Benihana — Restaurant in Bethesda

We visited the Bethesda location. I vividly recall telling my dinner date how I chose Benihana and drove 45 minutes one way “because with Benihana, you know what you’re going to get. You pay for the experience and the quality of service, versus some hole in the wall that you’ve never been.”

The issues started as soon as we sat down at the table. Our waitress, I’m sure, in her mind, was doing her best, at least I would hope for the sake of the company. However, the entire experience started to derail when she told us, “Have your order ready when I come back because we are short on chefs and we don’t want to keep anyone else waiting.” It took her 10 minutes to return with our drinks and ask for the order; the establishment was at about 45% capacity, so it wasn’t too busy. Approximately 8 stations had people seated.

In our order, I requested no onion and no mushroom. The waitress informed us that the chefs “will still bring it out anyway.” When the chef arrived at the table, he read us our orders; it did not have my request, so I politely told him, “no onion or mushrooms, please.”

Imagine the horror on my face when I saw him mix all the fried rice with onions. Having been to Hibachi countless times, I knew this wasn’t the routine for someone who had a special request. Despite this, he proceeded to place the rice with onions on my plate. As a fragile person, who was already fractured, I melted down on the brink of literal tears.

I couldn’t even broach the issue because of my emotional state, so my dinner companion asked the chef to make new. He went to the kitchen and brought back rice to fry, sans the onion. I simply could not eat it. Having known how some in the food industry can be mean spirited and vindictive, I couldn’t eat the food that I had just complained about that came out from behind a mysterious door “to make it right.” I was deeply concerned with the sanitary nature of the food and if it may have been tampered with in retaliation.

The two ladies from a different party who were sitting at our station only received half their order. To the manager’s credit, he told them he would “make it right.” I could not approach the manager due to my fractured emotional state from the trauma that was inflicted onto me moments prior.

While I like to believe I am a logical person with an opened mind, this establishment’s cleanliness certainly did not live up to the company’s standard. If the base boards, door trim, and the kitchen’s visible tile from our vantage point is any indication of the cleanliness of the kitchen, I would not feel safe eating food that originated from the less-than-sanity establishment.

I hope someone reads this and can fix the situation from occurring in the future, while making touch ups to the interior and ensuring no one can question the cleaning routines of...

I usually only post reviews when I have something positive to say, but this was the worst hibachi experience I’ve ever had, and really sucked the joy out of our Father’s Day celebration. We had a reservation, but arrived to a jam packed waiting room, and had to wait 45 minutes to be seated, with my elderly, disabled mother having no where to sit. The hostesses said the computer system completely overbooked them, and they could do nothing about the wait. Several people just gave up and left. Everyone was asking what the issue was.

Finally, we get seated, and were packed so tight at the table you had to consciously stagger yourself not to be hitting the person next to you. It took quite a while for the chef to arrive. I suspect this is because they have the tables back to back, and the other chef hadn’t finished yet. Some tables did have both chefs working at the same time, and they were basically butt to butt, which I can’t imagine is safe.

Our chef finally arrives, and he was very inexperienced, and knew minimal English. He was super sweet, and you could tell he was trying very hard. The blame of placing him in a customer facing role falls on management. He was just not ready. I felt terrible for him. However, part of what you are paying the high prices for is the experience, and we had an awkward, clunky one. Minimal conversation, no jokes, not the fun experience you expect. He dropped a plastic lid on the grill, and had to spend a lot of time cleaning the melted plastic off the grill. It took a while for the plastic smell to dissipate. He tried to do the tricks, but struggled with them. At one point he tried to converse with us because he needed to cook my son’s food separately due to dairy intolerance, but he spoke entirely in Spanish. I think he just switched unconsciously as he was stressed. It really confused most of my family. He offered fried rice or white rice, but did not mention we’d be charged an extra $8 per person! The food was ok, but nothing impressive. Certainly not worth the $320 we had to pay for a family of 5. My mom’s 1 cocktail was $18, and it was normal size.

We were there for 3 unpleasant hours before we could pay and get out of there. Terrible...

Very underwhelming! We arrived and was off to a nice start . We were greeted by the host by name(we had a reservation) and the resturant was clean and presentable. I still hate the fact they squeeze you into a whole other families table. Just two of us sitting with another party of 5. I know that's just how it works but its still a little annoying. Once we sat one waiter took our order and asked if we both wanted fried rice . He then confirmed twice that we only wanted one fried rice and the other white. The chef starts cooking( he was just ok) and made only one order of chicken rice for the table. Im like maybe mine is still coming ...... He made the veggies first, which were cold by the time the other food was done. Another waiter brought soup and salad which she placed on the plates we were going to eat from. She literally carried them out on a dirty old tray ... why would you put them on out plates. She never asked if we needed anything other than water , if we wanted anything else , was everything OK, nothing ! She brought out the white rice and said to me "oh you got fried". The chef is finish everyone is eating and still i have no rice ! Of course my food is getting cold at this point ! We then ask her if the rice is coming to which she replied ..... you didn't get white rice ! WHAT!? We just talked about this! 5 or 6 minutes later she brings the rice and we don't see her again until our plates are empty . She brings boxes out which is a joke because there was barely any food on the plate to begin with . I was so shocked for the price you get so little food! We sat around for another 6-7 minutes waiting for the checks . Like why not bring them out with the boxes? She then took forever to get to us with the handheld credit card machine! Once it got to me , I could see her watching me enter the tip! Then she was glancing down as I entered the pin . Seriously can I have some privacy! The whole experience was just bad. Maybe It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't spend over $35 each for food that wasn't even that good . I couldve went to quickway and got better food for $8. Will not be returning to...