Benihana (Swiss Cottage)

The occasion was my stepson's 14th, the venue Benihana at Swiss Cottage, the results were frankly appalling.

First of all, when I dine and pay £35 per head I expect a certain level of cleanliness, food quality and service. Benihana failed on all fronts.

The chairs were so filthy that the manager ended up covering the seats with napkins. She unplausibly volunteered that they were steam cleaned regularly, and then - that because they don't dry in time, not so regularly after all. The carpet was disgusting, encrusted and filthy. The decor was circa late 1970s, probably cast-off from an old porno movie. It was dark and depressing. The extraction system so inadequate that we all stunk from head to toe. The menus were tattered, sticky and grubby and the food was terrible. Just where exactly in Japan is everything fried in butter and oil? The rice was lukewarm and served to us 15 mins before our performing seal chef prepared our Japanese "Fry-Up". Incidentally, I found him irritating and his uniform also looked like it has seen better days.

My conclusion is avoid at all costs. It is as Japanese as an English greasy spoon caf and a far cry from the spartan and crisp, clean and fresh environment usually associated with Japanese dining. I would have rather spent the evening in front of the TV, slowly inserting tenners into my paper shredder.
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KP - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Highly disappointing experience. If you go there you may be lucky and get a great cook and have a reasonable meal and lot of fun. However, if you are unlucky as I happen to be, not only once but twice, your meal will be a lot worse than you will be expecting. So why try your luck when you are in London and there are tons of amazing restaurants for about the same price?

PS: I have just been there and did not pay the service. They didn't even ask me why I decided not to pay it.
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Simone
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 11, 2008

Highly disappointing experience. If you go there you may be lucky and get a great cook and have a reasonable meal and lot of fun. However, if you are unlucky as I happen to be, not only once but twice, your meal will be a lot worse than you will be expecting. So why try your luck when you are in London and there are tons of amazing restaurants for about the same price?

PS: I have just been there and did not pay the service. They didn't even ask me why I decided not to pay it.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 11, 2008

It is not often that I review restaurants, but in this case I felt duty bound. The food (at the Swiss Cottage restaurant) was below average and worth nothing like the price we paid. £35 per head, should have been £12- £15 per head. Unless, you're aged between 6 and 12, you will find the chef cooking at your table irritating. True, they can juggle, but I am going to a restaurant, not a circus. You also feel obliged to congratulate the chef after each trick, which prevents you from having any level of intimate conversation with others. And, as a reviewer below notes, the pace is dictated by the chef and it is therefore one of the least relaxing meals you will ever have.

You will also leave the restaurant reeking of the fat they cook everything in. You may also have been slightly burned, or possibly slightly stained after having had some cooking food inadvertantly thrown at you.

the service was genuinely as bad as I have ever experienced. I mean this. Staggeringly bad. He managed to argue with us about almost everything, beginning with an aggressive and incoherent attempt to explain the menu (which he got completely wrong). My personal favourite from him was, "I am not Japanese; don't ask me about anything Japanese". Nice, in a Japanese restaurant. I could honestly go on and on about Rashid. Remarkable.

I suggest that you never ever ever visit this place, unless you are taking a party of children (who will certainly be entertained by the chef's antics). The idea of a romantic meal for two here makes me uncontrollably burst into fits of manic laughter.
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Tim
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Monday, March 24, 2008

Do not waste your money coming here. It's completely overpriced. The food was apalling and not in the least bit Japanese. The place resembled an all you can eat Chinese, and while the juggling & knife skills of the chef were excellent, the food was terrible. The supposed feast was basically a poor selection of ingredients fried in butter and oil with hardly any flavour. Wasabi and soy sauce were notably absent, and the menu was lacking in any of the delicious dishes you can expect from a decent Japanese restaurant.

It cost my boyfriend and I £100 for a fry-up basically (aren't fried onions, fried mushrooms, fried steak more English?) - with a nice bottle of wine and 1 beer.

The other annoying factor was the feeling of being rushed along. Sitting at a table with the chef cooking for you, she/he dictates the pace. There was no sense of relaxation or being able to eat leisurely. It was obvious they wanted us in and out asap.

I won't be coming back.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, November 11, 2007

I ate here on a Thursday evening.

The decor is extremely "tired" and does not appear to have been updated since the restaurant opened in 1986. Dirty carpets and loos that looked grubby.

The food is expensive for what it is and the presentation dated.

I would not return in a hurry.
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London Gourmand - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 2
Friday, September 07, 2007

Benihana is as Japanese as my Auntie Betty. The waitresses were Thai, the chef was Chinese, called David and had a posh Chelsea accent. He made dumb jokes about hotate being "Japanese marshmallows". He juggled eggs and cooking knives. It was a show: Jackie Chan does Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" in a faux teriyaki restaurant. The rice was long grain. Our 'funny' chef called it 'flai lice' ahahah... I asked for the tuna steak 'still swimming' but instead of the promised 'seared and served' I got something a crematorium would send back as overdone, swimming with sweet shoyu and tasteless. The nihonshu (the thai waitress advised me not to drink the atsukan as cold "is more authentic in Japan", yeah thanks and I'll tell you how to drink Mekong whiskey)..the nihonshu was the screw top rubbish they sell as one step above one-cup in 7-11 except that it cost 7 pounds a pop. The bill for two, 20,000 yen....serves me right for going Japanese in Chelsea.
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fugu - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, August 18, 2007

Not a big fan of Japanese food, but this was amazing, one of the best places i have ever been to! The atmosphere is brilliant, the chefs amazing 10/10 for them. All in all i will give them a 9.5/10. Stunning
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skag
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Probebly the worst restaurant we have ever been to (and I have been to quite a few). Fist of all it was a japanese restaurant and the chef cooking infront of us was Italian. We wouldnt have minded if the food tasted japanese but it was more like plain english. We were given one bowl of ginger sauce to go with every dish so it all tasted the same and the steak wasnt seasoned at all and so plain so Im not sure how that was classed as japanese.

The decor was outrageous. The carpet was stained and the furniture had certainly seen better days. The coctails were expensive and didnt even taste like they had alcohol in. I dont think its fair to slate anything so badly but I really cant say one good thing about this restaurant. Hopefully the other two Benihana restaurants may be better but not Swiss Cottage.
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jessica
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, February 15, 2007

We visited Benihana last Sarurday night, we were a group of 14 adults. Our chef Bonjo was very entertaining, however the opposite table of our friends were disappointed as apparently their chef was new and was being judged, so he didn't try many tricks and didn't interact much with them.

The restaurant was incredibly hot, due to the heat from the hot plates - they may need to look into air conditioning.

The food itself was cooked beautifully, we were all full when we left.

The wine was £16.50 with 12.5% service added = £18.56. The barman took my money, dumped the un-opened bottle of wine in front of me, walked off and didn't return for five minutes with my change. This was rude as there were no other patrons in the bar and I felt as though he was trying to not return my change.

So overall a mixed experience and worth a visit.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Monday, January 29, 2007