Hibachi is a small Japanese cooking device: a portable brazier, traditionally box-shaped or cylindrical, that holds burning charcoal for heating and direct grilling. The word combines 'hi' (fire) and 'bachi' (bowl), literally 'fire bowl.'
In Japan, a hibachi is used mainly as a simple charcoal grill or room heater, in the same family as other small open-grate grills, rather than as a large performance-cooking setup.
The 'hibachi' most Americans know from restaurants is actually a different technique, teppanyaki: cooking on a large flat iron griddle, often performed tableside with theatrical knife work and flourishes like the onion volcano. The mislabeling dates to 1964, when restaurateur Rocky Aoki opened the first Benihana in New York and marketed his teppanyaki tables as 'hibachi dinners,' a name that stuck in the US even though it describes the wrong equipment. When an American restaurant advertises 'hibachi,' it almost always means teppanyaki; when a Japanese cook says hibachi, they mean the small charcoal grill.
Both styles of cooking favor fresh ingredients, usually meats, seafood, and vegetables, cooked quickly over high heat with techniques like searing, sautéing, and flambéing, and often finished with fried rice or noodles. The showmanship associated with American hibachi/teppanyaki dining is a restaurant invention rather than a traditional Japanese practice.
Portable charcoal hibachi grills remain popular for home grilling in the US and elsewhere, used much like a small tabletop barbecue for meats, seafood, and vegetables.