Benihana

Reviews 3

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Adam Smith

One of my worst dining experiences in a long time, if not ever. Dont want to read this review? Heres the gist, save yourself the headache and avoid this place like your life depends on it.. After being taken back 20+ minutes late for our reservation we were seated by a large window with a terrible draft on quite a cold evening. The server takes our orders and disappears to come back what seems like 20 minutes later to tell the people at our table that had ordered lobster that there was only one left. Leaving it to strangers to decide who gets the remaining lobster. They chose without a problem and one agreed to change their meal. After another 10 minutes or so they came out again to say the one lobster they thought they had remaining was spoiled and no one could have it. Now, the second person had to change their order as well. Meanwhile, they are not making any progress on the food for the remainder of the table. They came back a third time when they realized another persons meal also came with some form of lobster and he too would need to alter his meal choice. About 40 minutes after being seated we received our soup, which was literally the only thing worth eating that night. The salad came sometime thereafter and was excruciatingly bland. I had brought a drink over from the bar while we were waiting to be seated, so, I was drinking that for the beginning of our "meal" and my girlfriend had a water. She finished her water, asked for more, and waited. I gave her mine after a few minutes and the server never acknowledged the lack of water again. Once the second was gone we asked for more waters, along with others at the table. Some time passed (way too much) and our server was no where to be found. So, I took the liberty of walking to the bar to ask for some myself - still not seeing our server along the walk through the restaurant. Next, our chef came out. If there was something he could do wrong, he did it. In going through the orders, our server had never made the changes necessary due to the establishments lack of product. When customers told him it was wrong and why he basically acted like it was their problem and they needed to get ahold of the server and get it corrected. He looked completely stoned. And to be honest I hope he was because if not he has no excuse for how awful he was. He started by doing something with his knives that ended with one landing on the customers plate in front of him. He gave us all the yum yum and ginger sauce that we would use with our meals. What was supposed to be yum yum sauce was an orange, greasy, curdled mixture that tasted nothing like the sauce. As it sat in the bowls you could clearly see the oil separating out (It should be a creamy sauce resembling a spicy mayo). We asked the server if there was any more yum yum sauce in the back. She remarked, that she would check and that she did not know what it was supposed to look like... The chef started cooked the zucchini, onions and murshooms, charring the zucchiini. He put the zucchini on each persons plate then the onions and lastly the mushrooms. By the time you got your mushrooms easily 5-10 minutes had elapsed and the zucchini was just barely warm. At this point everyone had those three items cooked on their plate and the sauce of their choice (one being spoiled yum yum sauce). Nothing else. And nothing else was on the grill yet. We have all been anxiously awaiting this meal and now are eating straight sautéed onions, mushrooms and zucchini. At this point the whole table is making remarks between each other about how bad everything is going, even suggesting there must be hidden cameras and were being pranked. Soon after he puts about ten regular sized shrimp on the grill and when asked where the rest was he claimed it was just the appetizer. We tasted the shrimp(overcooked), and left shortly thereafter, about 9:15PM, never seeing any rice or meals. We didnt have another 2 hours to wait for our meals nor did we want anything from there at that point.. Hit my character limit or I would keep going :(.

HA

Hayley Brent

Honestly a terrible experience. Went to celebrate our 16 year olds birthday we usually only go to Kabuto in Colerain but since we were close we just went to beni. Big mistake. Once we arrived we were seated promptly so far so good, our server came out as soon as we sat down and took our drink order then came back with everything but the beer at this point the bday girl orders a special lemonade she then after a couple minutes came back with the wrong beer then went back to get the right beer took another couple minutes then came back with it, then the she came out with our soups which I will say was really good, then salads at this point I asked for her lemonade since she still hadnt got it. Then our chef came out.. no flare,not entertaining, seemed to struggle to sum it up just disappointing. Our food was just okay not good just okay. My boyfriends and her filet was over cooked my chicken was chewy and it all had a very over powering onion taste chicken rice sauce veggies all of it, i am aware all of this is Bc its prepared with next to and on onions but the other flavors lacked and could not even begin to balance it out and the portion size and prices were off for me considering the amount I get when I go to my favorite place and its always amazing I always have leftover but not here. And the actually most disappointing moment... the birthday celebration. We expected much much more. Once our server finally came out it was her and another employee she was singing he was not, didnt take the time to ask her name seemed very annoyed had a tiny scoop of ice cream with and unlit candle the we got a picture so bleary you couldnt see our faces. Not worth my 120 dollars will never be going back! You should stay away to! Dont wast your dollar.

JE

Jennifer Lee

The star of this review is solely due to the delicious food, and our amazing chef, Charlie. He made us laugh, was entertaining, and put on a great show. All of the other service? Pitiful. My friend had made a reservation for her birthday, and upon arrival, we learned that the tables were not together, which is not what she was told on the phone. The hostesses/people working the front were rude to us, like it was our problem. A good number of us have worked or are working in restaurants currently, and we were shocked at how we were treated. After 20-30 minutes of waiting, they finally figured the table situation out and we were able to get two tables facing one another. Then came our server. an older woman, who looked nice enough, but treated us like she hated us. Again, a lot of us are/were servers and bartenders. We know how to behave in restaurants. We were friendly, and did not ask for anything special. She acted annoyed with our drink orders, some people got the wrong food, she never said thank you, she rushed us out, never refilled water, and acted like we were an inconvenience to her. Mind you large parties are given auto-gratuity to their checks, so she was making 18% off of us regardless, which really showed in the horrible way she treated us. Not friendly, not personable, not helpful, not even nice. She slammed our checks down before we were even finished, without a word. This was a birthday celebration, and we went here for the experience, and to celebrate. I would not recommend this place to anyone, strictly because of the service. The food was amazing, and so are the chefs. Everyone else? No. They have no right to charge what they charge while treating guests like garbage.