Benihana

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

I have never been as disappointed as I was after my dinner last night at the Salt Lake City location. I am from Sacramento and frequented the Sacramento location for years and my expectations were not even close from the service I expect when I choose to dine at a Benihanas Restaurant. This was my husbands birthday and we decided to go to our favorite restaurant to celebrate. We recently moved to Salt Lake and I can guarantee you Benihanas here is nothing like your other locations. We were first barely greeted upon entering the restaurant, we opted to go for sushi and indulge in their endless sushi dinner. The sushi chefs did not even acknowledge us at the sushi bar, it was quite possibly the most awkward bar experience ever. We felt so awkward and ignored by the two sushi chefs on duty and the constant reaching over our shoulders for dishes to serve to their patrons upstairs that we finally gave up our seats at the bar and opted for a table. We waited at least 40 minutes for our first order of sushi and considering there were only two other tables in the sushi area we could not understand what the hold up was. We were even further insulted when guests who arrived after us had received their dishes promptly and with ease. In the middle of our sushi we waited an additional 30 minutes for some of our order; we literately did not even have a single bite of food for 30 minutes in-between dishes. This was so inappropriate, we had to ask the server multiple times for our food and she never had an answer for us. In the end we did not even end up getting all of the sushi we had ordered and figured that spending 3 hours at the restaurant was time for us to give up on the horrible service and just forget about the order. Like I already expressed, this was by far the most awkward sushi bar I have ever been to. We felt like sitting at the sushi bar was intruding on the sushi chefs work. He ignored us and did not even greet us when we sat down. We couldnt even give him an order for our rolls. In the end he clearly did not accommodate our order and it was just a disaster. I felt that the problem was with the sushi chefs and not with the server. The poor girl looked like she was trying to get our orders up but the sushi chefs were not making the people in front of them a priority, she kept having to ask the chef for permission and for the status of our order but he refused to accommodate her requests. We ended up leaving the restaurant feeling sorry for the server because she clearly has incompetent chefs to deal with. Overall I can not believe a Benihana could possibly be this mismanaged. I am very disappointed that we have a Benihana in my new hometown that I will be afraid to eat at knowing how utterly poor their service is. It is a true shame.

CL

Clint Watts

My absolute favorite restaurant of all time! Get the lunch or dinner specials, they come with rice (remember to ask them for the fried rice), soup/salad and vegetables, and youll never leave hungry. I always get the "Surf Side" with shrimp and calamari. The calamari is ALWAYS fresh, and it melts in your mouth! The shrimp is large and puffy, and the safflower oil they cook it in makes it taste like none other. Benihanas rice can never be beat no matter where you go, and their vegetables, even though they are mostly a filler, are fresh and taste great with the ginger sauce. My friends used to think Teppanyaki and Kobe (two similarly styled restaurants in the area) tasted better but theyve changed their minds after Ive brought them here. Ive been going here since I was like 10 years old. My family goes here every year for our birthdays, and we are never ever disappointed! Every single time, weve had fun chefs who were fantastic, and their food has been even more fantastic! Ive gone to different Benihanas in California and they do not compare to this location. The waiters are great! There is this guy with black hair, I couldnt catch his name but he is awesome! He keeps your sodas filled to the brim and would get us a new one as soon as they would get watery from the ice melting. There is another lady there who is great too but I havent seen her in a while. The manager is a cool dude, he always makes sure to greet us whenever we sit down. The chefs are a main reason why Ive been coming back these many years, they are great! Even the ones that are sort of okay entertainment-wise, they still make the best food. The ones I remember and like the most are Ramon, (Rojilio?), and Mario. These guys have been my friends every time Ive came (including some others whose names I unfortunately keep forgetting) and theyve always done their best to make our experience perfect. Some last nice things about this place: They recently remodeled and gave the place a huge facelift, and they started using fiery onion volcanoes again!

JE

Jenny Czekalski

Not as good as it used to be. We have been going to Benihanas for a number of years now. Always enjoyed the food and service. This last visit was the exception. Our server was Nancy and was very cold. You could feel the negative tension she brought with her. She was not happy when my husband told her we were ready to order. I understand wanting a table to be full to optimize tips, but how long do we need to wait before the table filled up? If there is a specified time frame, it would have been nice of her to let us know rather than treat us like crap for my birthday dinner. Lobsang came out and was equally cold and negative. He prepared our food, but I wold have preferred it was just prepared in the back because he was so disinterested in either entertaining us or being at work that day. Dont get me wrong, Nancy and Lobsang went through all the motions. Nancy promptly filled our drinks and took away plates. Lobsang prepared our food (which seemed less flavorful than it has in the past, kinda bland), but the experience is gone. I would prefer not to go to dinner and feel like an inconvenience. I paid for the bill and Nancy came by to pick it up. Despite the cold service, I always leave a tip. I worked as a server in college and I understand how difficult the job can be. I find it rather tacky that she has to review the bill to ensure we tipped her appropriately before she can thank us for coming in. The icing on the cake was that Nancy took a "birthday" picture and it was completely fuzzy. You could hardly make out our faces it was so fuzzy. My kids were actually cooperating, smiling, and not moving, but you would have never known. I really used to enjoy going to Benihanas and always recommended it for my friends, however I would not recommend it anymore. It makes me sad to say it, but dont waste your money.

AN

Ana Manrique

Yesterday I went to eat there for fathers day. It was just me and my husband; they sat us on a table full of other family group. Unfortunately the person who prepared the meals was a friend of them; and because of that our problems came; he served part of our food to them; and I say this because weve been at your restaurant several times; the last one was on mothers day and my husband asked for the same food that he asked on fathers day; that past time they served him in a good amount of food, not this one, as an example on the ocean treasure, that he asked for, the past time he got two lobster tails, this time they cooked two but just gave him one, and the other one to another person who was eating meat; also the amount of shrimp and oysters was very little, cause the cooker gave it also to some of the other people sitting around us. I asked for the trio and they gave me in all cases (meat, chicken and shrimp) the smallest prices of them that were cooked, and served the biggest ones to the other persons. Really it has been the worst experience that I have had at your restaurant. Not saying that the waitress did not bring us the forks on time, and we were sitting there with ours salads, looking at the other ones eating, and just waiting for more than 10 minutes for her to come. Other times, we have shared our table with 2 or 4 other persons, with no problems. But not yesterday,... Fathers day. I talked to the Manager, a Chinese man, and he didnt do anything. Is that the kind of service that I am supposed to receive from you, as a loyal customer? Sincerely, You guys almost spoil our day yesterday; that was not fair. I expect some kind of apologize from you guys, if you want us back. I think I deserve it.