Benihana (Piccadilly)

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

Unfortunately what could have been a great evening for my birthday party in January 2006 was ruined by the most extraordinarily bad service at the end of the night. My party of seven had each had the £15 deal - we throughly enjoyed the food and it was fun watching it being cooked. The deal was good value, the food very tasty and there was plenty of it. But when the bill came the problems began. The actual bill was just over £160, and with the 12.5% "discretionary service charge" added on, it was around £182. The seven of us put in money and our total came to £181. The waiter then proceeded first to count the cash at the table (how rude!) and then asked for the £1.30 that was short! I politely pointed out that the service charge is discretionary and asked him to make do with what we had paid. He went away, only to come back and rudely demand the £1.30, refusing to leave until it was paid! I was totally embarrassed in front of my guests to have the night end in such a way. I excused myself from the table to go and speak to the manager, only to have him be completely unsympathetic and not offer an apology at all. He did not seem to be able to understand that he had no right to demand the "discretionary service" at all, let alone the final £1.30 of it. What would have been a wonderful evening, and a very positive review, was ruined for the sake of £1.30!
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R Brown
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, March 01, 2006

We had a booking for 10 people at 2pm. At 2.10pm 8 of us had arrived but we were asked to wait in the entrance until the entire party had turned up. At 2.25 we explained that it was rather tiring to remain standing and asked if we could be seated at the table. We were told that this was not possible until the whole party had arrived and besides our table wasn't ready : strange when our reservation was for 2pm. When confronted with the fact that the whole of the back of the restaurant was empty we were told that they wanted us in the front part when places became free.. There was another complete party of 13 also waiting to be seated who were encountering the same type of problem. At 2.35 the Manager turned up and after protracted, repetitious negociations - all we wanted was to sit down! - both our party and the other were "allowed" to go to their tables. The food is good but the Teppanyaki chef, not Japanese but Porto Rican.. was altogether too quick with the innuendos and sure of his banter. Seeing that I was the eldest of the group he kept calling me "Mami" and demanding why I was so quiet. An offensive way to treat customers to say the least. We left no service and explained clearly why. I have had teppanyaki in many different countries, including Japan, and I have never encountered such terrible service and attitude. Neither I, nor any of the others who formed our party, will ever go back.
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Maggie Imfeld
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, December 13, 2005