Japanese fusion restaurant Sizzling Lunch celebrated the grand opening of its Berkeley location Feb. 18 on Telegraph Avenue.

The restaurant, located in the former Sojo Ramen space, offers an interactive dining experience, where customers are greeted with the rich smell of grilled meat and a sound that can be aptly described as a sizzle.

Sizzling Lunch’s menu is inspired by teppanyaki grilling, according to manager Bob Chan. Customers have many options to choose from for their hot plate, including rice, pasta, beef, salmon and tofu, Chan added.

Chan noted that the restaurant has modified traditional cooking techniques into a hands-on moment for customers.

“In teppanyaki, the chef serves on a hot iron stove and they cook the food on that,” Chan said. “We have branched the process so that we serve our fresh ingredients on a hot iron cast skillet, and they cook by themselves. Then the guests can enjoy cook(ing) the items.”

Out of all the options on the Sizzling Lunch menu, Chan recommends the garlic pepper rice with beef. For vegetarians, he recommends the cheese corn and cucumber salad.

Chan added that he is continuously working to add new dishes to the menu. 

“For every single thing, we don’t serve what we don’t think is perfect,” Chan said. “That’s our bottom line. We want to test it before we give it out to everybody. We want to make sure that it is perfectly executed.”

Already, Sizzling Lunch has been met with a strong turnout from the Berkeley community.

On opening day, Sizzling Lunch served over 500 free meals to a long line of patrons, Chan said. Since then, the restaurant has served approximately 300 plates per day to UC Berkeley students and other members of the community, he added.

While Sizzling Lunch stays true to its name in that its food “sizzles,” the restaurant does, in fact, differ from its name in one aspect, Chan said.

“We not only serve lunch, but we (serve) dinner as well,” Chan said. “So one of our slogans is ‘sizzling all day.’ ”

The majority of Sizzling Lunch’s six other locations are located in the South Bay, including in Fremont, San Jose and Cupertino. Opening a new Berkeley location, Chan said, presents the opportunity to connect with the local community and the university students.

Chan said he was “super excited” about serving new customers in a new location.

“Turnout is better than what we expect(ed),” Chan said. “We are so, so grateful that we can serve everyone in this community. We are so excited to see everyone come to us.”