Benihana was founded in 1964 in New York City by Rocky H. Aoki. The first restaurant was on W 56th Street.
The chain struggled until received a rave review from the New York Herald in 1965.
In 1968, the first restaurant opened outside of New York, in Chicago.
In 1982, the Benihana National Corporation went public.
By 1997, there were 47 restaurants.
In 1999, the company acquired Haru Sushi.
In 2002, the company acquired RA Sushi.
In 2007, the 100th restaurant was opened.
In 2008, founder Rocky Aoki died.
In 2012, the chain was acquired by Angelo Gordon & Company and taken private.
Today, Benihana operates nearly 120 Japanese cuisine restaurants worldwide. The chain also operates both Haru and RA sushi restaurants.
BenihanaBenihana was founded in 1964 in New York City by Rocky H. Aoki. The first restaurant was on W 56th Street.
The chain struggled until received a rave review from the New York Herald in 1965.
In 1968, the first restaurant opened outside of New York, in Chicago.
History
In 1982, the Benihana National Corporation went public.
By 1997, there were 47 restaurants.
In 1999, the company acquired Haru Sushi.
In 2002, the company acquired RA Sushi.
In 2007, the 100th restaurant was opened.
In 2008, founder Rocky Aoki died.
In 2012, the chain was acquired by Angelo Gordon & Company and taken private.
Today, Benihana operates nearly 120 Japanese cuisine restaurants worldwide. The chain also operates both Haru and RA sushi restaurants.
The Myrtle Beach area is fast growing and South Carolina has no Benihana. Last year alone, Myrtle Beach had 17 million visiters. Many locations from North Myrtle Beach to Myrtle Beach for you to choose from. Please open one here. It’s a win win.
I felt as if I were having to defend myself and I’d done nothing wrong. At this point I choose to end our conversation and let him know I would be speaking with someone else regarding this matter. Still not having lost faith in the Benihana experience I was sure once I contacted the main office in Florida this issue would surely be resolved. I called once and left a message, twice and left a message and of course a third time again no one called me back. My point is that it’s not your flyby night occasional customers that keep a business going strong. But rather that core group that has remained loyal and spent thousands of hard earned dollars coming back year after year and serving as virtual advertisements when selling the Benihana experience to friends and family in order to drive business. And it has truly ruined the Benihana experience for me! Knowing that my return business, righting a wrong and creating a better experience than the horrible one I just had isn’t important enough to receive a follow up call well that’s just bad business. And one I will definitely have to share with others!
Why do people love Benihana? It comes down to one thing and one thing only. Especially considering there are so many copycat hibachi style restaurants now offering much competition to the once Japanese hibachi style giant and that would be The Benihana EXPERIENCE! Which for us (my girlfriend and myself) has spanned well over 25 years filled with birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, moving from one city to the next, shopping excursions, romantic dinners, and even the downright must have benihana today experience! The experience is what keeps the other copycats away. Recently I summited a customer complaint online about the horrible service I recieved at your Benihana Keystone/Crossing Indianapolis location. To no surprise of course I received a call from the stores District manager Chis Cabbage. He told me who he was and that he was following up on my complaint. I attempted to explain to him the horrible experience we had at this location from the outrageous wait time, the freezing temperature in the restaurant, the obviously rude and racist manager Ashley on duty ( who almost succeeded in making me lose my cool) and this location making no attempt at all to satisfy an unhappy loyal customer. Needless to say to my surprise throughout our conversation Mr. Cabbage never once apologized! Not until I brought it to his attention of course did he even feel the need to apologize for his stores poor service and bad behavior. Instead Mr. Cabbage missed my point totally he was so concerned with my exchange with the manager Ashley that he totally negated what the initial point of his call was supposed to be which is always to apologize and make it right with the customer. Instead he questioned me as if I’d done something wrong as if me patronizing my favorite restaurant for over 20 years resulting in thousands of dollars in revenue not just from myself but everyone I ever encouraged to patronize them as well meant absolutely nothing at all because I was upset about my bad experience!I felt as if I were having to defend myself and I’d done nothing wrong. At this point I choose to end our conversation and let him know I would be speaking with someone else regarding this matter. Still not having lost faith in the Benihana experience I was sure once I contacted the main office in Florida this issue would surely be resolved. I called once and left a message, twice and left a message and of course a third time again no one called me back and that was well over a week ago. My point is that it’s not your flyby night occasional customers that keep a business going strong. But rather that core group that has remained loyal and spent thousands of hard earned dollars coming back year after year and serving as virtual advertisements when selling the Benihana experience to friends and family in order to drive business. And it has truly ruined the Benihana experience for me! Knowing that my return business, righting a wrong and creating a better experience than the horrible one I just had isn’t important enough to receive a follow up call well that’s just bad business. And one I will definitely have to share with others!
We went for dinner10/25/2018 .Cameo was our server this was the second time she waited on us I just want to say OUTSTANDING SERVICE….I can’t remember the chefs name also good . Thanks I will always ask for her.
I received a call this evening from a man named “Steve” the manager from the Westbury,NY Benihana who refused to give me his last name. He received our direct review that we sent to Benihana of our atrocious visit to his restaurant a few weeks ago. Here is the review: one star is obligatory… I am passing this review on from my Mother, she is not a yelper but I was there…
I have been to Benihana for special occasions many times. We were there with 9 family members tonight to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. The two young children in our group were excited to see the tricks the chef was going to do. The tricks were almost nonexistent. The volcano over erupted and was a flop, and the only other trick was with the fried rice….again…a flop. The chef had no personality, which is all part of the experience we come for at Benihana.
The woman’s bathroom was disgusting! Only 1 out of the 3 stalls had toilet paper and toilet paper was all over the floor. Only some of the sinks worked, and the counter was flooded. When I came out of the bathroom, I went directly to the manager and complained. His response was that he knows and has someone going in to take care of it. My daughter went to use the bathroom about 35-40 minutes after I complained, and the condition did not change. It was still disgusting! My son used the men’s room and said it was a health hazard to say the least. I would say as a professional that if the health department inspected these facilities they would shut this restaurant down.
Our server was no where to be found for refills on our beverages during dinner. At one point everybody had empty glasses so we called over a busboy who got another server who took our drink refill orders, but we didnt get any drinks. After 10 minutes our original server came back annoyed at us for some reason and then took our drink order again as if she was doing us a favor. Worse service ever!
When we complained to the manager about our experience (same manager I complained to about the bathroom) he argued with my son and stated that there was a language barrier and therefore we should understand that the chef didn’t speak English. On top of that we shouldn’t have any expectations of the chef interacting with us, even with the two children at the table. It was a horrible experience with the manager because all he did was confirm that he didn’t care about the guest’s experiences and moreover, was filled with excuses and was completely apathetic.
No wonder this restaurant is in the condition it is. When your management doesn’t care, then your staff doesn’t care.
He called me tonight pretending to be somebody else from Benihana, I thought it was someone from corporate looking to make it right. Instead he referred to himself in the third person until I realized it was the same manager spoke to while at the restaurant. He told me I was a bigot and a racist because I complained that our chef didnt speak English and therefore couldn’t do his job appropriately which was to entertain us and do the chef tricks. He was unable to communicate with us and therefore was not able to engage in any sort of entertainment besides poorly done tricks. As written in the review, when I was there and complained to the manager, “steve” he was the one that told me there was a language barrier.
In addition, when I said I was going to call corporate to complain about how rude he was being, he said I was extorting him and that what I was doing was illegal. This man was beyond rude and talked over me and berated me. He continued to focus on the chef and completely disregarded the other 80% of our complaints. He said that he gave us a discount (10%) which he did and that it should have satisfied our complaints. We had 9 people out of a table of 11. Our bill was very large and we were completely disappointed. He was beyond frustrating and he just was on the defense the entirety of our phone call. He then told me that the call was being taped (which I hope it was so you can hear how awful he was with me) I cannot believe I was spoken to this way. He has no right speaking to a customer that way. He should be stripped of his position and the health dept should pay that location a visit.
I expect a response from corporate asap to make this right.
Still waiting for corporate??? So am i
Customer Service Managers are to “drive overall guest satisfaction, increase return visits, and reduce guest complaints”. Well, after having Broward Sheriff’s Office called on me and my sister- we will not be returning. Manager, MARTINI, made clear that she does not care about customer service; lacking basic skills such as de-escalation / customer appreciation. Martini was very unprofessional- recognized by the presenting sheriffs, passing customers, and waiting customers. Several customers left the waiting area after seeing this confrontation. Martini told BSO that she called for their service because we were unwilling to leave the premise; however, we were waiting for To-Go Orders while addressing complaint from dine-in experience. The sheriff provided me with a Case# for my record; after calling BSO, Martini stated that she did not need a case# nor a statement. This complaint could have been resolved if our initial request for a manager was treated as a priority. Initially, Martini refused to assist (she was busy eating chicken on the clock) and sent Sandy over. Sandy was nice but she was unqualified to resolve the dine-in issue. Apparently, Martini has had other encounters providing poor customer service as other customers spoke amongst themselves describing her as “rude and nasty”. Martini has no place in the profession of customer service nor managerial.
me my husband and son went to benihana Dearborn mi on 4/10/18 when we arrived the hostess was texting at the host stand she didn’t look up until she was don’t writing her text she did not care that we were standing there looking at her. we got there around 6:30 and was not seated till after 8. our server was Michael. and our chef was Anthony. Michael brought the soup and salad. and then it took 1 hour for the chef to come. we were first told it was someone else then Anthony showed up. it was like they took the guy washing the dishes in the back and threw him on the floor. he was not prepared. someone had to bring him vegetables. he did NO tricks and forgot the sauces. my husband only goes there for the sauces. I actually had to tell another waitress to bring cups then Anthony said he didn’t need them. it took him way to long to cook and he seemed like he was struggling. everything went wrong, he did not have enough rice so everyones bowls were 1/2 way full. he forgot my sons corn that came with the kids meal and then gave my steak to someone else and I had to sit there and wait for him to get someone attention to bring him another steak. it was was absolute worst experience I had at Benihana. so here we are with no steak and no sauce. my rice was gone because thats all I had on my plate and the vegetables were undercooked. the rice had no flavor and when I finally did get my steak he forgot to put garlic butter on it. after leaving at 10:30 I did not speak to a manager. it was a school night and I was extremely frustrated and wanted to go home. when I got off work I called and asked to speak to a manager Jennifer I tried to explain to her everything that went wrong and she had no intreat in my complaint. I told her I did have my receipt and she was telling that the chief is only human and everyone makes mistakes,. she was rude and talking over me. she was not professional at all. I don’t understand when you work in customer service you should work somewhere where u love your job and she clearly was on her period. I’m the customer I’m unhappy your supposed to make me happy she was not helpful and thats all she did was further piss me off. the Dearborn restaurant is dirty and disgusting. the staff is horrible. the managers are a joke. who hires these people. I’m definatly contacting corporate and letting them know I will take it as far as I can because after $124 for our bill that was uncalled for.
Atlanta- Buckhead experience (Do Not Go You Are Warned)
3/15/18 Dinner at 8 PM
1. It was my birthday and by Fiancé always takes me to Benihana to celebrate (we were a party of 2 joined by a party of 6)
2. While waiting for our 8pm reservation other patrons whom completed their meal walked out complaining due to not receiving the dessert/sherbet – ice cream which is part of the 6 course meal – others complained as well for other things like the 85 minute wait time for no reservation and tables we not all full
3. When we got seated (on time) and ordered drinks the 6 ppl got up and left due to what was apparently issues with 6 other patrons in their party arriving late and the hostess not wanting to wait for them to arrive or their reservation would be canceled (the last 6 of their party arrived 15 minutes late and apparently the hostess told them they would have to wait 85 minutes to be seated, which apparently was the wait time all night for patrons with no reservations and they did have a reservations some of he party was just late) so this made the whole table leave except for us since they felt mistreated by the restaurant.
4. The whole table left and you would think his would be explained (no staff explained to us or apologized for what was happening) we had to wait for more patrons to join our table which mean we are later than anticipated (I was irritated but I made the best of it but someone should have said something to us, common courtesy)
5. Once more patrons arrive at our table the cook came out but everyone at the table had the same complaints (Benihana is not what it used to be and our chef seemed annoyed)
6. The food has no taste – the rice was rushed, the tricks were not done as normal (very dry and lazy), the Yum Yum sauce (which used to be my favorite and made me come back each time) was watery and disgusting (we tried to talk to chef about it but he claimed it’s the same, he didn’t seem happy or want to be bothered at all) everyone at the table (ppl we don’t know) were not having a good food experience at all and said the food was not the best, very dry no matter what you added to it.
7. Drink refills were extremely slow and I almost choked on dry rice and had to drunk my fiancé’s water which luckily was just refilled a few minutes before while my cup was empty (he had to flag down the waitress and ask her to please refill my drink which was empty for a while)
8. Then once the chef was done preparing the food normally you’re able to eat and converse with ppl you meet at the table – the waitress was rude and brought out ToGo Containers with in minutes of chef leaving- we were disturbed by this happening, but we all didn’t make a big deal even though we were being rushed and pushed out of restaurant
9. No one acknowledged my birthday – No one sang at the table (two of us had birthdays) No one made us feel special – this happened last year as well and I vowed to not come back but we figured it was just a bad night but it was a compete repeat of last year
10. Also we did not get asked if we wanted dessert/ ice cream in the end we were handed our bill within minutes of the Togo plates
11. My fiancé felt bad, as last year this same thing happened and he asked them to get me ice cream and himself sherbet – the waitress ended up bringing the ice cream but insulted us by placing the ice cream in Togo containers and we live 20 miles away so that was not nice at all. Why couldn’t we eat it at the table? They didn’t ask anyone alas seated if they wanted the ice cream that came with their meal
12. Everyone at the table felt they were over charged (which is no coincidence) we asked for extra fried rice, which we do every time we go and we were double charged this time and the waitress just said there was an up charge and she said she told us that (which she did not) they charged up 4 extra rice when it should of only been 2 extra (rice already comes with meal) (we didn’t want to argue so we paid the bill) this is when all the other issues started as others at the table had issues with the charges on their bill and were confused, but just decided to not argue and pay as well. But one guy with his girlfriend gave the waitress cash and a card (he wanted the cash applied first then his card) the waitress came back and had charged the entire bill to his card and she had pocketed his money in her apron (he literally had to ask her back for the money) it was all weird as when she charged his bill in the system she didn’t have multiple checks to process only his so how can you forgot to put the money on his bill then his card (something about the waitress felt really off)
13. While all this was going on we had been the first of 4 tabs to be closed out and we paid cash and she still had not given us our change back. We had to ask her about 15 minutes later with our Togo melting ice cream for our change and she still shorted our change (while it was only 9 cents short this should of been explained to us)
Also do you all still take photos? I see it on the website but I have not had a birthday photo taken in years in Atlanta.
Friday February 2nd I arrived at Benihana in Dearborn Michigan where one of the managers Rachel told myself and the others with me that we were put on the waiting list but she couldn’t tell us a wait time. After sitting and waiting for two hours my cousin went back to the front counter where staff proceeded to tell us we would be seated shortly, which was false. After another hour we finally were seated and when he asked to speak to a manager Shawn came over and was very rude to my table. He talked away while I was talking to him and I really do not appreciate the disrespect. My cousin then noticed that the alcoholic drink that she ordered was in a dirty glass which made our visit even worse. After Shawn walked away Rachel came back and treated us worse than previously before. When I tried to explain to her that she didn’t accurately explain to us the waiting situation and that we were on an alternative wait list after many reservations that were previously made. She just walked away and said okay then at the end of our visit while we were getting our ice cream from staff she continues to be disrespectful and told me that I shouldn’t have got any ice cream when I had just paid a $70 tab. I eat at Benihana way too much to receive this type of treatment from the staff. I am very disappointed with this service and hope you will do something about this behavior. I will no longer be eating at this location and I won’t encourage anyone else to do so either. Another couple at my table was also complaining to staff about the terrible service we were receiving. The staff seemed as if they didn’t care and didn’t even attempt to apologize. We were celebrating a 10 year olds birthday and that experience just ruined everything.
I have been waiting 3 weeks for my birthday certificate. My birthday was January 11th and never got one. I e-mailed the chefs table at benihana.com and they said they sent it but got bounced back to them. I gave them my husband’s E-mail on 1/19 and still have not heard back from them. I am very disappointed and will make it a point not to visit your restaurant. I have been getting my certificates for at least 10 years. Thank You.
Looking for $60 gift card when you spend $200 – they say it was send to my email but I do not see them – went out of my way to store to get the gift card but I did not have bar code
I can get $40 gift card when I spend $200 – not sure why I am being punished here – could you please help me out – thank you
I called on 12/14/2017 to make reservations for my wife’s birthday. Our family decided to go to Benihana for my wifes birthday and kids Christmas school event. When I made the reservation I told the person on the phone that we were celebrating my wife’s birthday. Dinner reservations were set for 9PM.
Our party of four arrived at 8:30PM, we had a couple XXXXtails at the bar and then the buzzer went off and we headed to our table. At our table we were greeted by a server called Destinee. She took out drink order and food order. Twenty minutes later and we still had no drinks. I asked another waiter to find Destinee and 5 minutes later Destinee showed up with our drinks. When she showed up with our drinks I asked if my tuna appetizer was ordered and she said she forgot. I told her not to worry about is since the food and chef was more than likely on her way. Then another waiter stopped by and asked if everything was okay and mentioned that the manager would give me the tuna app for half off. I said okay and order it and asked for all tuna. Ten minutes later Destinee stopped by and mentioned the managaer was willing to take half off the appetizer but since I wanted all tuna she had to charge me individually for each piece. I asked her how much each piece was and she did not know so I had to get up and got to the register. As it turns out it was cheaper to order the tuna individually instead as the combo. I said go ahead and order 6 pieces. The waitress said the manager was going to rush it and it would not take more than 5 minutes, 15 minutes later the sashimi arrived. At this same time my wife’s wine that she ordered 45 minutes ago also arrived. Destinee said she forget about the wine and apologized. The chef arrived and informed us that the grille was not on and we had wait another 5-10 minutes before he could get started. Chef cooked and the meal was great. Kudos to the chef! We ordered our ice cream after our meal and then the waited another 20 minutes for it to arrive. My kids and I were expected for the Benihana staff to come out and sing happy birthday like the other 50 times they have done in the last 30 years of my life. This time it was strange because Destinee brought the ice cream and asked my wife if she wanted them to sing to her. I called and made a reservation and informed your staff that is was my wife’s birthday. In my last 50 visits to Benihana your staff just comes out and sings, they never ask the birthday person. It suppose to be a suprise. My wife said no and was confused about the question. The table was confused and offended as well. The service was so bad the table made a joke about the experience the entire night. We ended up getting our bill and had to wait another 20 in order for our waitress to charge our card for the bill. I looked for the manager to complain and found her outside with other staff looking at their phones instead of taking care of their customers. Not Good!
We went to the restaurant in Plano, (Legacy), for my son’s birthday. Terrible, terrible experience. Someone from corporate or executive management needs to check out this site. Due to my wife’s work, we were assembled at 7:15PM for our 6:30 PM. I explained this when my son and I checked in. When we were all there, the place was a mad house. We waited another 45 mins., we should have left. After ordering drinks, I had an emergency and had to leave to get to the facility. My son and wife reported there order was totally messed up, from entries to rice. The rest of the table was experiencing equally poor service. They were being rushed throughout the meal. As a final insult, as they were being “pushed” to move on, my wife Isidro the meal bill, Only to find a meal for 2 was over $60, with $20.00 entries. After recalculating the meal at home, it should have been under $50.00. We will never go to Benihana again. Interaction with the manager and server ice from Karina were terrible. We used our birthday certificate. Horrible, horrible experience.
1. On the 4th of November, 2017 my family and I ate at one of your Benihana restaurant in downtown Atlanta, GA and I wanted to pass on to you the unacceptable service me and my family received and ultimately the undesirable response we received from the General Manager, who just happen to be on duty that day.
2. We arrived at the restaurant at 2:45PM in the afternoon and did not have a reservation. We requested to be put on the list for a party of 8, including three children. We were told that we could get seated in about 1-hour. We decided to wait, however, after the hour had passed and we were no closer to getting seated, I decided to go on-line and make reservations through the online application called “open table.” I was able to make reservations for 4:30PM that evening, however, I did converse with the waitress regarding sitting us if a table opened up earlier than 4:30. Although we had been there for well over 1 hour when I made the reservations, we decided to wait since we had come over 100 miles to come to the restaurant. At 4:30, I went to the reservation waitress to ask if we were any further on getting seated since we did have reservations now. She was very unprofessional and said “I told you I would let you know when we were ready for you…..like I was bothering her for asking a third time”
I was taken aback by this and decided to see the manager about our wait. Unfortunately for us, the General Manager (Ms. Mychele Mabon) just happen to be at the restaurant and offered us no rationale for the wait time other than the restaurant was busy that night. She even had the audacity to state that even as a general manager, she was required to make reservations and that she had made reservations for her party that same night for 5PM. Interestingly enough, when I asked the waitress why the wait times were so long, she indicated they were down to 3 cooks when they normally have 7 on site Saturday nights. So the real story for our extremely long wait was first, I initial had no reservations (my fault but I fixed that) and two, because the restaurant did not have enough cooks on site.
3. So, around 5PM, they finally were able to seat me and my family for dinner. Once we were seated, they served us drinks, our soup and salads. Here is where my main complaint takes shape. The General Manager and her party were also seated around the same time that we were. Keep in mind we are going on 2+ hours waiting for the table and another 30-minutes before our cook showed. Around 5:15, her table’s cook showed up and begin to prepare their food. We were still waiting for our cook to show up. Even though I had complained to her about our wait time and she was aware of how long we had been waiting, she still had the audacity to get her party served before we were served. How inconsiderate could a general manager be to allow such an insensitive thing to occur? We just set there watching as her table cook began to prepare their food! THE GALL of Ms. Mabon to ignore the customer in such a disrespectful way!
4. However, there were two positives that occurred that night. First, the food was excellent although I will never visit that particular restaurant again. And two, the Restaurant Manager, Ms. Marinda Griffiths. She was a God send! She did what great managers do…they find out what the problem is and then the attempt to fix it! She is GM material because she knew how to fix it! She listened to our issues and continue to check on us throughout our meal service. She indicated that if she had known about our issues earlier, she would have fixed it immediately. However, the GM did not tell her about our conversation nor our wait time. Ms. Griffiths is the best of what Benihana has to offer and I want to publicly state to you that she should be the GM, not Ms. Mabon! Ms. Griffiths offered us a discount for our meal even though Ms. Mabon told her not to give us one….like it was our fault that we waited for almost three hours with three children just to eat! At the end of the day I was dismayed at the service we recieved at Benihana but am still a loyal customer. My desire is that this letter makes it to your office and that something is done to rectify this problem! Thank you in advance from one of the countries U.S. service personnel!
Recently we ate at Benihana Las Vegas Paradise Rd.
James was the Chef. He was fabulous! Food was great and service was stupendous!
Sachie was our waitress and she was so knowledgeable and informative! After eating there more than 40 times she shared one founding information of Benihana. We all learned a lot!
Sachie was so friendly and helpful!
What a great evening!
Thank you Sachi & James,
The Martinez Family
Called their customer service three times and left voice mails…no live person to talk to….never received a call back!!!!!
All though the service was very good, the chicken we had was tough and on the dry side as if it were cooked to much.The rest of the dish was fine, but it overall made the dinner disappointing. Wish it had been better. Would of liked to enjoyed it.
My husband and I met Rocky in 1964 when he first opened the restaurant on W 56th in NYC; I have a photo of us somewhere; over the years we ate in Benihana in Miami and Ft Lauderdale; our little grandchildren love it….it is their go to happy place and where we go every birthday or anniversary or mothers and fathers day and since they live close by our son and his family are regular in middle of the week diners…..so I happily made a reservation for 7 people at 630 PM to celebrate the birthdays of my son and husband for July 17. I called to make the reservation several days in advance, told them we would use the $30 gift, the young woman told me all I needed was proof of age…drivers license or something else…..so we were starved, thrilled to be together and went to sit down in the new waiting area on the 71/79th Street Causeway…my son’s office had been right across the street and as I mentioned before we were regular customers…..I decided to check to see how the reservation was going and to remind them we were having two birthdays……the check in person demanded a coupon from a computer which I knew nothing about and was not told to have by the young woman who took our reservation though I made sure to ask what I needed.
I was upset; $60 is a lot of money, and in the past we didn’t know anything about the birthday gift from Benihana so our checks were always way beyond the $200 mark…but it was the idea that we were given information on which to depend and then when they heard it was two birthdays suddenly we needed a coupon….so I said ok, lets go to a computer and get them….to be told no good, need 24 hours….I asked for the manager, not in today, I asked for a supervisor and she showed up with a security man.
By this time I was beyond furious. That is called BAIT AND SWITCH!!!!! Promise a meal for a birthday with proof of age and then demand a coupon we were not told about….our kids were starving and we left….they were crying as this was like Disney World of food for them…they look forward to it and yet I refused to give the restaurant our business. They were stupid….we were regular customers, came in often, spent a good amount of money and that is how we were treated. We eventually found a place at 7:30 not too far away and spent a LOT OF MONEY for dinner, which they would have had in their cash register if they had done the right thing….I am furious and will try to reach a corporate person to report the way we were treated. How ridiculous. They lost a family who were going to be there often for years….hope they enjoy the one timers. I don’t believe it is corporate policy and I will check with the Ft Lauderdale location as we can always meet half way. Too bad, Rocky…your place continues to make people happy, but this was no way. Arigato.
My family has been going to Benihana in Memphis since it opened. Have celebrated many birthdays, anniversaries and other events. For the last few years there has been a dramatic change in clientele. This was noted at lunch as well as dinner. Management acknowledged it was a problem. My family does not enjoy dining and having to look at low pants and under wear and other things showing. I later saw dress code signs posted but they are not enforced. Also the parking lot has become scary. Maybe security would help. Our visits have been fewer and fewer as there has been no change. Other friends feel as we do. On a birthday visit in May 2017 we ordered filet mignon. We have ordered this many times and it has been delicious and melts in your mouth. However, on this visit the food was tasteless which we were told garlic buttter was no longer being used in the cooking. The filets were so tough it was like chewing leather. Charging $1.50 for a teaspoon of garlic butter is ridiculous. I can only assume the present clientele is not eating filet mignon or Benihana has changed meat suppliers. We will not be returning. I might as well point out that although my husband and I sign up every year for the birthday coupon we never receive anything.
VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!!! I had my husband’s suppose to be surprise birthday dinner at the Benihana in Indianapolis last night but it really wasn’t a surprise because they had all 24 of my guest waiting in the waiting area when we walked in!! I was shocked and pissed off to see all of my guest just standing in the waiting area instead of being seated!!! I tell the manager I had reservations for 16 people and my sister made reservations for the other 8 people and we made these reservations 3 WEEKS in advance! The manager had the nerve to tell me that they don’t do reservations for a party this size and that we would have wait to be seated!!! I was beyond mad!! I couldn’t believe that my husband, myself and 24 guest had to wait to be seated when they already knew 3 weeks in advance when I made reservations that we were coming!! I think this restaurant is very unorganized!! I hope they enjoy all the money they made off of us because we won’t be back that’s for sure!!
VERY DISAPPOINTED!!! I went to Benihana short hills and had an awful experience.
1st I walked in to be seated & waited a few min. & no one came so I called from the waiting area & pressed the way. For take out when manager answered I told he I was waiting patiently to be seated. She then came out after a min. or 2 & said” the host called out” (not my problem)
2nd our waitress was taking care of another table so a gentlemen took our order to help out. I ordered a California roll as an appetizer and needless to say it never came. After I finished my salad & had my rice I called the gentlemen over to have him cancel the California roll then here he comes with it. I sent him back with it b/c I ordered as an appetizer & he then apologized.
3rd the rice didn’t have no flavor to begin with so I asked the Cheft if he could put garlic butter on the rest of my food so it would be flavorful & I can enjoy. I was told I would be charged extra for garlic butter. At this point I was extremely disappointed b/c I’ve been going there for years & the service has gotten worst & little by little they cut back on the food and ingredients but continue to go up in price! I asked for the manager to explain why I would be charged extra for the garlic butter & she said this came from corporate! I can’t for the life of me figure out who would approve such when that is the only thing that separates Benihana from other hibachi places! The manager then continued to share with me that is the reason the other manager is no longer there b/c they didn’t enforce the charge for garlic butter & was fired! My overall experience was disappointing!
4th I called corporate while I was still there & left a detailed voicemail msg asking for a return call & needless to say still waiting…overall experience was very disappointing & will not be returning to that location ever!
My name is Maegan who had a birthday dinner at Benihana Anaheim California on March 23rd, 2017 from 7pm to 9pm. I had a bad experience on my birthday dinner at Benihana Anaheim California. Last week, I wrote a comment from Benihana’s website but somehow I did not receive any feedback from customer service.
First, I called to make a reservation for my birthday dinner a week before my birthday coming at Benihana Anaheim California. The lady helped me on the phone said that they have a table for me for 6 guests on March 23rd 2017 at 7pm, and she did not mention about Benihana’s rule which is sharing dinner table with strangers.
Second, on March 23rd 2017, my family and I went to Benihana at 7pm and we waited for the table about 15 minutes. Then, the waiter took us to the table and he said that we have to share the table with the other two guests because my family has only 6 people but the table for 8 people. I was very surprise because when I called to make a reservation, nobody told me about this. Then, I requested to talk to the manager which I do not know his name because he did not introduce his name to me. I explained to him that nobody mention to me about sharing the table when I make a reservation. The manager told me that sharing the table is Benihana’s rule and he “assumes” every customer “has to” know their rule even “first time customer” like me. I told him that how can I know Benihana’s rule if nobody told me and the rule even is not posted on the website. And, his response was “I assume you know my restaurant rule and everybody come here knows it”. It was shock because the way the manager told me sounds like “here your seats if you do not like it go find another place”. He not even says sorry because of misunderstanding. Everything he can do is to blame on me because he assumes I know the rule but I do not. I do not care if I have to share the table but at least the person who answered my phone has to tell me, and if I feel I do not want to share the table, I will find another place. He cannot just assume and waits until the customer come to the restaurant and tell them. It is too late to make another choice when the whole family was at the restaurant and the plan was already set up.
Finally, the last problem is online menu from Benihana’s website. Before planning a birthday dinner at Benihana Anaheim, I was looking around on Benihana’s website. I looked the menu and I saw group dinning menu. I talked to my family about what group dinning we will pick on my birthday dinner. Unfortunately, when I was at Benihana Anaheim and I asked the waitress. She did not know what I was talking about. Then, I have to show her group dinning menu on my cellphone. She said she never saw that before and they do not have it at the restaurant. I think the online menu is used to help the first time customer saving time when they come to the restaurant and it is also helpful for the restaurant because the less time customer stays at the restaurant, the more customers the restaurant has. But, in this situation, the online menu does not helpful at all. So, what is the purpose for the online menu from Benihana’s website?
Thank you so much and I hope I will receive response from Benihana this time.
I went to Benihana in Burlingame (outside San Francisco) we had reservations for 5:30 pm. We were seated in 5 Minutes. Our waiter came promptly took our orders (4 of us). We had our drinks in 5 minutes. Our Chef David Aguayo repeated our orders. Did a great job at the show and service. He ending by asking if we enjoyed our meals. Yes ! I will return and request that David be our chef again ! To go there and enjoy ourselves deserves 5 stars in my book ! ?
I just want these people to know that the food is way too much for the disgusting rude a** attittudes of the folks who work in Benihana restaurants
Tonight my wife and I went to Benihana restaurant in Stuart Florida. We went to the sushi lounge to eat dinner. After waiting an hour and twenty minutes we were told that our order was not started yet. At that point we paid for our drinks and appetizers. when the sushi chef was told to cancel our order I watched him shrug his shoulders. “big deal, let them go”.
The server was very apologetic but the service of the suhi chef was focused on the sushi bar where everyne was getting served right a way. This was the worst dinning experience I ever had so needless to say I’ll never return to a Benihana restaurant. Next stop for me is social media.
Went to the one located downtown Atlanta 229 Peachtree St. When I tell you I got better service at Chick fil A. Customer service is just unacceptable the entire staff is rude not to mention the manager. Made reservations for 8:30 was informed that our table was ready @ 9:45 (let me remind you they close @ 10) got to the table had to wait another 20 min was standing over other guest while they eat until we was seated because they was still cleaning. Had to wait another 30 mins before our drinks was brought to us. Another 45 min before the cook came. We’re the only guest in the restaurant. The food was horrible not seasoned wasn’t entertained due to that it was late and they were ready to go home themselves. Will be posting on all social media site and tell my other 19 guest to do so as well. Never did we get an apology state on the next visit we will give u a 5% discount or nothing to show that cared about us being appreciated. They only cared about the money. Next time will read reviews of the restaurant before attempting to make reservations lots of bad reviews so people dont go there they dont care
I visited the Benihana’s located in Ft. Lauderdale off of Commerical Blvd yesterday 7/13/16. I was there for my birthday celebration. I am a regular customer of Benihana and I enjoy the food, atmosphere and the show the cooks put on. I was highly disappointed with customer service, food and the service yesterday. I’ve never had such a bad experience like I did. I had reservations for 8:30PM we were sat down not to much after that. Immediately the waitress came and took our drinks order then after our food order. There was a gentleman that came with the soups for everyone and maybe 5 minutes after came with the salad. As he gave me my salad I’m still drinking my soup and the majority is still in the bowl and the spoon was in my hand he asks me if I was done with the soup so he could take the bowl. I looked at him and said no I’m still drinking the soup as the spoon is in my hand. The soup was room temperature not hot as it usually is. The salad was more like dressing with a little salad. It seems as if everyone in the kitchen and the staff were rushed for some reason. I had what seemed as half a bottle of dressing thrown on top of my salad. I did not eat it I just told the man to take it back. It was nasty just to look at it. Then our cook came and he verified everyone’s order they were correct and he began cooking. He did not interact with anyone at the table, do any special tricks with the food or make any jokes. He simply cooked the food and gave it to us as he was done. One of the entrees we ordered was the land and sea which was filet mignon and sea scallops. The steak was fine however the sea scallops were over cooked!! They had no taste as far as seasoning and it felt as if you were chewing on rubber. This is not how the scallops should taste or be. Again, the cook looked as if he did not want to even be there. He had no enthusiasm what so ever. This is not what Benihana’s is about! Then I asked for another drink the waiter forgot all about it until it was almost time to go and she just kept apologizing. The restaurant was not that busy last night. There were plenty of open tables. I have been here when it is way more packed and I have always received better service than what I did. At the end there was no photograph taken of anyone at the table or even a mention if we wanted one. I am not sure what happened or why everyone was so off but it is not what I am used to when I come to Benihanas. I would of had a $100 tab if it wasn’t for the birthday coupon and I feel outraged paying $70 for the service and the food the way it was cooked. This was a horrible experience and I am so disappointed in this restaurant. It will be a while before I decide to go visit again. Ticket # is 30082 Table 11/1 and the visit date was 7/13/16.
For many years Benihana has been one of our favorite restaurants. On a recent trip to Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida we were very excited to see a Benihana only minutes from our hotel. We went there on Monday, June 20th. I am lactose intolerant, I get very sick from any kind of dairy. It has never been an issue before, I tell the waitress, she tells the chef and my food is made separately. I was served my soup and salad, no dairy, no problem. I got white rice because, fired rice was made with butter. I order shrimp for my main course, 5 people at my table ordered steak, one ordered salmon. First, the chef made the vegetables, and forgot to separate mine, so everything had butter, no veggies for me. Then he made the steaks, then the salmon. This has taken 2 hours, and I haven’t been served, the chef claimed he had to make the shrimp last, I don’t understand why since it was also the appetizer. He saw I was getting really upset, so he offered to make me new veggies, and finally started on my shrimp, which takes but a few minutes. I finally got food and now he started doing the appetizer, and put butter on it… so no appetizer for me, my husband doesn’t eat shrimp so he didn’t get an appetizer either, our 6 shrimps went to someone else. I will NEVER go to that Benihana again!
To whom it may concern,
I’m writing this letter to explain my disappoint and terrible experience with my recent visit to Benihana chef table in Edison, NJ on 6/18/16 at 8:36pm. First of my 2 children and I were celebrating my wife’s birthday which by the way she NEVER received her $30 certificate email and we still decided to go eat there. We had 2 waiters, one who was training and another who was suppose to double check our orders. I made it clear to our waiter it was my wife’s birthday before hand, and as the waiter in trainee started taking the orders he also asked if the table was celebrating anything. Of course my wife raised her hand excited and we proceeded to placed our orders. The chef started to cook and all his attention went towards a party of three that was also at our table, it seems like they confused him because they were changing their order constantly. He completely ignored us! My wife was the only one who got her rice served. My two children and myself ate only steak and shrimp and some veggies. The rice never made it to our plates!!!! We never got our rice! I tried to call the waiters attention to only get ignored. Secondly the chef finished cooking and started cleaning the top and my wife never got her happy birthday sang by your staff despite telling 3 different people who were helping us that night. Your staff ruined my wife’s birthday dinner!!! She felt humiliated as we all heard the rest of the table mumble “didn’t they have a birthday?!” Thank you for ruining her birthday and making her cry. I tried to call the manager’s attention who only signaled from far that he will be right with us. Our waiter came over and collected my credit card, but the manager NEVER made it to our table. My wife refused to spend another minute in there and walked out. We have NEVER had such poor service before. It was a complete waste of $125. I realize mistakes do happen, but this is just unacceptable. I’m sure my wife will like to receive her $30 certificate and 2 children and I are certainly looking for some type of compensation for such poor service as well.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon with a resolution to this matter. For now, a very dissatisfied customer.
Henry Hurtado
6/20/16
What another bad experience at 2365 Mansell Road, Alpharetta, GA. 30022. The last time I went to this location I vowed not to return because the experience was so so bad. Well I decided to give them another shot today and once again very pissed off. We got there at 11:40 and was told that they it would be a 15 to 20 minute wait due to they only had two waitress and that all others had called out. Well that is all they usually have all the time so that didn’t make any sense to me. It is a Friday afternoon and it was pretty busy. The manager came out one or two times but didn’t offer any assistance with the guest, he only did what he always do turn off the grill and heads back into the kitchen. Now this location charges you for garlic butter, and yum yum sauce but you can have all other sauces unlimited. That right there is a total turn off. Me myself I don’t eat any other the other sauces and never get them so I am forced to purchase garlic butter which was given to me in a very small sauce cup. The service at this location is so bad. Waitress are rude and the hostess walk around like they too cute to do any manual work. If you are short staffed and you have three hostess train them to assist. I just can’t believe the service level at this location. It took so long to get our food we had to pack it up as soon as it was finished cooking pay our check and leave. We were on our lunch break and due to the rushing to get out of there my co-worker dropped her entire container of rice, you think they offered her another one. NO……………. Got to get it together. Your doors will be closed due to lack of customers with this lousy service.
I currently have a 20 year old daughter who presently is a full time student and works part time at Benihana’s Hibachi and Grill located on Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey. For the past several months my daughters along with other co-workers have been receiving “bad pay checks”. The employees deposit their checks in their bank accounts – several days later the checks are “bounced” and a fee is incurred. Two weeks ago I went to speak with the accountant Fran at Benihani’s Hibachi and Grill about this matter and she paid my daughter her paycheck along with the fee for the returned check. I reached out to Bennihana‘s Corporate Office (305-593-0770) hoping for a resolution – spoke with someone who made all kinds of excuses for the return checks issues but stated she/they would contact my daughter regarding this matter – thus far my daughter has yet to receive a phone call from the Corporate Office.
My daughter opened up an account at TD Bank figuring if she cashed her check at the bank her paycheck was drawn on she would have no worries for a return fee as she had by deposited in her Bank of America account. Well she went to cash her check and TD Bank COULD NOT CASH THE CHECK!
The owners Mr. & Mrs. Houlani of this Benihana Hibachi Grill should be a shame of themselves. This is a “high end” restaurant that obviously is in financial trouble. Students working PT and going to school should not have to worry about depositing or cashing a check and the monies not being there. Students have enough unwanted stress. They signed up at this job to work and receive a paycheck. NOT WORK FOR FREE! Please expose this establishment.
I would like to share an unforgettably bad client service experience with the corporate headquarters before sharing it with the public. This is in regard to the Benihana location at the 12690 International Drive in S Orlando Florida. I called the restaurant at 11:30 am on a Sunday morning asking if i needed a reservation for a 5:30 pm dinner for a party of two. The response was “probably not at that time, but to be safe we will give you a reservation.” My wife and I arrived promptly at 5:30. When I informed the hostess of my reservation, the response was “your table is not ready but should be in just a few minutes.” After not hearing anything for another 15 minutes, I inquired why I was given a 5:30 reservation am I’m made to wait more than 15 minutes when in fact I should have been seated immediately upon arrival. The response was “I do not know.” I sat back down only to wait another 10 minutes until hearing that we could now be seated. I promptly informed the hostess that we would not be staying due to the terrible service of the staff re: something as simple as handling a dinner reservation properly. I thought you would like to be aware of unacceptable service from your franchise brand which lead to a horrible experience for your patrons. Not to mention a loss of business for the restaurant.
Hello My name is Michelle Cambridge and I have been dining at your Benihana Dearborn location for over 10 years. I was saddened to hear that my favorite waitress Josmine was fired. I came in to dine with my sister to celebrate her graduation from college and when we were informed that she no longer worked there, we left. I can’t tell you how to run your business but if your managers are willing to get rid of their best waitress, I no longer wish to dine there. This location has went down in service completely and I speak for my family and friends when I say we only continued to come because of HER. Impeccable service. You lost a great employee.
Your location in Cincinnati Ohio (tri-county) has told me on more than one occasion when I called to place a carry out order that they are no longer taking carry out orders as of right now because they do not have a sous chef to make the carry out orders!! when I pointed out that they had to have a sous chef or how can they be in business the lady said the carry out sous chef quit and they cannot make carry out orders because the other sous chefs do not do that. when I inquired about what if I came in to sit at the bar and wanted to take my meal at the bar since they don’t cook it in front of me who would be cooking my meals she said oh we have a sous chef for that how can you have a sous chef to fix food in the back for the bar patrons but they can’t make a carry out meal I have called three times in the last week and I’ve been told by the same rude receptionist that same exact thing! Today when I called I said what you still don’t have a sous chef to cook a carry out order she said you guessed it and hung up on me you guys should hire your people are you’re going to lose business..
The Benihana in Tri County has very rude managers bad customer service. I first had to wait until 5 to place a take out order after walking in there at 4. I then didn’t receive my food until 6:30 only to get home and not have rice inside three hibachi dinners! The manager wasn’t helpful and when I asked for the corporate phone number the manager John gave me the wrong number twice. I didn’t mention after going back to get our rice we returned home for the second time and didn’t have any sauces for our meals. Such a long frustrating day with rude unprofessional people
They are extremely rude the manager as well. I was given the wrong number to the corporate office twice. They can never get my business again!
On March 19th, my family and I went to benihana to celebrate a special occassion. We didn’t have a reservation, so we arrived around 8. It was very busy, and our wait time was about 40 minutes. A manager checked our time, and stated we had about 15 more minutes to wait. When we were finally seated, the floor around us was filthy!! The table was partially clean. I couldn’t believe it! I frequent benihana quite often, and this by far was the worst. This is my first and last time patronizing the Anaheim location. I was also overcharged, and the hostess spilled the ginger sauce on my husband. I think corporate needs to make a surpise visit.
On 3/12/16 between 4:00 PM and 6:45 PM, me, my mother and fiancé that’s visiting from Memphis, TN, set out in hopes for a fantastic dinner and fun filled evening at Benihana in Cherry Hill off of route 70. Unfortunately, this was not the case. For starters I’d like to say that we dine at this particular establishment very often and have always had wonderful experiences, from the guests that we are seated with, to the staff, and food, but this particular night was the total opposite.
Once me and my party were seated, we were given ample time to look over the menu and make out choices. A woman by the name of Edna was taking our orders. We ordered the “Spicy Hibachi Chicken” and two orders of the “Rocky’s Choice Steak and Chicken”. We asked that both orders of the “Rocky’s Choice” have the spicy sauce (that comes on the Spicy Hibachi Chicken), green onion, and mushrooms added to them. Edna, at first, had trouble comprehending what we wanted added to the order but then stated that she understood as she wrote it down. She then proceeded to take the orders of the other party that had been seated amongst us.
About 20 minutes later, Gabby, our cook came out and unenthusiastically introduced herself to the group. She proceeded to lay her ingredients out on the grill. Now during the process of cooking, we’re used to the cook engaging and entertaining us and unfortunately Gabby did none of this. She threw the chicken on our plates and when we told her about the extras that we had asked for with our orders, she stated that those things were not in the receipt that she was given and went to look for the server Edna who had first taken the order. Gabby and Edna exchanged words and by this time, the other party that was seated with us were having issues with their own orders and had called for the manager, Brenda. Once she arrived, we explained that we had ordered extra items with our meal, and she politely apologized and went to get new pieces of chicken and the items we had initially asked for. By the time we got what we had ordered, minus the appetizer of hibachi shrimp that we never received and an abundance of over cooked onions, the food that had been sitting on our plates had grown cold.
Towards the end of our meal, another manager by the name of Jason Irish came over and asked how the meal was and we told him of the unsatisfactory experience we had just had and begin to rudely over talked the table and demanded how we could be obliged. Them proceeded to rush around the table and collect our tabs. While we waited for him to return, it seemed as if the entire restaurant was having the amazing time that we expected to have. Jason returned with our tabs and stated that he had given both parties a 20% discount on our tabs, bid us goodbye and rushed off.
This was our first, but hopefully last bad experience. We will be returning but no time soon.
Each time I call Benihana Dearborn, Michigan, My calls never gets answered. It gets answered but some of your so-called employees always manage to hung it up. I am not sure if they do it on purpose or they don’t want my business? Maybe employee that got hired are lazy or doesn’t know how to use a phone. Corporate or management might want to check on that discretely. It is quite exasperating.
Benihana Troy MI, still owe’s me money, 1 year already, they never pay me back, everytime i call them the GM gets mad at me.. and but if the customer wont pay $10.00 on their meal the manager always called Troy Police,.should I call the Cops to get my money?
Él restaurante de denver colorado ya no es él de antes parese chino y japones no pierdan él estándar
Benihana es muy popular pero ya no cocinan como es él estándar todo ya es como al estilo americano él arroz no sabe igual xq cambian su resetas yo probé la sopa y a mi familia ya no les gusto benihana es #1pero no pierdan su estilo
On the evening of Novemeber the 29th a friend, myself, and out three children got together to celebrate a birthday. Around 7pm the children were very excited to have dinner at our favorite restaurant to only be greeted by a very rude young hostess. Still in excitement we ignored her rudeness and pursued to eat on the sushi side. She asks very rudely “do you have reservations ?” I stated no. I usually don’t make them because we were are usually able to get in and out. She stated well your going to have to wait 20 min because you sit behave reservations. There were six booths available and abundance of tables that could accommodate us. But I still chose to wait because this is what we all wanted to eat. I understand that reservations are suggested but they are never mandatory. Since there were not many customers inside it shouldn’t have been a problem getting a table. She later states that all the waiters are busy taking care of carry outs. The time that I sat there I did not see one person get a carry out. Her manager later came to the deal and was just as rude as she was stating how we needed to have reservations and that everyone being seated had done so. I am a very frequent guest and I have never been treated so rudely. We gathered out things and proceeded to another restarting. The hostess and manager were very rude and I get that money was not valued at that moment. There was no sympathy or empathy involves they had the we are right and you guys are wrong attitude and never once tried to accommodate in such an empty etaablishment. I’m not sure the next time I will visit that location. I refuse to be treated as if I’m worthless. Signed a very disrespected patron !
I visited the restaurant in Michigan on Haggerty on 11/27/2015. My waitress Kelsey was terrible. She was slow, forgetful, and she had a very nasty attitude. I ordered sushi and it came out last, when I told her I didn’t want it because the chef had already started cooking my food she got an attitude. when I approached her to tell her I explained to her why I didn’t want it, she began to speak in a sarcastic manner to me. shortly after the manager Kim came over to me to ask me what was wrong with it, I then explained to her what I told that waitress and I also explained to her that the customer service was terrible and the food was nasty. She said ok in a nasty manner and walked away. When my bill came to the table I was charged for chicken friend rice on a kids meal (which I did not order). When I asked the waitress about it, it snatched the receipt from my hand and began yelling at me that there was no other way to ring it up….and then she said to me “I KNOW YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME MY MANAGER TOLD ME YOU COMPLAINED TO HER”. I then got up and went to the front of the restaurant where I encountered another manager named Jim (as I was walking up there the waitress Kelsey chased me yelling accusing me of being angry for no reason) he was just as rude as the waitress. He tried telling me that me being upset with the poor customer service at this restaurant was wrong. I explained to him what happened and he seemed to not even care. I also told him that she failed to bring my daughter ice cream to the table ( but she did bring the other child’s icecream and sang happy birthday to her). Dirty dishes sat on my table for that longest time and the cook had to leave the table 3 times to go and get things that he was missing. He even stated that he hated her sarcastic attitude. When I let the manger Jim know these things he did nothing but try to argue with me and tell me that the cooks leave the table all the time. I go to Benihana at least once per month and I have never seen a chef walk away from the table to do anything. This was the worst experience that I have ever had here.
We had reservations for my daughters 18th Bday at 7:00 on November 21st at the Springdale Ohio restaurant, had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. When we were finally seated the server took our drink order along with our soup and salad order, we waited for the longest time for her to return with them. After we finished our salads we waited and waited and waited for the Chef to come and fix our food! He FINALLY came out, fixed our appetizers and rice, but by the time he cooked everyone’s meat orders our rice was cold! We also were told that we would have to pay an extra $3.55 to have fried rice! While he was fixing our food some RUDE Chef comes up to our grill and tells the other Chef to get out of his way because he had to cook a to go order, we were all looking at him like, I cant believe this! The Manager there was also rude, she came to our table behind our chef staring at him like he was in trouble so he finally turned around and asked her if he did something wrong! The atmosphere of this restaurant with some of the Chef’s and Managers are terrible, I will never go back there again.
We had a reservation for 8:30pm for 20 We arrived at 8 pm I Advise the manager Emily that my whole party was here and that she Can seat us when our tables Are Ready * At 8:30pm I asked How long before we are seated . She stated they are Working on our tables and then walked Off ( Great Customer Service ) She came Back and stated she only had one table Available(ReallY What are Reservations for) We are finally seated at 8:50pm the Waiters took our Drink order and Food order .The only good Part About the evening is the Waiter Josh he was Great. It is now 9:30 pm and our CooKs still have not came out with the Food. There was a party of the same size came in after us and there Cook was there preparing there food. [ enough is enough ] I found the manager Emily again and ask What is going on? She stated that the Cooks are prepping the food and would be out in a minute and walks of again. Finally the Cooks come out By this time it is 9:45pm and we still have not eaten. Finally Everyone gets there food . We did not Leave until 11:20pm waiting on food ..,.
Bottom Line I Would not Recommend this place to anyone . The manger Emily Was Rude and disrespectful from the time We set foot in the Restaurant. She lack Customer service skills People skills and management skills .
If you want to be miss treated and your special night ruined then this is the place for you. Ask for Emily…
I absolutely love this place but my most recent visit made me start visiting other places that are similar. For this reason alone. I ordered about $50 worth of food to go. Once I got there I got the food but did not check as I was on my way to work. Upon arriving to work I noticed that two of my meals were missing rice that comes with the order. I call to tell her and she said that I may come back to pick the rice up. I requested everything be made fresh because I had to drive 25 minutes out the way in order to come pick the rice up. She initially agreed and then called back to say that because nothing was wrong with the food they can’t make it over. Spoke with the manager and received an even harder time telling her my food needs to be fresh. She then says to me well you have to bring the other food back which was never problem because I was not hiding anything. But I’m in food servicing as well and have graduated from culinary school that I know the food that they are requesting be brought back cannot be served to anyone else by law. She decides to agree to make my food fresh. I was not compensated for my time or my extra gas for the mistake they made and on top of it all they were rude. I spend too much money there for rude service. I am overly disappointed.
I have had trouble getting my birthday certificate. What is going on? Last year, I finally tracked down the phone number of corporate. The number listed above is disconnected and so is the number given by the operator. They promised me I would receive the certificate this year. I did not. What’s going on? Bad, bad customer service!!!
Benihana would not honor my elderly mother her $30 birthday certificate. They did not email it to her and by the time they resolved the issue, they said it was no longer her birthday month so too bad! I contacted executives who promised to handle the problem but I have received nothing for months. I will never go there again.
You think they treat their customers bad? Only if you knew how they treat their employees, especially at their Haru locations! Taking tips, processing times for housing papers 3 months or more, but they can send your termination letter and spread lies about you in 3 minutes! They add all of these fees to your checks that are supposed to “be removed,” but your checks don’t add up.
Let’s not forget how they will completely ignore all of the hard work and dedication of long-term employees when it comes to change in availability; employees working over a year getting bumped down to ONE day from 5 or 6 because managers are petty and don’t know how to maintain professionalism. I can count on one hand how many times one of my managers came in sober and lost count how many times she’s come in hungover by the end of my first month. Let’s not forget how everyone has complained to corporate about a manager making fun of Asian customers and staff and continuously referring to them as “Chinks” or how she called the delivery drivers XXXXXXXXs because they made a mistake. When was it ever acceptable to call your employee a retard because they had difficulty opening a cork and did NOT receive proper training? Let me know when you find out.
This company has poor structure and granted, the average person would read this and assume I’m just ONE angry former employee. I enjoyed a lot about working there, thanks to a few of my coworkers, but I CHOSE to resign because the problems were only getting worse!
They’ve got to do better. Success and great service starts in-house; if you don’t treat your staff good, don’t expect top of the line service on the floor. It’s not rocket science folks!
THIS IS CRAZY THAT THEY ARE TREATING THEY’RE CUSTOMERS LIKE THIS! I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN BEFORE I WENT. THEY DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO FIX THE PROBLEM. I WENT TO THE OFFICE IN FASHION VALLEY!!! SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS….
This is such a big disappointment i brought my friend for the first time at the 2143 Peachtree rd buckhead location in Atlanta ga 30309 , we been here since 8:20pm 11/07/2014 and it is now 9:46pm we where told the wait was no longer than 40mins and now when asked me and Tate guest number 29 had to wait 15more mins bc they are sitting a another party of 8 before us! I am soooo upset and not to mention they are under staff i don’t see no management and no one is answering the phone
My family and I dined at the Benihana Dearborn, MI location on October 24, 2014. Our experience was nothing less than “delightful”. We had previously had some doubt and reservations about continuing to dine at this location, however, a brief misunderstanding was handled both “timely and professionally” by one of the Managers (Art) of this establishment.
My family and I were very satisfied and will definitely continue to celebrate the special occasions which we had become accustomed to celebrate here with this staff. “Kudos” to Art for making our experience a great one! We’ll be seeing you. “Yujin Arigato”
I was at Benihana in Greentree last night celebrating my actual birthday on the day with my best friend and I have never been so disappointed at a hibachi place. This use to be my favorite place and now I will never go back. The couple next to me placed a huge to go order and the chef cooked their to go order before we got all our food! How can you make the rest of the table wait?! I understand if you want your to go order cooked on the hibachi but the chef should of done this after he had served all the other guests at the table! We sat down to eat at 8pm and did not get our food until 9pm! I like to enjoy all my food at once, not eat it as it comes out so of course my shrimp, veggies and rice were cold before I got my steak! Total bull crap! It was my actual birthday yesterday and I have never experienced the lack of attention like I did last night. The couple that ordered the to go food complained about their lobster, called the manager, so at that point the chef just catered to them. Not to mention that the chef was so unprepared when he started, and only one server who kept messing up (not so much her fault) we should of known it was the means to a bad dinner. They never sang to me and after getting the bill the server then asked me if I wanted ice cream. Of course I just wanted to get the hell out of there! I didn’t even eat all my food, my filet was fatty and portion size compared to the catered couple was a joke! Maybe my experience would have been better had that idiot couple not have been sitting there but after talking to the server, they apparently are in there all the time complaining, when they complained at the table they said their lobster was bad the last time they were there- well then why the hell did you order it again were my thoughts and why not put them by themselves, it wasn’t like it was packed! When the check came, I made a point to thank the couple for ruining my birthday eveing that only comes once a year. Me and my friend went to the manger and complained but it was obvious that it meant nothing because of my $30 gift voucher compared to the couples $200 bill (which the couple made sure to tell us that is what it was) So regardless that I used a coupon was no reason to make this special day a nightmare evening! The manager did nothing, not even apologize to us. I am taking this to corporate because I never complain about anything but you messed with my birthday and this means war! With all the hibachi places now in the area, they will lose a ton of business once I put this to all my social media and 77,000 connections all over the world!
Have sent three E-Mails to the Benihana Restaurant in Miami Beach, namely to
miamibeach@benihana.com
Also spoke to Manager Anita on Aug. 28 at that restaurant. Today, Sept. 03, I called
again, the phone just kept on ringing at 245P.
We are trying to place a group of 32 for Nov. 14 at 500P.
What does it take to get a confirmtion from this restaurant?
We dined last evening at Benihana’s in Torrance, Ca. The table next to us was so close its as if we were one table. So my wife and I celebrating her birthday are basically over power with the business meeting between two young business associates who are in conversation sounding as if they are competing in conversation as to who has been the most successful. Mind you they do not stop their conversation once in 35 mins. We basically can’t talk my wife & I. Now all this time 3 mothers come in with kids and precede to chat while the kids are unruly and loud. Another young couple arrives with 3 more kids and continue to scream and actually run about. At one point a plate flies towards our table and shatters,chips strike me from behind and fly up onto our table top. The waitress makes an apology but the atmosphere continues. Finally I am over stressed and tell the waitress and employees I can’t take this anymore. The manager comes over and is totally unaware of whats been transpiring for 35 mins or more. Long story short is he is confronting and inquiring and at this point he is a day late and a dollar short so to speak which disturbs me more. Then he says we are disturbing other patrons and motions us to leave. Wow! Theres a lot more to this but you get the drift. We will never go back.
This is the second year that I got nothing in the mail or by e-mail for a birthday meal. I come to the Troy Michigan location once or twice a month and I have been trying for a few days to write to the web site for the Troy location and Nothing, it will stop at my name and it is not user friendly.
248-594-XXXXX
I visited the Benihana at Westbury, New York on 04/30/14. I had a $30 birthday certificate that my husband received that expired on 04/30/2014… Upon my visit there, I explained to the manager that I wanted to redeem the certificate before it expired. However, I had to place order as a take out order because my husband had surgery and was bed-bound.
I made it quite clear that I was willing to purchase two orders and was even willing to give a tip as if I had dined in. Surprisingly, the manager refused to honor my request and referred me to the chef’s table. I immediately contacted them and was told that there was nothing that can be done; that no extensions could be given.
I took it a step further and contacted your corporate offices at (305) 593-0770 whereby I spoke to a representative named Catherine. I was told that a regional manager would return my phone call within 48 hours. As of May 5, I have yet to receive a callback from anybody at your company. I made a follow up phone call to Catherine on this date and was told that she was advised that nothing could be done on my behalf.
I frequent your establishment at least 8 times a month. I give out Benihana gift cards to my friends and family during the holidays. I find it VERY DISTURBING that under the cirXXXXstances, your company couldn’t accommodate me by extending the date of the certificate or by issuing a $30 gift card.
I made it quite clear to all that I was willing to abide by all the rules of the certificate with the exception of one because my husband was at home recovering from a surgery…
1) I was there on 4/30 BEFORE coupon expired.
2) I was willing to buy 2 adult entrees.
3) I was willing to leave a tip for the take out as if though I had dined in.
Could your establishment be that cold and callous ?… Does it really make a difference if I sat there or took the order to go? After all, I was WILLING TO EVEN LEAVE A TIP !!! What exactly would your establishment miss out on by me taking the order to go ?
The answer seems clear to me that the only thing you would be missing out on is … COMPASSION ! I even attempted to give your establishment the benefit of the doubt by contacting your corporate office and trying to get some resolution to this matter with no success. Your establishment didn’t even bother to call me back ! …
I guess my 8 MONTHLY visits to your establishment means nothing!!! …. Neither does all the gift cards that I give out every year. It is upsetting to know that customer satisfaction is not a priority to Benihana… Not even a callback !!! You should be ashamed ….
Marisol
It was our 37 year old sons birthday and he wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant. He mentioned Kushiyu and Yamato. I said how about The Encino Ca Benihana. They said it was more expensive, but my experience was always good the times I went there.
I was so very sorry
We had booked reservations for 7:00pm on 4-22-2014.
After being seated, I was rammed twice by people with carts. No one asked me to move out of the way, they just rammed me. The problem was the woman at the oppisite table was out in the isle, but no one asked her to move in. The person who was in charge with keeping the isles wher the carts had to travel could care less, so I was rammed.
Then the lady who told us about the meal waved cupons for birthdays in our face as if to taunt us. Ithought it was unbelively rude to tell us after the fact, when we explained on the phone it was for a birthday. This was enough already. I went to the person in charge and told him we were not pleased about the games with the cupon and I was tired of getting rammed. His reaction to the cupon was “to bad, you should have known”. Shortly after I sat down the same floor manager came along and told me I should move, as if I was the problem. I was enraged that he was acting like I was the problem. and told him It was his problem and to stop making it mine.
I ordered Filet Minion which is a favorite of mine, as I do not like other cuts of beef due to the fat, sinu, grisel and taste. This was the the first time in my life I ever got a filet with a piece of grisel.
Was I sorry we went to Benihana, you bet I was.
Your website is the worst website I have ever had to try to navigate. I have emailed your customer service/IT about the problems registering for Kabuki Kids because it does not work. The first time they emailed me back and said it was fixed – well it was not. I emailed again and days have gone by with no response. It is ridiculous that a huge corporation like yours has a website that is so poorly done and that no one responds.
You have now lost a table of 10 for a birthday party that I will reserve at a different place. I have also advised EVERYONE I know to stay away from your website and establishment because after reading the reviews and my own experience, you obviously don’t even understand customer service.
To Whom It May Concern:
My wife (Rose) has a birthday coming up on April 3rd. Usually (by now) we’ve received a $ 30.00 coupon (or similar promotion). Can you advise us if there are still “Benihana Birthday promotions?” If so, how can we get one? Thank you. – Kenny Martel
This is my daughter’s favorite place and we decided to have her 15th birthday dinner here. First of all it took about 4 days before a manager would contact me back. But “George” did, he was nice and they were able to accommodate 18 guests and said I can have a limited menu. He was able to send me a proof of the menu and besides a few typos and hardly any description, it was fine. As soon as I arrived I handed the host two boxes of bundtini’s from Nothing Bundt Cakes. They stuck a tag on them and I advised not to refrigerate.
After our dinner, the servers (we had 2 tables) asked what kind of ice cream we wanted, I advised I had “cupcakes” (easier to say then bunditinis) and the server said she’d bring them. They lost my dessert. I kid you not, 20 minutes passed, we sang happy birthday with only ice cream, it was horrible. They claimed they were given to another table by mistake and George apologized and said he’d take the cost of them off the bill. It wasn’t about the money it was about this especially selected dessert, flavors, etc, that my daughter wanted. George ended up taking $80 off my bill (double the cost) and said to take my time.
About 5 minutes later, he comes back to the table and says that he “FOUND” my dessert! Wow! Great, yes, I’m still holding the unpaid bill in my hand, so he took and added the $80 back on!! This is ridiculous, a $500 dinner, and you wasted and ruined my event for 30 minutes and wanted your money back. I was rather calm, I must say, because I didn’t argue much, paid in cash, stayed about 20 minutes more (the longer I’m there, the less money they make). Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy of the receipt. It was a horrible, horrible experience! I didn’t care about the $80 credit being charged back, more so the point and tackiness of such a business. A gift card for a future return would have been appreciated, anything! Instead, I don’t think I will ever return. I agree the website is the worst! And you can’t even do a formal complaint on their website.
I am a frequent diner at various Benihana establishments and have always been very satified but i have to say your website it the absolute worst i have eaver tried to navigate. Very slow and difficult if not impossible to get the information i am looking for.
Hi,
I have been having problems connecting regarding having not received my yearly birthday certificate. If it was sent it got lost so please send me another one. Thank you.
You’re just pi$$ing off your customers by restricting the Birthday certificates to the point of pointlessness. You’d be better off to just nuke the program, being honest by telling everyone it was costing you too much money because it was so popular.
BTW, you need to fire your entire web site group and start all over with new people and a new website because your current web site is nearly non-functional. I gave up trying to use the online forms to respond: they don’t work, not to mention page loading times are consistently exceeding 15 seconds. Your site is actually FAR worse than healthcare.gov. If you don’t believe me, get your board of directors and top three levels of executives to try out every page and every function on your web site. I tried with two different up-to-date browsers with up-to-date plugins, all with the same results. No problems with other sites. Your web site has been this way for months.
No kidding! I just complained to them as well, actually on the same day you did! I, too, feel that this does NOT break a company like this, and if it does…do away with it altogether. As a single person, it is insulting to expect me to have to bring a friend along with me on a weeknight, just so I can get a meal. Should have used the certificate LONG ago, obviously, but kept putting it off until this coming year. As I told them, there are FAR too many other restaurants to go to. Maybe I should not complain, as they were attempting to give away a $30 value, but where’s the value if you cannot even use it? Stupid marketing move, if you ask me…plus, here is the response I got after sending them my complaint – laughable!! They “appreciate my comments” but refuse to comment back, I guess! LOL
Thank you for contacting The Chef’s Table customer service regarding the Birthday certificate program. We sincerely appreciate receiving your comments about the recent change to the $30 Birthday Certificate.
Arigato,
CustomerService@Benihana.com
My family and I originally went for lunch at the Buckhead location in Atlanta, GA on 12/8. Things started off rocky upon our entrance at establishment. We were greeted by the server and were told it would be a twenty minute wait. Then he also, said “a table is available but, the couple at table 16 didn’t want any children sitting with them”. Is this a family friendly restaurant or a night club? I asked for the manager. Once she arrived and heard our compliant she too agreed that our treatment was unjust. Stated she would take care of our check and seat us right away. Well she sat us and we still waited one hour for our food, as the restaurant had limited servers….we only wanted lunch and paided for dinner due to our wait. The manager stated she would adjust our ticket for our inconvenience…..of, course that was only a whopping 15% that same couple got sat at a table by themselves, no children……or anybody else for that matter while receiving services right away. I appreciate response to my compliant and explanation of how this particular establishment is more of a party zone than a family friendly restaurant
I would really appreciate someone getting back to me regarding my incident ,last night we took our daughter to have dinner at your Lombard, IL. location I ordered hot sake when I went to pour it, something stabbed my finger when I looked at it it was bleeding one of the waiters came sprayed something and gave me a band aid I told him that I thought something was stuck inside but since the lighting is SO dim you couldn’t see I went to the bathroom noticed something was inside my finger tried to get it out but was too far deep inside since it was my daughters birthday and we go every year for her birthday because that’s where she likes to go I didn’t want to cut her birthday dinner short so I held on when I got home my husband tired to get it out but couldn’t because it’s DEEP into my finger it’s red, swollen and it hurts.
I called me doctor she said I NEED to get it out before it gets infected she maybe the glass could be infected causing my finger to throb, so now I have to take time off to see my doctor because you served me in a broken carafe.
The person in charged didn’t seem to really care which made me not want to go back to your restaurant, which we frequent patronize, as a business owner I felt there was NO
Compassion for what your restaurant endured so we paid our bill of $260.00 without hesitation.
Very upset customer,
Michele Lassen
There are MUCH better places to go than Benihana, and I suggest you go to one of them. Benihana has gone way DOWN hill. The only Japanese in the place are but a FEW waitresses, the rest are Latinos, and maybe some arrogant White guy, whom I will punch in the mouth should I ever experience again, the abuse I was given by him.
I held back because I was with family.
I knew Rocky Aoki when he first opened in NYC. It was Excellent then. He would throw up today if he saw what the corporation did to his business.
Save yourself the disappointment, and DON’T waste your money !
I took my daughter to Benihana last evening, September 30, 2013 at 1930 EST to 2143 Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, Georgia. We arrived at 1930 EST, we had a 30 minute wait. We were seated at 2000 EST. The waiter got our order and took the birthday certificates and the people’s id at the table to the back to the manager. It took 30minutes prior to us getting a glass of water. At 2030EST, we were asking for the manager to come to our table. The young man, our waiter, said that they did not have enough chefs and it would be another 30 minutes before the general manager come out. A chef showed up and could not read what we order. During this time, an elderly Caucasian Man came out and was laughing. We were asking him why was our food taking so long and why we did not have a chef before now? He replied all of “you” have coupons and getting a free dinner, so what do you expect? I replied , I am paying for our food. He said so what, that’s what you are suppose to do. I was baffled . I along with the rest of the table got up and left. He has very poor customer service and insulted me as a paying customer. He never identified himself. He came only to insult and humiliate us. Very poor customer service.
Hi, I’m very dissappointed at your services, Benihana is not what it use to be!
I went to the lociation in Encino, CA and the serve was a nightmare! It took forever to get service and I sat in the bar area where you get service ASAP, but that wasn’t the case! I finally got service and all the waitress kept saying was “SORRY, SORRY” it was sickening, then I didn’t get my utensils and again “SORRY” my husband didn’t get his soup the same time I got mine and “SORRY” everything was just a BIG MESS! I couldn’t believe that Benihana has gotten to this. Can I get an explaination?
I have heard so many wonderful things about Benihana and today at work a co-worker was treating to lunch for my birthday which was eariler this month… I have never been to Benihana and this was my first time… First, the door states the estabilshment opens at 11:00 a.m. we arrived at 12:25, the hostees camed to the door and stated sorry we are closed, and we will open at 1:00… Okay so we waited because I was so exicted to taste the wonderful and enjoy the experience… Since we was at work, at lunch, we decided to sit and order the food instead of the show… So we ask for menus and the waitress “Brittany” gave us sticky nasty menus, she did not speak, she was very unprofessional and her appearance was very unprofessional for this type of establishment. Brittany took the order after we got her attention by walking over to us, because after receiving the menus she never came back and took our order or ask if we wanted any drinks…So after standing up and giving Brittany or order…15 min went by and I noticed everyone around us that came in 10 min after us was served with their beverages… then 5 min later their salads came out… I waitied another 10 min and then asked for the Manager “Crystal” and she was not so professional herself with handling the situation… Brittany excuse was I thought they was ordering “TO GO” and I stated if it was to got 25 min has lasped and we still was not served with our food…We was the first ones entering the establishment after waiting 40 min for the establishment to open… The Manager asked for our orders, and went to the back, another 20 min passed by no food no service, they walked by our table and did not acknowledge us at all… Other guest was upset because they was recieving little too no services at all. For my first time here I was very dissappointed… I wasted so much time that I was late returning to work from my lunch break, I spent about 2 hours to get no food, and no professional service… I wanted to let someone know so they can address this situation… There is no telling how many people has ran into this same situation… IT’s true that one bad apple spoils the bunch so Brittany and Crystal which is located at 2143 Peachtree Road Atlanta GA GM Michael Neiman needs to have a session on professionalism in the work place… This may not affect your business suddenly but in a matter of time it will destory this business in company if nothing get’s done about addressing issues of this nature…I was very patient and willing to give it a second chance after speaking with Crystal the manager but nothing was done, no food or drinks, and I still waited 20 mins after speaking with her about the situation…I wish this finds the right person that can make a difference in Pure Customer Service.
Thanks Coretta Hixon.