Benihana — Restaurant in Chicago

I’ve never written a review before, but after the awful experience my wife and I had at Benihana this Thursday night (10/17), I feel compelled to do so.

I’ll start by saying we’ve dined here many times in the past, and each of those visits has been great—good service and an entertaining show.

This time, however, was by far the WORST dining experience I’ve had in Chicago in at least 15 years, and I live locally in Streeterville. Everything began normally, but problems arose almost immediately when it took over 30 minutes just to get our first round of drinks. Then, it took nearly another hour to receive soup and salad. Fine, we were still patient.

The real issue came with the hibachi chef. It was obvious he wasn’t properly trained, as he skipped all the usual tricks—no train, no flipping, no onion volcano, not even the rice heartbeat. These are the things people expect when they pay $200 for a hibachi dinner. To make matters worse, he completely ruined the first batch of rice, chicken, and shrimp, and had to run to the kitchen to get new ingredients. This added more delays and led to a lot of wasted food. When he finally began cooking, he over-peppered everything and either burned or undercooked the rest of the food. My wife and I couldn’t even eat what was on our plates. It was so bad that another couple at our table left, and the rest of us complained as well.

This disaster stretched on for two hours while we watched other tables around us having a great time. It felt like our table had been completely forgotten.

At this point, I asked our server to call a manager. We waited 30 minutes, and the manager still didn’t show. Eventually, I had to go up to the host station to ask for one. Even then, it took another 30 minutes before he finally arrived. I explained the situation in detail, but he didn’t offer a single apology or even acknowledge the severity of the situation. The level of incompetence was astounding. This could have been resolved earlier in the night by comping a round of drinks, getting us a new chef, or at least acknowledging the problem as it unfolded. Any of these actions would have been obvious if the manager had been doing his job and ensuring everything was running smoothly.

Instead, the manager argued with us and grudgingly took our check and walked away. When the server returned, we were told we had to pay for the drinks, even though the situation was so egregiously terrible that the entire meal should have been comped. Fine, we paid for the drinks we consumed, and I even tipped. But that $111 compelled me to write this review and give the experience a well-deserved 1 star.

If ownership reads this, please feel free to reach out. This experience has completely ruined what used to be our favorite hibachi spot, and much of it could have been avoided with even...

My family and I were visiting from Detroit, Michigan during my daughter’s spring break and were excited to explore new places and enjoy good food. Unfortunately, our experience at this restaurant was incredibly disappointing and far from what we expected.

We ordered 3 Rocky’s Choice meals (steak and chicken with vegetable fried rice), 1 shrimp fried rice, 1 white noodle, and 2 Sprites. From the start, the cook was noticeably rude and unprofessional. While preparing the fried rice, he mistakenly added chicken to all portions, including the ones that were supposed to be vegetable-only. Rather than remaking the dish, he tried to pick out the chicken to pass it off as vegetable fried rice, which I immediately declined. He then had a coworker bring a bowl of vegetable fried rice from the back, but it was cold and completely lacked flavor. When I asked if it could be warmed on the grill, he told me someone could microwave it instead, definitely not the level of service or food quality we anticipated.

The issues didn’t stop there. The shrimp appetizer, which should have been served before our main entrees, was brought out last and oddly shared with another family seated at our table. Even worse, the cook placed shrimp directly on my daughter’s plate, despite her having a food allergy. Thankfully, I noticed right away and quickly switched her plate with my niece’s to prevent a serious reaction. This level of carelessness when it comes to food allergies is extremely concerning and could have had dangerous consequences.

On top of that, the steak served in the Rocky’s Choice was extremely fatty and not trimmed properly. It was tough and unpleasant to eat, which really affected the overall meal experience. It felt like the food was rushed and prepared with very little attention to detail.

To finish off an already frustrating evening, when it came time to order dessert, we were told the restaurant was out of vanilla ice cream, the only flavor my entire family wanted. This was just another letdown after a series of mishandled items throughout the meal.

As travelers looking to make the most of our spring break, we were truly disappointed. This experience was not only lacking in hospitality but also raised concerns about food safety and overall service quality. Dining out should be enjoyable, especially during a family vacation, but unfortunately, this visit missed the mark on all fronts. I hope this feedback encourages improvements in both customer service and food preparation so future guests don’t have a...

Overall we had a very poor experience here last week. For the price you pay you do not get your moneys worth whatsoever. I got the steak and chicken and barely got 10 cubes of chicken on my plate and the steak was small as well. You would think skimping out on the meat they would atleast load you up on the veggies but that was not the case. We were only served the yum yum sauce which completely lacked any sort of flavor and they never served us any of the other sauces. The Habachi chef was annoying as well. He seemed like he had no idea what he was doing and it took forever for us to get our food. At one point when he was cutting the tails off the shrimp and he was trying to flip them into his hat but missed almost all the shots. We sat there watching him throw shrimp tails around while our rice was literally burning onto the flattop. We watched him scrape half the rice away into the trash shoot. I asked for my steak rare which i know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but i feel like it is a common request. This man literally threw the steak on the grill, sliced it up, toss it 2-3 times and threw it on my plate. It was COLD and completely raw. Even everyone else at the table was looking at him like what the heck are you doing?! The service was horrible as well. The waiter was rude and inattentive. He never refilled our drinks and at one point our table was so full of dirty plates we had to ask him multiple times to take things. It wasn’t as if he was busy which we would have been more understanding. He was standing off to the side staring at us the whole time. The icing on the cake is when he asked the table if we were celebrating any occasion and my sister said she was here to celebrate her graduation. He just stared at her and gave a weird face and said “okay…. any birthdays today?” How rude! Atleast say congratulations! We all just sat there awkwardly after he said that. Not friendly at all. There was also this weird employee walking around the restaurant asking to take “free” pictures of us? We said no over 3 times and eventually we had to ask him to please leave us alone to enjoy our dinner. It made us feel very uncomfortable. To make the matters worse- the bathrooms were completely filthy. We arrived 30-45 minutes after opening which you would think the bathrooms would atleast be semi clean. The women’s bathroom smelled of raw sewage and my boyfriend said the toilet was covered in feces. Disgusting. I really wish we went somewhere else. We paid over 400 dollars for a horrible...