Benihana Reviews

Great place for some hibachi! The service and the food is great. If you have a large group make reservations ahead of time to avoid a wait.

Compared to some of the other Benihana's I've been too, this one was just so-so. The service was good in the restaurant, the bartender had better places to be. It took about 15 minutes for him to make two drinks.

Great show and delicious food! Would go back immediately. :)
We were there on good luck at around half past 4 and got a table without any problems!

Poor time management, waited 45 minutes even after having reservation and the hostess had no idea when they can have a table available. Pathetic and disappointed.

One comes for the entertainment and not the food. That said, it is actually affordable for Manhattan.

Manager is racist and rude! I ordered the shrimp tempura and it was the worst I ever had. I took one bite and sent it back. The manager tried to charge me for it still. Told me I wasted their time and their food. I will never come here again. Service was terrible as well. Waitress was forgetful and gave a guest at my table shrimp and they were allergic.

Came on New Years Day and the place was bustling! Even though they were super busy, every staff member was friendly and accommodating to our group of 6. The Hibachi experience was fun and tasty thanks to our amazing chef who put on a fantastic show while cooking our food to perfection! Excited to go back!

Excellent food. Must go if you love hibachi. Wait can be a bit so call wayyyy ahead of time for a reservation especially on weekends.

Sadly has really gone downhill. Used to really like this place.

I would give this place a rating of 0 if possible. Made a reservation for 8:30 and was only seated 30 mins later. The server was terrible, the food was insipid. It had no flavour whatsoever and the fried rice is extra. Hibachi experiences are supposed to be fun so if you're looking for that, literally go anywhere else. Waiter demanded a tip even though we had to ask three times for the free bland white rice. The seating is uncomfortable, the menus are sticky, and the place is just way too crowded. Service is terrible and food is terrible. You're better off going to Chinatown.

6/9/2017 was my first experience. The good was amazing. There was a incident with a rude customer and the chief. Situation was handled with so much class from management.

Food was great, portions vs price are a little unbalanced

Amazing experience and great food. Loved chef's style.

They first told us we need to wait 45 Minutes... then 1 1/2 hours.... we then decided to go...

Upon approaching the restaurant, it was appealing from the outside. The area was clean and furnitures were arranged neatly. One can order a drink and be seated outside or on the first floor near the bar.

The meals are served on the second floor. Raw food is brought to the table by a chef who prepares the meal in our presence. Our chef made the experience fun. He had lots of jokes like butter fly when he threw the butter from a container to the grill. Another one was onion roll as he rolled the flaming onion. Overall a pleasant chef and server.

We were seated at a table with two other parties (a party of two-mother and son, and a party of three-grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter). The party of three were having family issues and could not agree with staying versus leaving the restaurant. The mother made a huge fuss about a change to the menue to fit her need and demanded the manager. She did not get the response she wanted from the manager so she left and later the remainder of her party also left. Good riddance. The server was extremely pleasant and kept his cool.

Pros:
~Great for family, large groups, and children.
~Moderate size meals ( we order for 2 persons and split among 4). We don t eat a lot because we are always watching our figure. If you eat a lot, you should probably get your own meal. We had two 6 course meals (trio, and another one with shrimp).

Cons
~Loud with children screaming or throwing a tantrum.
~ No music
~A bit unorganize (we had to remind the server that our meal came with ice cream and he never brought us Japanese tea which came with our meal)
~Felt rushed to leave as we waited for our ice-cream and tried to consume it. This offended my husband because we waited so long for a table and was rushed out of the restaurant after paying $130.
~ We were not told that we would share our table with two other parties. It was assumed that we would know the restauarnat s culture and this was my first time. My husband had visited 6 years back, with a larger party size so it never occurred to him that we need 9 people at our table in order to be seated.
~ Workers do not appear happy.
~ My husband was uncomfortable, because he was crammed and could not stretch his leg.

NB. We visited on a Saturday evening at 4:00pm.

Near by trains are N,Q, F. The restaurant was easy to find.

My brother and sisters had an Amazing time together at Benihana!!! The cook was good and the jokes were funny. The drinks were good as well. Customer Service was cool and the process were okay. Overall it was a good place.

They take reservations and the make you wait for a table.

The food was delicious, and there was plenty served to us. However, there was a very long wait because they seem to do very poorly at turning over tables. Also, the service was very slow and not personable.

Awesome place to eat. Chefs are worth the watch. They are funny and put on a great show. Fantastic food as well. I would highly recommend checking this place out.

Expensive, terrible food compared to other top restaurants, besides the fact if you don't make a reservation you will have to wait more than 2 hours. I'll never go back to that place again. In addition to a terrible service.

Recommended for birthdays, food cooked on a grill on yr table. Chicken,beef or shrimp , vege, vegetable fry rice, salads too. You can also order drinks from the bar. Its family friendly, Chef entertains while he cook, you must have the green tea ice cream, just yummy.

Every year go celebrate our granddaughters birthdays here ( February's babies); we noticed that the space between the tables through the years has become smallest. No room to move back when you are seated, plus the chef was not in a good mood for the cooking show that the kids love so much. Was disappointed this time.

The chef was wack. He didn't do any tricks, it was just regular. The place is overly expensive too. I can go to a low rated hibachi in the hood and be more impressed. It was my first time here and I doubt ill ever go again

Can be slow during lunch time - even with express menu.

Sadly, not great. Waited 30 minutes with a reservation. Host was awesome

I like it because the service was great, food on time, food was cooked in your presence and presentation was great.

So lucky to have been able to come here since they shut down the one in LA, love it!

Definitely a lot of fun with family and friends! However, even though the personal chef is very attentive, I feel the regular beverage service from the non-chef waiter is a little lacking.

Live atmosphere, nice show around the table at the hichibana meal. Food is ok.

Reserved a seat before, and had to wait 70 minutes.

Waited 40 minutes to be seated even though we booked a table in advance. Finally got shown to our table to only be shoved in the corner with a large family who needed a table for themselves. Took one look at the menu and decided we had enough and walked out. Not worth the money or wait. Do not even bother coming here.

Great presentation, makes for a fun place for large group meals

The place has gone down, in quality, the food so so and drinks watered down. The shefs are messy as well...

I've been coming to Benihana for over 7 years at the 56th St location & my dinner last night was the worst experience ever. It was all due to a server we had. He was loud, rude and extremely disrespectful. Not only did he offend me & my friends by shunning usand walking away when we were asking about our drink orders but the other family we were seated with expressed the same feelings we had. When it was time to pay the bill and he collected our cards he asked us what percentage tip were we giving and we said just split the bill evenly on our cards and we'll put our tip on afterwards like we always do. The other guy paid him in cash and when he asked the guy if he wanted change back and the guy said yes he asked him again with an attitude "You want change back?" To which he replied yes again and he goes "Was there a problem with the service?" "Are you not tipping?" I wanted to let the manager know about the terrible server we had and how he made our visit less pleasant but was in a rush as my husband was double parked outside. But that visit definitely is making me feel like I don't want to go there anymore because I was so disgusted and I'm sure they've gotten complaints about this guy before. A quality restaurant should provide quality customer service from beginning to end.

Very unprofessional! I called to make a reservation for a birthday party for a large group. I was instructed to fill out the form online for parties larger than 10 people. I was informed I would be notified within 24 hours upon submission. I called the following day to find out how things were going. A very nice hostess informed me that the manager was busy at the moment but would contact me in a few hours. She was nice enough to give me information about the reservation process for large groups. She even took down my name and my number and said he would get back to me! However, with all that be said, I never received a response to my request and it is now going on the 3rd day! Sad because I actually came here for Mother s Day several years ago. Unfortunate that they treat customers this way!

I've been to a lot of Benihana in my time, a couple dozen times to this location alone. This was by far the worst experience I've had at this chain. Food was overcooked, which is an impressive feat when we're all watching. Chef didn't use garlic butter... At all. Chef practically yelled at us, and constantly slammed his tools on the grill in anger. Loudly. I was hit in the face with scalding rice during the slappening.

Anyway, I don't usually do this but, really crappy experience. Overpriced, consistently lowering in quality. I'll think thirds before returning here.

Excellent restaurant and the services are excellent

The food was fabulous and it was a nice experience.You should really go

Don't go on a weekend, you'll wait for an hour even if you have a reservation. Horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible experience

Not super fancy, but food is priced reasonably, very entertaining show from the chef, and good company/community table setting. Carpeted floors in a restaurant weird me out though.

Getting worse quality starting from the two signature sauces

so good but very long wait and they forgot our reservation

Love this place, go everytime I have a guest ! But the service is really slow !

Fun Japanese Steak House in the Heart of NYC - Ask for Ramon- he is the best!

I expected much more out of the presentation and the food. The chef wasn't very enthusiastic and didn't do much. The food was not great, the chicken was tough and chewy and the vegetables were soggy and overcooked.

Took my family who was visiting from Mexico to this hibachi and we all had a wonderful experience. Great staff and amazing food ! The one thing I'm sad to see they changed was that they don't offer hibachi noodles.

I wish there was a ZERO STARS option. Service is terrible. Reservations are not kept on a timely basis. (I felt like I was in the Seinfeld Chinese restaurant episode.) None of the staff answered questions directly. The restaurant layout is a cluttered mess. HORRIBLE!

Great atmosphere, food and people. Had fun for my sisters birthday. We go every year for birthdays.

First off, we made a reservation for 3 people but when we got there apparently we had a reservation for 6. Fortunately, the front desk was able to adjust and seat us. However, they were unprofessionally complaining about other employees while they were getting our menus ready. When we got seated we waited a while before the rest of the table was full, which the seating arrangement didn t accommodate some of the plus-size people sitting at our table which made the space uncomfortable and crowded. To top it off only some patrons were offered drinks and the waitress didn t even take our drink order or offered until we asked. Then two of the other tables that were fully seated after ours received their chefs before we did. Our chef, which calls himself Toxic, came out 30 minutes later. The appetizers were fine but the entree s were not. The Hibachi Salmon wasn t seasoned at all which didn t taste right unless it was eaten with the avocado sauce and was served with noodles which were over cooked and didn t compliment the salmon, the zucchini wasn t cooked enough and tasted raw, and shrimp fried rice tasted terrible and was crunchy because the shrimp tails were unpeeled.

This dinner was to celebrate a special birthday, which was mentioned when the reservation was made, yet someone else who was sitting at our table that had a birthday was only recognized and sung Happy Birthday. A birthday only comes once a year and it is the only day I get to really recognize and celebrate my husband who serves in the military. Although the employees don t know us personally but the fact that they didn t make an effort to make our dinner an overall positive experience doesn t make this my next go-to restaurant for any upcoming events.

omfg let me start by saying I would like to thank you and your company personnel their excellent customer service... I believe the server nane was Gideon please correct me if im wrong but the experience he gave was unexplainable im dying to take the China bus back to NY. He took care of all my queries and has a caring approach, he is a true professional. Please accept my gratitude towards him and your staff for their speedy and efficient services, for me and my wife was really impressed.. Gave us southern hospitality even in the city that never sleep

I took my family here for Mother s Day this was our first time going to this restaurant , this place is a big disappointment, the food taste disgusting no seasoning in either the chicken , steak , shrimp and rice , the chef that was cooking the food look as if he was exhausted and rushing to go home ( he looks like he s from India) his name is Gideon. The food taste bland and their expensive I paid as much as a pair of shoes for a nasty meal and poor entertainment. $210. For all that I could have went taken my family to Panda Express and get food for under $50. I regret going to this place, it s a BiG Big Disappointment don t waste your money , Straight Garbage food. If you like food with no taste come here . You Guys gotta do better . Your Food is disgusting.

Food was just okay, I have definitely been to better hibachi

I love Benihana! Always awesome to see the cooking show, and the food is delicious.

Very fantastic to see how apart from eating Jurgen and they grab you in chou with the food

We had Ramond for our chief he was great...nice to see an employee enjoying their job....food great wait none...drinks weak for $25.00 each

Been coming here for years nothing like dinner and a show

Absolutely enjoyed the experience with my family...Author Isadore Johnson

Food was good, generous sized portions. Service was overall fine but the tables were small and crammed.

Ben going here every year for my birthday since I was a teenager. Consistently good food with the steaks and chicken based meals I haven't tried the sushi. The hibachi chicken rice is very good. Caloric information is printed up front on the menu as well.

It was a great experience, staff is friendly and have high energy. Always know what they have to do with out distractions. The only reason for the 4 star is the waiter who begged for an extra tip at the end of our bill after we already inserted the tip in the bill holder. Tips should be up to the customer not begging for more money not (the waiter) to pay what you have to pay.

I love this place they Make the delicious Food 5 Stars