Benihana — Restaurant in Beaverton

*I don’t usually leave reviews but this was one of the worst dining experiences of my life. Before I posted this, I decided to give Benihanas a chance to make it right and respond to my experience. They didn’t even bother to write me back.

On Monday, May 12, we decided to go out to celebrate my mother’s birthday at Benihanas, which we have done several times before on special occasions and have always had a great time and have always had great service. This time, however, was one of the worst dining experiences of my life. We had made a reservation for 7 people at 6:30. We arrived on time and waited. And waited some more. At 7pm, I asked the greeter what was going on and when we would be seated. She said there were two tables ahead of us and could not tell us how long it would be before we were able to be seated. I asked to talk to a manager. I explained the situation to the manager and asked when we would be seated. He acted annoyed to even be talking to me, and said he had no idea and that he couldn’t force people to leave so that we could sit down. I asked why they even take reservations if they can’t honor them. He responded saying they don’t take reservations, the AI does. Really??? He then continued to blame AI and Corporate for our situation. He said they have no idea how long it takes for people to finish their food and leave, so they have no way of knowing when a table would be ready for our 6:30 reservation. I once again asked why they even take reservations, and reminded him that other restaurants seem to have it figured out. He justified it by saying other restaurants don’t cook at the table. He had no desire to make things right for us, and acted annoyed that we would even question waiting for more than a half hour after our scheduled reservation time. I was honestly in shock that a manager would speak to me in the manner he did and would be so dismissive and just not care about our displeasure. In fact, he looked angry and aggressive that we were even questioning it.

Somewhere shortly after 7pm, we were finally seated. Our waitress was great, kind and understanding. She took our order, brought us salad and soup, and then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. We sat at the table waiting for a chef for over an hour. At one point, the manager came over to bring us soup and salad, which we had already been served. Realizing he made a mistake, he left and refused to talk to us about our elusive chef. At 8:15, having been there for almost two hours with no chef and no dinner, we decided we would cancel our order and leave without eating. My daughter is 11 and her bedtime is at 8:30, and we had a half hour drive home ahead of us. Being that she would already be up past her bedtime on a school night, we just couldn’t wait any longer. I was in awe of the horrible service we were provided, and was not happy that my mother’s birthday dinner was ruined because of the horrible service and the angry, aggressive, and dismissive manager. As I stated before, we have always had a wonderful time at Benihanas, and often come here for special occasions, but I do not think we will be going back anytime soon, especially if that same manager is still there. I understand restaurants get busy, but the fact that we had a reservation and were there for nearly two hours and did not get served dinner, and were made to feel guilty about it by management, is incomprehensible to me. Furthermore, the fact that the company didn’t bother to even write me back about our experience is asinine. My whole family was highly disappointed and won’t be returning anytime soon. We will be finding another place for celebration dinners, one that values our time and treats us with respect.

UPDATE: As you can read below, the owner responded and told me to reach out to them through their website. If they had read my review, they would have seen that I already reached out to benihanalistens.com and never received a response. This is a complete slap in the face and further reinforces my negative feelings. Avoid this place...

My husband and I went here to celebrate my birthday. We were both honestly massively disappointed. We’ve eaten at a good amount of hibachi restaurants and this was on both of our lists for the most underwhelming. Everything was very bland for hibachi and the noodles had an unusual seasoning (maybe cinnamon although I don’t think that’s it but it was odd for hibachi) everything else just kind of tasted like chicken and steak with a little soy sauce which we could cook at home for a fraction of the cost. Additionally this was one of the absolute most “skimpy” hibachi restaurants I’ve been to not necessarily in serving sizes, but in what you get with your meal. You only get steamed white rice unless you want a $7 up charge which I think is criminal lol I’ve been to so many hibachi places and most include fried rice. They don’t include noodles (unless of course you want an up charge). You pretty much just get your soup and salad, white rice and your chosen meat which I just think for the cost you’re paying you should get fried rice.

Something else that really really rubbed me the wrong way is I’m allergic to shrimp so both my husband and I opted out of their 2 piece hibachi shrimp that would have come with the meal. I also chose a meal that came with more shrimp (it was the only noodle dish that came with steak & chicken) so all in all we would have gotten 6 shrimp. I asked if we could substitute for either more chicken or even just more noodles (which I thought was very fair since noodles are such a low cost food and we were already getting noodles) and they refused to offer any substitutions. That to me is so incredibly penny wise dollar foolish because that alone honestly made me not want to come back. My husband got steak with a side of noodles and his meal was like $45…. You can’t throw in extra noodles when our table is paying for 6 shrimp we can’t eat?

Finally this was actually our 2nd time trying to eat here. The first time my husband and I drove an hour on a random weekday and I’ll be honest I didn’t make a reservation. I thought that a weekday evening wouldn’t be too busy and boy was I wrong lol it was popping when we showed up with an hour & a half wait. That is 100% my fault & mine alone I should have made a reservation. Of course we weren’t upset or anything, but we opted to come a different day. After leaving & getting on the highway back home I realized I should have asked what their wait time was for “normal” non hibachi seating or bar seating (sometimes it’s less of a wait because most people want the full experience) I called less then 5 minutes after leaving & asked if they could tell me what the wait time was for bar/“normal” table seating in an effort to not waste an hour long drive. I explained the situation (asking for no special treatment or anything obviously I just literally wanted to know if the wait was equally as long for bar seating or if it was a little less)

The person on the phone refused to give me a wait time or even tell me if they’re the same wait as a hibachi table. I tried saying I was just looking for a very basic estimate or idea just to gauge if we should turn around & try to walk in and they still refused to give any information besides “sometimes the waits can be very different yes however they can’t confirm any information over the phone because a table of 40 could walk in any second totally shifting the time”

I completely understand not wanting to give false expectations. But why couldn’t they tell me the current wait time with the warning that they can’t guarantee wait times and it’s all on a first come first serve basis? I just wanted to know if it was worth turning around. I obviously know that this is a store policy and is no fault of the person who answered the phone, but in my opinion this is a silly and honestly very annoying policy that once again rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall do your wallet & taste buds a favor and go support a small local hibachi restaurant with good reviews instead. I think you’ll be...

Hello. On 2/24/24 we visited the Beaverton OR location and was very disappointed and disgusted with the service. We love it here and it is one of our favorite restaurants in town but I don't think we will be visiting any time soon unfortunately. It was my brother and I's birthday and we didn't have a good time.

It first started with the reservations, we always reserve with open table and noticed for the first time several people who walked in with no reservation go in way before us. Our reservation was for 8 and we didn't get seated until 8:45-8:50. Im not saying we have to be seated at 8 but 8:45 is a bit of reach considering we made a reservation days prior.

Then things got worse. We've been here many times and have NEVER had 9 PEOPLE to a table. As far as im concerned it's always been 8 to a table. We had 9 and it was very tight. There wasn't much room for each of us (we were a party of 4, other party of 5 sat with us). I get your goal is to get people seated quickly but if we knew prior that we were gonna be a table of 9 we would've happily waited 2 more hours. It makes a huge difference. Plates were unaligned with each person. Why us? Every other table has 8, why the party who reserved early, is celebrating a birthday, and has shelled thousands here have to be treated so poorly. Never once have we ever been treated like a cattle herd until this visit. Yes a cattle herd are the words I will be using to describe the way me and my family felt like we were being treated as this visit. My dad spoke to the manager but he didn't seem like he cared too much. Also the nearby tables were very very loud. My past visits I love the constant screams and yells of super hyped guests. I love that atmosphere. But our nearby tables were screaming to the top of their lungs. I wish management addressed these issues without having a guest ask people to quiet down. Im not saying to be silent and not say a single word, again I love the atmosphere. But this isn't a basketball game either.

Then things got EVEN worse. Our chef came everything was fine, salad and soup were great per usual. While the chef was making the fried rice, our dad found a 1.5-2 inch strand of hair on top of the fried rice while it was on the grill. Absolutely lost my whole appetite. We could've asked the chef to start over, or even leave. But out of respect for the chef, and the other guests we shared a table with, we let it go and continued with service.

Again, were not the Obamas, but were also not a bunch of pigs either. We want to be treated just like everyone else. That means not seating us in a table of 9. Whoevers idea that was and thought that was okay did that to the wrong family. We didn't think that was respectful at all and we don't let things like that go like other people might. That includes putting us to the side like we're not human and having us wait nearly an hour past our reservation. If the people running the front told others that they treated us with respect they are lying. Also the woman who called me in the afternoon to confirm the appointment was very rude and hung up on me while I was speaking. I was speaking with such a great tone like I always do, she was very angry and hung up while I was speaking which I found very disrespectful and was definitely not on accident.

Also, you guys need to make a set of proper rules to ensure the food is handled safely. I don't want to hear "it's just a hair". It's not okay whatsoever. We could've taken it much further but we didn't.

Update: Just spoke to the general manager and was not sympathetic at all. He really tried justifying hair being on the food. Please don't waste...