Kimono Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Benicia

Ok so place looks nice and fancy. Has valet parking and represents itself as a nice dine in restaurant. Now first off our server was very nice and good at his job. If anything he is the reason I didnt make a scene there due to the many mistakes that were made by the cook and the manager on site. I was there with a performer friend who i wanted to take to a possible new nice spot while we were passing through. So we found this place and thought maybe. But I was so wrong. First off my friends kimono steak was requested to be cooked rare but it was cooked medium rare. And it was suppose to come with some mushrooms which was the highlight of the dish for him. So we sent it back to get a new one made with the mushrooms. The medium rare was not that big of a deal. But we wanted it to at least come with the mushrooms cause he loves mushrooms. The plate came back and the meat was cooked medium now which we thought hmm that's weird. Thing is we take pics of dishes all the time. He loves to send them to people. It looked like the same steak but cooked a little longer. But the real problem still was we ordered it rare. Then my dish came in. I ordered a mt.diablo which comes with noodles veggies shrimp scallops and calamari and spicy sauce. It came with no calamari and no spicy sauce. I tried to return my plate at this time while my friend was thinking about just eating his dish and just saying this place is a right off possibly. The manager on site was the one who grabbed my plate and took it back. Then he came back and told me that some of my scallops are calamari. Thing is I've had lots of calamari before. So I knew it wasnt calamari. He tried to convince me that it was and just doesnt look like it 🤨. So I humored him and said ok well I know they taste completely different so I'll just give them a try. Maybe it's a new way to prepare calamari. But no it was scallops as I suspected cause i compared it with another scallop on the plate and confirmed with him that one was a scallop and one was a so called calamari. So he lied to me to my face cause he was afraid to admit fault due to the already 2 mistakes the cook made. Then we asked for the check and he takes our plates which we didnt ask him to nor did he ask if we wanted them taken. He brings the check not charging us for the dish I had. But wants to charge us for the steak we had. We ofcourse mention the mistake made with it and dont want to pay for what we didnt eat due to their mistakes. He trysts to force us to pay it saying we accomadated you for this and its costing us 100 dollars. First off no it's not cause the dish itself didnt cost 100 dollars and obviously they need to make profit so there is no way the steak cost them that much but I get he was driving towards the foods cost from the menu which still wasnt accurate. And second off they did not accommodate anything cause the dishes weren't prepared and cooked right. So if you dont give what one ordered then it is technically on the restaurant not the customer. But he basically tries to strong arm us and say we have to pay for the steak. So we said fine but can we get the steak in a to go box at least. He then tells us he threw away the steak because we told him too. We absolutely did not tell him anything of the sort they just took the plate without our consent just because we asked for the bill or maybe they thought that we weren't going to eat it.The guy says its proper ettiqit to ask for a to go box. WRONG AGAIN GENIUS. Its proper ettiqit to ask if we need a box before taking the food off the table. Also besides all that, thing is I put my card next to the receipt. Before all this went down the server came by to grab it and we said before paying for it we want ro speak to the manager. The manager comes back with the receipt and already charged me before i consented cause I made it clear I wanted to speak with him. I told him I wouldnt sign until this was settled. He threaten to call the police and then thankfully the server vouched for us about their mistakes. Thank God. The manager never even...

I guess there are so few places to eat in Benicia that this passes for good food. The cooking show was interesting for my nephew. The sushi was passable but I regretted being talked into the teppanyaki. I ordered the Teppan Chicken.

I was dumbfounded at the paltry quantity of veggies included with the teppanyaki meals - a single section of zucchini and far more onion slices than could be balanced by the rest of the items on the plate. Previously when I had teppanyaki, they included carrots, bean sprouts, and other veggies along with zucchini. My sister ordered just veggies, and they brought her carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, and bell peppers in addition to the zucchini and onions. I had thought we were all getting that, and that she was just getting an extra serving. I saw other people receiving broccoli and corn (not on the cob, just kernels) so apparently vegetables are on Kimono's secret menu.

As the chicken breasts were cooking, I saw the chef squeeze lemons on one breast of chicken, then a thick, gelatinous sauce on the other section. I thought to myself, "that most not be mine, I ordered the Teppan Chicken, which is probably just chicken in the butter and seasonings they use on everything else." So I was horrified to see the "lemon" chicken go on my dad's plate, leaving the other chicken for me. I remembered my dad had ordered the lemon chicken, which we both thought would be chicken in a lemon sauce, not literally lemon juice, which was why I didn't order it. I didn't want some super heavy sauce. I might have been happier with the lemon chicken. The Teppan Chicken sauce tasted like American teriyaki sauce (overly sweet) with cinnamon added. I did NOT like it. I couldn't finish my meal, and ate some of my mom's steak and my sister's veggies instead. Even my dad and mom (who aren't as negative about American teriyaki sauce as I) agreed that the Teppan Chicken sauce was too sweet and the cinnamon was weird. Given the sweetness of the teriyaki, I would recommend the chef try something spicy instead of cinnamon. And in addition to the unpalatable sweetness, all the Teppanyaki-cooked food was too salty.

And that meal was NOT cheap. Each Teppanyaki entree was $25-45 dollars, which included miso soup and the typical iceberg lettuce salad that Teppanyaki places serve (it's basically a vehicle for their ginger salad dressing). I honestly wish I'd stuck with sushi. Even though what I had tasted like it was the kind of sushi you get in a landlocked region, it wasn't as bad as the Teppan Chicken.

Finally, if the waitresses weren't so young/slow, the restaurant could do a quicker turnover and not have people waiting to be seated (we didn't wait, but there was a wait when we left).

I'm still hungry a few hours later and annoyed at having to spend so much money on such a subpar meal. I'll never return...

I’m only giving this review 2 stars because of the service from the two ladies that were out waitresses. One ladys name started with a M and I never got the other ladies name but I appreciate them.

My fiancé and I booked a 530 pm Sunday reservation 3-4 weeks in advance to gather our groomsmen and bridesmaids together. The restaurant called 15min before our reservation informing us that they were behind and will need to push back the seating time to 630. We arrived with some of the party (not all guests came ) and was told we could not be seated because all of our party was not there. I informed Alex who seemed to be the manager that we were told 15min prior to the original time that it needed to be pushed back and we had ppl coming from Sacramento and emeryville area. Basically having to plead to be seated and have water due to the inconvenience of the restaurant.

Long story short, our experience seemed to be a first come first serve type of situation even though they were aware of our large party and the time we reserved. There were other large parties present and there were things missing from our entrées such as all the sauces, the ice cream. My sister in law didn’t receive her fried rice, as well as multiple groomsmens orders were incorrect- so we definitely paid extra for the items we did not get or were accurate.

I enjoy kimonos and have been coming here for some time but I’m not really happy with the experience we had here. I can tell they were overbooked and instead of turning people away to accommodate the people who already had a reservation, they allowed others to be seated then played catch up with us and a couple who had reservations at 7. Either that or overbooked everyone.

Overall it seemed to be unorganized and my bridesmaids were more upset that the manager on duty did not try to accommodate for their inconveniences. We definitely made the most of our experience and chose to have a good time but in the future, we won’t be returning unless we it’s just two of...