Benihana - Santa Anita (Arcadia) — Restaurant in Arcadia

When we arrived the host was nowhere to be found. After waiting 5 minutes, she arrived and informed us that there would be an hour wait for a table, so we asked if we could have a seat in the empty bar. She checked in with the bartender and returned telling us "He said yes. He wants to make some money".

We were seated at a dirty table in the bar area. The host gave us two sopping wet menus, two sets of chopsticks, and one napkin. After waiting at our table for 10 minutes, we returned to the lobby to see if we could instead put our names on the waiting list for the dining room. The host was again missing, but this time the lobby had filled up with 10-15 people who were all waiting to speak to them. We returned to the bar, but this time chose two seats at the bar itself to get some attention. The service station was covered in dirty glassware and wet towels, and remained so for the duration.

The bartender was flustered when he took our order. We asked for a hurricane bowl and he asked to see the menu to check what was in it. He then proceeded to pour the cocktail from a pre-mixed jug and topped it with one sad slice of lemon. Not very appealing and did not match the photo on the menu. Pretty big disappointment for a $40 drink. Our place at the bar, the only two seats that did not have bar supplies stacked on them, was sticky and littered with the refuse from its last occupants. It was never cleared or wiped down.

We ordered the "Teriyaki Steak" and "Rocky's Choice". Our food was cold when it arrived and our rice arrived after we had finished our main course. We ordered our steaks mid-rare. Just before serving us, the bartender checked back to confirm whether we'd ordered mid-rare or mid-well. We confirmed that we'd ordered mid-rare. The plates he set down were mid-well. The bartender offered us a box while we were still eating and asked if we were ready for our check before my fiancé got his sorbet (never received the green tea or the sorbet included in our meals).

The entire time we were seated the bartender, bar back, and hostess were complaining about how busy they were, how behind they were, how miserable they were, how they could not wait to leave. Even though they were standing right in front of us, they never checked to see how our meal was or if we needed anything. They were unprepared and chaotic. One tap was broken and poured a stream of Modelo for a full minute, overflowing the well and dripping onto the floor.

At one point a server came up and asked the bartender for a sake recommendation for their table who'd requested a filtered sake. The bartender recommended a Nigori which is literally defined and labeled as UNFILTERED!? The staff had no knowledge of what they were serving and were incredibly unprofessional.

When it came time to pay we were offered a handheld device with a total, but no itemized receipt. We were not offered a receipt after we paid either, so I can't offer the check number.

Also, they did not have Yum Yum Sauce (but they sell it at Target!) and the AC for the entire restaurant was broken, so everyone, including ourselves, was really sweaty. We kept hoping the experience would get better, but instead it simply continued to worsen into one of the most laughably horrendous dining experiences...

I don’t get the Benihana hype. I came here with my family party of 14 and for some of us, including me, it was our first time here. Pretty disappointing and it will be our last.

We were seated on time for our reservation but they had us waiting so long just to take our drink order. After they took our drink order we waited.. and waited.. we asked another server if they knew about our drinks. Another sever came and took our drink orders again. The new server said the server before had lost our drink order, but someone in our party had stopped our old server and asked what happened to our drinks and he said he sent it over and that the new server was lying 😑 all the cross talking between the servers across the restaurant was super unprofessional. It sounds like this place needs to hire more staff. You wanna charge so much money for this mediocre food yet skimp out on the service. Yeah, that’s a big reason why I won’t be back. They finally gave us our drinks but we had to wait even longer for glasses. It didn’t even seem like a particularly busy night.. there were plenty of tables unoccupied.

Anyways, they take our food orders and we wait and wait some more. Once the server finally came, he started cooking for us and was really funny but didn’t put on much of a show. I mean it was all impressive tricks but the other tables looked like they had a much more entertaining experience. The food was so basic, nothing exceptional about it.. I mean I did order the chicken noodles.. not the special but my dad did order it and laughed at the portion.

The bathrooms were disgusting btw. I’m really surprised by this establishment.. I dressed up and everything for this occasion because I thought this would be a sort of sophisticated place but geez.

When it came to pay, I had a gift card that the staff had a hard time using for some reason. Staff kept coming up to me asking to see my card and eventually just asked for my phone to try to fix the issue. The manager came and made a snarky remark saying how convenient that that day was the last day to use the gift card. Which is so weird to me! I’ve never heard of a gift card expiring! On the gift card it said 4/30, I assumed it mean April 2030 because I’ve never even heard of expiring gift cards.. if I never used it, would they just keep the money? So strange. I thought how very lucky I was to use a gift card I’ve had for only a year right before it expires.

We came to celebrate my uncles birthday. He wanted us to experience his favorite restaurant and see what he’s always raving about. His favorite location is in city of industry, so this was all of our first times at this location and it will definitely be the last. The service we received definitely ruined our celebration and makes me feel like I wasted my $100 gift card using it at this location.

This review is pretty long but we spent $430 on 7 people so, yes, I’m pretty passionate about my quality of service if they wanna be charging that kind of price.

The only positive I could say about this place was the bartender was very fun and made...

Horrible experience at this restaurant . . . went yesterday to celebrate our Nursing Director's birthday. Front desk . . . was RUDE, specially the girl on duty that day (2/10/2016)... she didn't allow us to get in ... she said that we need to be complete and wait for the others . . . We waited x 15 minutes at the front desk (take note) . . . we have reservations before we went there! also it's not so busy (we went there around 1:45)... we noted that other customers doesn't have the same waiting time as we did. Then we're seated inside and the initial server got our initial orders (Austin) . . . next ordeal . . . waiting time . . . 45 minutes! ... before the cook came...

So since we're really hungry . . . imagine most of us came from Fontana CA.... then our Medical Director asked the girl on duty *(same front desk girl too) ... Where's the manager? She answered, I have no idea ...? in a snobbish manner! The manager came and talked to our Boss . . . (the celebrant), she complained that we've waiting too long for our orders and another issue is ... We've been waiting for so long but the table beside us we're served first! ... imagine we came there first and we're way ahead of this group then they are already eating...

Here's what the manager (Jason Hayden) said to our Boss... "The order was keyed in late by the initial waiter (Austin) . . .honestly Austin was nice to us and he said that he did his part . . . so who's telling the truth? then here's the clincher . . . Manager said "The other table ahead of your group is served first because they are REGULARS!" (Imagine these words coming from the Manager of this restaurant!) Is their service different to first time customers like us as compared to regulars! ... also he said that the front desk girl reported to him that our group is attacking her? but in fact our Medical Director is simply asking where is the manager in a calm manner . . . and she just answered "I have no idea" and since then she had those silly snobbish glances to our group! The cook came (Nelson) .... finally . . . he was nice and was able to calm us down. Then another manager came (Michael) when we're almost done . . . we told him of our ordeal and we told him that he should educate his team... proper Customer service... and improve the waiting time . . . and we think that they need a competent manager who can resolve issues and problems and not finger point issues to the employees... The Manager (Jason Hayden) didn't help us in any way... so how do we rate it....No stars for...