Benihana (Sackville Street)

I was surprised to find very few restaurants in the CIty Centre offer Teppenyaki. I had experienced this in Sydney and wanted to book a 'thank you' meal for customers.

Even booking 3 weeks in advance the restaurant (for a Tuesday night) was fully booked however they did manage to get us in for an early booking at 6.30pm which was perfect.

Originally we had 10 in our group, when only 9 turned up the staff were wonderful in reorganising the table for the nine guests, only to reorganise it back again, with a smile on their faces when the 10th person did turn up.

The food was excellent. £50 per head and we had lobster, rare fillet steak, freshly cooked vegetables and all this with the entertainment of our chef, Tom.

Altogether an excellent evening - will be revisiting for sure!!
Comment on this reader review

Sarah Jane
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, November 23, 2007

Very expensive mistake

Avoid like a plague where do I start!!!

Not a comfortable atmosphere at, no ambiance – in an out in just about 1.5 hrs and that was stretching it.

Not enough chefs so you will not get a booking easily even thought the restaurant is more than half empty (Fri).

When the chef did arrive, he was over and done with us within about 45 mins so that was eating your starters and main meal. Chef was good with the knife and some jokes but was not inspiring or very funny!

We ordered specials etc. e.g. Lobster special had 4 prawns for a starter and a piece of lobster and some small pieces of chicken breast £40!

The chef grilled them put some salt and lemon and that was your dinner with some ginger/onion and mustard mayo type relish…. I asked for some chilly sauce and they said they had peri-peri (this is Japanese cuisine) and I got a little dollop of wasabi after I asked for it. Oh, the chef had some sauce in one of those tacky plastic greasy café bottles which contained tomato sauce and soya sauce…. What!!

Oh, you got a fried onion slice, 1 whole mushroom, 2 asparagus tips and some bean sprouts, a tiny bowl of salad avoid, lukewarm onion soup and that was your lot.

Not a place, to socialize, celebrate or indeed enjoy good food!!. Unless you have a special price deal to eat there

Certainly a place to waste money on a full price menu .

If you want to donate, find a worthy cause!.

Go to a proper Japanese restaurant for a better meal for half the price!!

A far cry from the way it is done in the US and elsewhere at moderate prices.

Bad. Bad. Be wary! Be very wary!
View/Add comments (1)

- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, October 05, 2007

I ate in Benihana last week with a couple of my friends. It was our first time to eat in a Teppan yaki style restaurant. We stared with a special Japanese cocktail called Osmo. The barman explained what is in and it was a really unique cocktail because there is Japanese SAKE (rice wine) in it. Then we had monthly set meals. There were some choices and we could choose 2 main dishes out of them. The price was reasonable, £16.50, and tasty! We also had appetizer Sashimi which is slices of raw fish. Salmon Sashimi was amazing! And the best part of our experience was the entertaining chef. He was juggling, singing, making jokes while cooking. We loved it! I want to have a big party with many friends next time. Definitely recommendable!
Comment on this reader review

Malaga
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, September 08, 2007

Very expensive for what it is. Great entertainment though, brilliant if you go as a grou of 8 as well as you get your own chef. Bit weird sitting with strangers though but it is a fun and different experience. Sadly just very over priced for what it is though!
Comment on this reader review

L Holt
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 4
Friday, August 31, 2007

Went to this restaurant with a friend over the weekend. Thought the deal with 7 courses was quite ok. What I was really disappointed about was the unfairness of the chef. We have 6 people on the table, and everyone went for the meal deal with the 7 courses. I couldn't believe it when the chef when distributing the food was totally unfair, we missed out on some grilled Veggies . When He came to us, he just said : Oh. Sorry, there wasn't enough for you both. Er... can't he tell when he is distributing it to know that he has to feed 6 people?!???!!! I can't help but feel we were being discriminated for some reason.

We didn't make a fuss as I thought maybe he'll make it back to us and cook some more later ....but he didn't!!!!

I thought the chef was very unprofessional by not distributing the food evenly, I felt kinda cheated, paid the same amount of money as the others, but didn't get what they got. For this reason, we will not be visiting this restaurant again. Not to mention, the food was only mediocre.
Comment on this reader review

pinkynana
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Monday, June 25, 2007

In my opinion the only reason to visit Benihanas is not for the very average extremely overpriced food its for the show.I have been many times to similar type restaurants and always enjoy watching the chefs more than the food so what better place to bring my friends who were visiting London i thought, i couldnt have been more wrong. So much for "being dazzeld by the chefs cooking skills" he had no skills, and when i questioned as to why our chef simply cooked while other tables were treated to the dazzling cooking display that Benihanas is famous for, i was told he was a training chef!!! so all in all it was a waste of time the £50per head would have been better spent in a restaurant with good food. I definitely would not recommend Benihans to a friend.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 19, 2007

Teppan yaki is about good fresh ingredient and good presentation. We had a course menu, opening with a very substandard and unnecessary soup (I still cannot make out what was in it to make it such a gross mix a floavours) and an even more appalliong salad... but the main is teppan yaki, so stop nagging about the entrees, right? ... The teppan yaki ingredients were acceptable, nothing to be wowed about, but the presentation is a pure nuisance. Call me a boring person or whatever, but it is unnecessarily loud and annoying. It is fun to watch for the first 30 seconds or so, but when the banging sound of a pepper mill on the teppan goes on for more than 20mins, it becomes nothing more than a public nuisance. See for yourself... better not, don't waste your money on this pricey menu. There are far better truely pleasant teppan yaki places around.
Comment on this reader review

Akira - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, December 28, 2006

We ate here tonight with 3 people on the Toptable deal. It was incredible value and well worth it but I'm not sure I would eat here for full a la carte price. The staff were lovely and our chef was hilarious. It would be great for a group of 8 on a birthday or similar celebration.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 8
Saturday, November 04, 2006

Bad service seems to be a very common theme with this restaurant and I am talking more stupidity rather than bad service.

We had a reservation for three at 1.30pm, which we missed, and phoned to ask if they could accomodate us at 3.00pm. They told us to be there by 2.50pm and we did our best arriving at 2.55pm which was just no good and we were told to go away.

For a service industry they must be very profitable as most business's wouldn't survive with this level of service/stupidity.

There was a time where I could recommend this restaurant but not anymore. If you haven't been then you should go for the experience but not twice as it's so hit and miss.

I am sure I could do a better job of running it than their Management.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Stay away. Worst Benihana I 've been to.

1. Food was below average.

2. Show-cooking was not in the chef's dictionary.

3. Took 2.5 hours to eat dinner.

4. Overpriced.

5. Clothes still smell 2 days later
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Thursday, March 23, 2006