of raw fish, sliced thin) and classic sushi rolls, rolled in the traditional seafood wrapper with rice.

Tam said the Black and Orange Roll and the Sushi & Sashimi Entree for Two — a fairly large-sized platter of 10 pieces of sushi, 18 pieces of sashimi, spicy crab roll, eel avocado roll and spicy tuna roll — are two of their most popular sushi dishes because of both their flavor combinations and the “elaborate presentations.” Having never ventured into the realm of raw fish and feeling slightly adventurous, I was super-pleased with the classic salmon/avocado rolls I ordered.

Other offerings on the menu are “kitchen-prepared,” instead of on the grill, and include numerous teriyaki options, basil beef (the recipe shared with us by head chef Tai Chen), lemongrass shrimp, lamb or tropical mango chicken. The Sea40 tempura — extremely light and crisp — is made with Japanese flour, and is delicately crunchy — your choice of vegetable, chicken or shrimp. As an appetizer, a shrimp and vegetable combo was $7; as a meal (including salad, soup and rice), the tempura ranges from $10 to $12.

Tam said he is happy with his new location, having learned from research prior to opening that many people have had to drive to Portland for such a dining experience. “I am very confident that we can have good food, good service and friendliness here in Lewiston,” he said.

Lunch is served Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Single-item grilled meals range from $9 to $12 for lunch, while on the dinner menu, most are $15 to $25. Box lunches are a great deal at $7.50, including one of eight meals, and are served with shumai (dumplings), white rice and either a soup or salad.

The dinner menu starts at different times depending on which day of the week it is. For more info, call 795-6888. Tam said reservations are needed for Friday and Saturday nights.

Sea40’s Basil Beef

Proportions are for one person; multiply accordingly for the number you will be serving.

Ingredients:

Flank steak, cut into thin stir-fry strips — approximately 1/2 pound per person

Olive oil

Sauce:

1 tablespoon Thai chili paste with soy bean oil

2 tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar (adjust more or less to taste)

A squeeze of lime juice

Vegetables:

Any combination of the following. Approximately 1 cup total:

Sweet peas

Red pepper

Green pepper

Asparagus

Zucchini strips

Young (thin) green beans

Approximately 15 fresh basil leaves

In small bowl, prepare the sauce and set aside. Steam your choice of vegetables. In wok or fry pan, quickly stir-fry the beef strips in a small amount of hot olive oil. Tam recommends cooking only until medium-done. He also recommends quickly rinsing surplus oil off the beef under very hot water; drain well. Discard any remaining oil in the pan. Return beef strips to pan; add basil leaves. Stir slightly; when wilted, add veggies, then sauce. Toss slightly to heat sauce. Serve on a bed of white rice.

Chef Tai Chen said the Basil Beef is a “one star” in terms of spiciness. If additional kick is desired, you can easily add more chili paste.