Benihana — Restaurant in Carlsbad

I love Benihana's food and eat at least once a month, whether it be takeout or eat in....My experience is a hit or miss, thus, the reason for not giving 5 stars. Some visits are 5 star worthy, and some are not. If this location could work on consistency, then I would bump up the star rating, buy for now, I am giving them an average... Not terrible, but not the greatest... I will share my most recent experience, as I visited twice within a 2 week period... First I dined inside and 2nd time I took home to go. Our party was large, so they had to split us up into 2 tables and chefs. I ordered the crispy spicy tuna as an appetizer, and then for my entrée, I ordered the spicy hibachi chicken.

The crispy spicy rice with tuna is SO amazing. Lots of different flavors and textures. You get the crunch of the crispy rice, the sweet and savory favors of the tuna with a mildly spicy, but sweet peppered soy glaze, and then for some heat, add a thin slice of jalapeño on top. This is a must get. My entrée was good, but think it could have used a little more kick. Our chef, however wasn't too entertaining. I have had some amazing chefs here, who are funny, laugh, joke, and really engage their guests. This time, you could tell he was simply going through the motions. He interacted a little at the beginning, however, lost interest in us after he started cooking. He did a couple of the well known table tricks, like the volcano onion and the beating heart rice... It was very bland, and not a ton of enthusiasm.... I guess it is just the luck of the draw foe mw. Some days I have superb chefs, yet other days not so much...

For my to go order the other day, I ordered the crispy spice rice with tuna (suprised?? Lol), an order or chicken fried rice, and some of the onion soup. I was not too happy, as I have eaten this dish several times and the fish has always been fresh. This time, I can tell you it was not. I know the difference, as it tasted fishy, and not sweet like fresh tuna does... Atop of that, they gave me just the broth for the soup, but none of the ingredients that go inside the soup, so we basically had onion broth...

These recent experiences will not deter me from coming back, but I sure do hope that the leadership can work on consistency of service and food quality. I can guarantee if they just step it up just a little bit, they will have a best in...

I wrote this review on their contact page of their website & have heard no response, so I’ll share our experience here:

From the moment we arrived, the evening was plagued by delays and disorganization. We went to the bar to get a drink and no one even recognized we were there for 10 minutes, this was before 5:00 pm, there was only one table being waited on.

We were then seated by one waiter to take drink orders, but then he came and said another waitress would take our meal orders. We waited over 30 minutes before a chef came to our table. By this time we had seen another table had already been seated and the chef was already preparing their me, this all before our Chef even came to our table. Once the chef did arrive, the service continued to feel uncoordinated and slow, and the entire meal ended up taking nearly two and a half hours.

We were speaking to another guest at our table that said she had a similar experience a few months back, ended up leaving that night, but came back to give you another chance. I can tell you she felt the same way we did.

What should have been a fun and engaging dining experience turned into a frustrating and drawn-out ordeal. I had given the waitress our Chef Table reward for my wife's birthday when we ordered but when the check came I had to remind them to take off the $30.00 reward. They also brought the ice cream and candle and sang to her but never asked if we wanted our picture taken, after we had seen a previous table have their's taken.

While I understand that busy nights can sometimes cause delays, the level of disorganization we encountered suggested a lack of preparation and attention to customer experience. This was disappointing, especially considering Benihana’s reputation for delivering not only good food but also quality entertainment and service, at this location that we have been going to for almost 20 years.

I hope that you take this feedback seriously and make the necessary improvements to ensure a better experience for future guests. I would appreciate a response regarding how this situation will...

Let me begin by saying that I have eaten at many Benihana restaurants around the country and never had a negative word to say. Tonight we took our daughter and her friends to the location in Carlsbad for her 11th birthday. What a disaster. We thought we were being punked. It took us at least 15 min to put in a drink order and about 25 min to order our food. Once we finally ordered, it took one and a half hours until a chef came to our table. So to put it into perspective, 2 hours until our meal was being cooked from when we sat down. The chef got started doing his thing. Immediately, you can tell he had no idea what he was doing. Just messing up every little trick they normally do and kept trying over and over and over again until it got the point that I just politely asked him to go on cooking the meal and not go worry about the theatrics. We were starving. Even the kids just wanted him to get on with the cooking. So he did...and did....and ....did.... Let me tell you. I have never seen a slower chef at any restaurant I have ever eaten at. It was painfully slow and the food was undercooked and the portions that were being distributed were severely off. The photo I posted was the amount of vegetables I received. Lol!!! I was at the end of the table and he literally ran out of vegetables so he gave me the very scraps. At this point of actually receiving our food we are over 3 hours in to the meal from sitting down to eating. Then on top of all that, our waiter was asked 20 minutes ago for more drinks, forks and napkins. Which we had to ask for over and over again. I can go on. I just have to say, for a $500 bill, it was by far the worst meal I've ever had in my entire life. Not only will I never for back to this location of Benihana, I will never go back to ANY location of Benihana because of this meal. My daughter's 11th birthday no less. Shame on you and now you treated us tonight. The manager acted as though he couldn't even be bothered when I complained. Avoid this place at...