Benihana — Restaurant in Columbus

Good Afternoon,

THIS IS LONG CAUSE I CAN’T MAKE THIS UP!!!

This was our first time visiting. 04/27/2024. We were tracing back from Nashville. We called to make reservations and the gentleman answering the phone told us 1 to 1 1/2 hours wait. So we went online to make reservations instead of calling back because he stated they were busy. While looking online there were many open reservations, mind you we called at 7 pm. So I made reservations for 7:30 pm , which was available online, along with several more 15 minutes apart up to 9 pm. When we arrived with our party of 4, there were several empty tables and several couples waiting. The gentleman at the counter apologized saying they were short staffed and it would be just a few minutes, he was waiting for the busser to clear the tables. 15 minutes later we were seated. We heard the gentleman ask a waitress if she wanted our table and she said “I guess”….. Elaina was our waitress- needless to say she was not pleasant. We were at a table of 8, us 4 and a family with to young girls. Elaina wanted our drink orders which we then gave, she brought back waters for those that asked one kids drink and the wrong drink for our friend , she apologized and said I will be right back, yes she came right back with his correct drink but got our sushi orders from us four got the families order turned back to us and about insisted we order now. So we placed our order. we did not see our our waitress Elaina again for over an hour for refills - just water, my husband and friends wife asked for refills and the family at the table were still waiting for a glass of wine and a smoothie for one of the girls. 90 minutes into being seated. Our friend then went to the gentleman at the counter to complain and within MINUTES we had a new waitress come over asking what we still needed, I did not get her name but she stated she was there from 10 am this morning. She was fantastic…. With in minutes she was back and had every drink ordered from 90 minutes ago for the entire table of 8, along with more water. With in minutes we had soup, salad and sushi. Not seeing Elaina helping them…. She finally came over with an attitude asking if we needed anything. Which then we did not because the other waitress had taken care of us. Our chief then arrived, he was very polite and very friendly. He set our order ticket on the empty table behind him and a busser grabbed it and tosses it out. We all laughed and the chef asked Elaina to print him another one and she huffed away. She did bring a new one. Our meals were all prepared the person at the table with us had a seafood allergy so the chef prepared that all last. We however did not get our noodles he forgot and our friend asked if that was enough for two orders and he stated he only had one ordered. So his was never added. We were offered boxes and not asked how things were or if we needed anything else from our waitress which then left all our bills. The couple next to us wanted to tap and pay and Elaina said her machine had no internet connection and had to take our bills out front. We all sent our cards, she then came back, we and our friends signed and left NO tip because with all this story it was 10:30 pm by the time we all left. The family with young girls etc. We ENTERED at 7:30 pm and LEFT at 10:30 pm THREE HOURS is very unacceptable. Thank you for your...

I went to Benihana last night for my birthday dinner with my best friend. The experience was both good and bad. On the good side, the chef, Chul, was entertaining and awesome and the food was great.

Now, here is the bad:

As I mentioned, this was my birthday dinner, so I had received the $30 birthday coupon in my email and took the time to print out the coupon as the instructions requested and brought it with me. I presented it to the server when our drink order was taken to make sure that she knew that it was my birthday and that I had the coupon for the discount on our food. My friend ordered a beer, I ordered sake, and the other beverages ordered at the table were a mix of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The non-alcoholic beverages were served within about 10 minutes of the drink order being taken. The alcoholic beverages were not served until after we had received our soup and salad and our main entrees were nearly prepared, which was about 90 minutes after our drink orders were taken. This is pretty unacceptable because I think there were only 3 alcoholic beverages served, only 1 of which needed to be “mixed” (my sake was served in a carafe and my friend’s beer was bottled).

Apparently there were 3 birthdays at the table. However, only 1 of them was acknowledged and it was not mine or the person who was sitting 2 seats over from me. The servers came out and sang the birthday song to the person with the birthday at the opposite end of the table from where I was sitting. Mind you, I turned 53 yesterday and I’ve had my fair share of birthday songs sung to me at restaurants over the years so not having it sung to me was not going to be “life changing.”. But, after sitting there for 2 hours and having waited on drinks for so long with a server who seemed to just be tired and disinterested (I get it…my reservation was at 7:15 pm and it’s the holiday season, but still), it was the principle of the situation. And, not trying to pull the “Gen X vs. Gen Z” card, but the woman who got the birthday song sung to her and ice cream was visibly much younger than me and has a lot more birthdays ahead of her than I do, plus I’ve had a really rough year, so it just mattered to me this time. At the end of the birthday song, I had to remind the waitress that it was also my birthday and she proceeded to ask me what kind of ice cream I wanted, etc. Sadly, the other woman with the birthday just gave up and didn’t say anything. Also, the other 2 birthday customers did not print out the birthday coupon and only had to give the server the barcode. If that is suitable for using the birthday coupon, then please put that information on the coupon! It is almost 2024 after all and printer access is extremely limited or non-existent for many people. I just happen to work from home and I’m “old school” so I have my own printer, but I really could have done without going through the trouble.

The good food, good company, and great chef saved the night, but the entire experience left a lot to be deserved, especially for the occasion...

I grew up going to Benihana locations in California and New York - so I have really positive memories of the experience. I have also been to Tanuki in Powell and Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse in Dublin this summer.

The experience at the Polaris Benihana was very disappointing. The service was significantly worse, the food was solid but clearly a step down from both Tanuki and Kyoto and worst of all, the price was 50% higher than either other option ($35-40 PLUS 5.50 for fried rice vs. $25-30 with fried rice included).

If your prices are going to be a significant premium to the competition, the product (service and food) better be a premium experience, and this was NOT.

1. The servers were at best indifferent and at worst unhelpful. At every step of the meal, the service took 5-15 minutes longer than it should have (bringing out waters, the soups, salads, etc. etc.)
2. the soup came out in bowls that were physically piping hot (you literally couldn't move them) but the soup inside the bowl was lukewarm - this was true for all 5 soups at the table that were brought out.
3. The chef's cart was not prepared properly, twice during the meal, he had to go back into the kitchen with food cooking on the grill to go get something (once an entire steak, another time the mushrooms).
4. Bringing out a bottle of beer that was ordered took 10 minutes past when the other drinks were brought out. Then they just dropped off the 22oz bottle with no glasses, which then took 10 minutes more for them to bring 2 more glasses out
5. The food was fine but not great.
6. They did not have a single knife in the entire restaurant, they literally gave us a plastic knife from a to-go wrapper. Worst of all, we got conflicting information and spent 15 minutes waiting for three different people to say they could get us a knife to be able to cut our own steak into smaller pieces for the kids, to then come out and apologize for not having a single knife in the place. The dinner was $45+ per person and you don't have a knife available on request!?!?!
7. They forgot to bring out the white rice that had been ordered.

The most frustrating part of it all is that they seem to have done all the hard parts right (it's a beautiful space, in general the Chef's seem quite good, the food quality is good) but the basics of running a restaurant are VERY poorly executed (friendly hosts, effective servers, bringing out drinks and soups and salads on time and at the right temperature, remembering to bring everything ordered, properly prepping the chefs carts, having knives etc. etc.).

Hopefully new management can be brought in to recruit and train a better team for the servers and runners and food cart preparers. Unless management changes, we won't be back as there are better quality and way lower price Hibachi options...