Goten Japenese Restaurant   

Located in a busy part of town but on a quiet side street near Vanderbilt University and the major city hospitals and medical centers, this restaurant offers Japanese hibachi and sushi, plus a bar area for appetizers and sakes. The hibachi chefs are masters at the art of chopping, dicing and tossing, and the food they flip from the grill onto the plates is fresh and filling. Each hibachi dinner includes a shrimp appetizer, miso soup, salad with a choice of unusual dressing mustard, raspberry or onion, plus rice, vegetables, fish, chicken or beef entree, hot green tea and desserts like pineapple or ice creams. Goten's sushi selection is standard, though sushi chefs are known to surprise people at the bar with a special or two. (Eel anyone?) Yummy items include the wildly popular edamame, a boiled and salted soybean appetizer served warm and the tempura udon noodle soup, thick noodles in broth with tempura shrimp. --Sandra Schulman