Brian Shaffer

Review of Benihana

Maybe worst restaurant experience ever. My wife an...

Maybe worst restaurant experience ever. My wife and daughter were with five other mother/daughter pairs on a U.S. world history trip to DC and Pennsylvania, and they decided to drive up to New York for a couple of days afterwards. With limited time they reserved a table here to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls.

They had a 9:45 reservation and weren't seated until about 10:15. The room was sweltering hot to the point where they were all sweating, and the manager politely came in to tell them that he had turned on the a/c. The room never really cooled down.

Drinks were served initially, but after an additional hour, there was still nobody there to cook their food. When one of the moms went to the front desk to inquire, the manager came back and rudely said, "Why am I not surprised to hear a complaint from this table?" They hadn't been rude in any way, and were shocked. They felt like they were being pranked. After having sat there for an hour and then having been disrespected they were literally looking around for hidden cameras.

The party remained there until 11:45 (2 hours total) and were never served a meal. At one point, somebody tried to start their grill, but it wouldn't start.

In the meantime, they watched other parties come in, get seated, get served food, and leave, while they were still there waiting for their grill to be started. At the table next to them a second party was already seated. Why in the world were they not given that table when their grill wasn't working?

There was never an apology, just an offer to remain there for 20% off or a free round of drinks, but they had already had drinks.

Everyone left starving and upset with the birthday girl literally in tears. This was on October 20th, just a few days ago. Manager should be fired for sure. It was extremely angering to make this a premier event on a very brief trip to NY and not even receive food. I mean, restaurants should really probably serve food, right? They charged the ladies for their drinks.

Under normal circumstances they would have of course left sooner, but they were desperately trying to redeem the birthday dinner. Eventually they gave up and ordered pizza up to their hotel room, and bought her a cupcake.

Thanks Benihana!

EDIT: Below, there's a response from Benihana asking me to fill out a form so they can make things right. I filled that out over a week ago... Nothing. Lol