Benihana (Swiss Cottage) review by Tim
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.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Overall rating 
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
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