Steve Swangler

Review of Benihana

awful. if I could give no stars, I would, or even ...

awful. if I could give no stars, I would, or even negative stars. ever hear of an Asian restaurant that doesn't use soy sauce? neither did I until last night. the food was bland and tasteless, the chefs are not permitted to use any seasoning other than a little salt and a little butter. (extra butter cost $1). the chef cooked one item at a time, the tiny portion of zucchini (no other veggies other than onion) cooked first, then the rice, then the protein.
if you waited for everything to be finished, your vegetables would be cold and even worse than just tasteless. the "show" was a joke. the onion volcano that every hibachi restaurant does, and flipping shrimp tails into his hat was the entire "show". to finish the entire meal took over an hour. when one of my party spoke with the manager, he talked of how they charged for butter because it was so expensive. how about charging $31 for an unseasoned steak? the manager made excuses instead of taking criticism as opportunity. this restaurant lives on its name, not its product.
also, we had a large party, taking two tables, had two chefs, so this was not just one bad chef or one experience. this was on two tables with two separate chefs.
our one table did have a good server. our other table, the server disappeared for 15-20 minutes at a time. he was so absent that the server on our other table took over his duties.
an overpriced, bland meal, a joke of a show. do not waste your time. Japanese is my favorite cuisine, I have been to many hibachi grills. I am willing to try other Benihana locations, but this location was by far the absolute worst restaurant I've been to. not just Japanese. unless you enjoy overspending on bland food and wasting a lot of time, avoid this place.