Benihana

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OPEN NOW - Closes at 11:00pm

The entertainment value of Benihana's is far outweighed by the aggravation one must endure while waiting to be seated. We had a family birthday celebration including two young children. Our 6:30 reservation was not honored until 7:15 with not a word of apology from the insensitive reception staff. Once seated, we had to wait 10 more minutes before our waiter arrived. Then the chef arrived to do his act and food was being served before the waiter decided to arrive with drinks. We brought our own wine and had to wait nearly a half hour after being seated before he finally decided to bring a corkscrew to open the bottles. Next to the grilling area were sauce dishes lined up in piles of two. One of them was crusted with dirty food which I pointed out to the reception person who took it away with no comment.
The food is ordinary, nothing exceptional. The show by the chef is the only thing that made the evening tolerable, particularly for the young children. I asked the corkage fee be waived in light of the extraordinary wait to be seated but the pedantic reception person said they couldn't do that.
The best part of the evening was in the reception area when one lady, who had a fuse shorter than ours threw her reservation notification buzzer at the reception desk and told them to stick their reservations up the posterior part of their anatomies.
I, for one, will never return. I don't understand why others do.