Benihana - Anchorage — Restaurant in Alaska

Rude cook - First off, I'd like to say that the 1 star is solely based off of the cook we had service us. The waiters, though, were excellent. I was pregnant when I decided I wanted to reserve a spot for my Husband and I for a nice meal since I don't go out much and at the time I could hardly stomach anything with my morning sickness. The waiter we had that evening was so kind and polite. I was ready for a perfect night and a perfect meal, and our kind waiter had me optimistic about it. But when our cook came, our table asked him how his night was going to which he replied, "well - I'm here". He was clearly irritated with being at work. Like I mentioned earlier I could hardly stomach much so of course I only ordered fried rice. Nothing else appealed to me at the time. Everyone else at my table ordered entrees though. So our cook started off with the fried rice for everybody since everyone had that as a side with their meals. He also started frying vegetables. The sweet lady at our table noticed he served everyone vegetables except me. She brought that to his attention with a, "what about her?" The cook then replied, "oh - she didn't order anything". The lady was so sweet that she even gave me some of her vegetables. I was blown away by how rude our cook was. He made me feel like I was not welcome there. I also could tell he was tired of his job. The fried rice he made was not even cooked well/was overcooked. I was so disappointed, especially since that was the only thing that I ordered. The people that sat at our table were lovely and I was so glad the lady who sat with us was an angel to me. When I went to Benihana years ago the food was so delicious and the people who worked there were so amazing. I'm sad to say I cannot say the same about it anymore. I will not be coming here anymore. The service almost means more to me...

The customer service has gone down hill at this place. Walked in on schedule for our reservation and the first thing we see is one of the servers angrily complaining about a customer at his table, insinuating how stupid she was for not knowing what hibachi shrimp was on the menu....from the start it appeared the staff was extremely unprofessional. We Drove from out of town for a birthday dinner and were told my birthday certificate couldn’t be honored on a Saturday...I asked to speak with a manager and he said “sorry I can’t help you” due to corporate threatening to firing him over honoring any birthday certificates on weekends.. On the very little occasion our server actually came to our table for anything he kept mentioning how he was too busy doing other things to be around to take care of us, including asking me to ask someone up front to run my card cause he was too busy. We sat at our table waiting for quite a while before the bussers started cleaning our table and it felt like we were being pushed out. I ended up having almost my whole steak, some veggies, and shrimp boxed up Togo, and when I got up to go to the bathroom while waiting for our card to be ran my significant other got up to go ask about the check and a birthday picture and by the time we got back our Togo box was already thrown away (literally the majority of the price of our meals worth thrown in the garbage without question). Also the manager appeared to be wearing suspenders that where made of leather and chain, as if he was into dominatrix...where family’s go to eat! I was a little thrown by how unprofessional my whole experience was here, especially on my birthday. $100 for two people to eat and the service was garbage, aside from our pleasant chef Dennis. I regret our decision to go here versus another restaurant for a...

Reservation and Seating: I’ve been to Benihana a total of 3 times in my life, and this location specifically, twice. We came in with a party of 7, and were seated after the entire group arrived. Our reservation was for 8:15, but due to some stragglers we waited a bit for their arrival and were still seated promptly. I highly recommend making a reservation online in advance to ensure you have a place to sit for entertainment at the grill, otherwise they have first come, first serve, seating area off to the left without grills.

Service: The service has always been excellent! Our server was Stav, and our chef was Danny. Danny was entertaining, asked multiple times to ensure we had our orders correct, and double / triple checked about food allergies and dietary restrictions as my sister and I are both allergic to fish (I’m not allergic to shell fish but she is). Stav was reliable, checked on us frequently and made sure we were well taken care of. He assisted me multiple times with how to order as I have never ordered myself and have always had someone else in the party pick something for me.

Food: I chose the spicy hibachi chicken, shrimp fried rice, and the sesame garlic chicken wings. The rest of the party received different things, including 2 different sushi rolls. I didn’t try anything I didn’t order myself. Most of my order was delicious and the garlic butter is 10/10! My least favorite things were the ginger type topping on the salad, and I was slightly disappointed as I really like ginger. The sesame garlic chicken wings were also very salty and I couldn’t taste any garlic at all. After we ate, we got ice cream. Stav said the sherbet was his favorite, so I got it. I am not a fan of ice cream in general but it was still an excellent way to end...