Benihana — Restaurant in Denver

Piggybacking off my friends' Sean (and wife Selene) Altice's 1 star review below. I was one of the people at the dinner Sean referred to. As a grown adult (late 30's), having been to other Benihana locations/other habachi's in the past 20 years, and can say this particular Benihana location truly was AWFUL!!! (Minus our chef, quite lovely).

The restaurant was nearly empty for the start of our reservation around ~730pm on a Saturday. Despite this, the waitress completely rushed us, even dropping off "to go boxes" before any of us (5 people) even started our entree's. Desserts were also dropped as checks were dropped. The chef was still wiping down his grill. Our soups and salads were delivered very late, and waitress seemed quite annoyed at my other friends' asking simple questions of the menu/drinks. It is confusing and they were looking forward to a fun habachi show.

Only to be treated like dirt by our waitress, who ultimately SELECTED HER OWN TIP (of 22.5%) on 3 of our tabs, insulting our intelligence, trying to take advantage of those who she likely thought do not understand english. My other friends were given no choice; she was very passive aggressive/slick, and actions such as this should not be allowed in the workplace as a server. We were concerned the same waitress could have been doing the same to other less detailed customers. SO PLEASE CHECK YOUR BILL AND ASK FOR RECEIPT IF YOU GO HERE. Management, we ask for you to kindly review other of the same waitress' bills, to see if she was doing this/continues to do this to others.

When we realized what happened, we tried to escalate the situation to a manager, our fun dinner was totally ruined, and feel over charged/taken advantage of, for what we had experienced. It was also quite obvious how frustrated the waitress was by all of my other friends speaking fluent spanish. Welcome to America it is year 2025. Diversity exists. Deal with it and be a good human. Do not assume they are dumb b/c they were only speaking spanish at dinner. Waitress was making us so uncomfortable, even mumbled to me, "I am going to be fired for this." Well perhaps she should be, it is unfair what she is doing to the unknowing public. Her admitting of this statement shows she knows she did something wrong.

Please refund my friends; they have tried to reach you, they do not wish to select an 22.5% tip, but rather 0%. Please advise how we can re-coup the monies lost. Additionally I would also like my full tip refunded to 0% given how this all...

We come to this location 2-3 times a year for our birthdays and anniversary. I'm at a point now where I just have to say that it should not take 2 hours to sit, eat, and receive the check.

Our prior two visits took a long time but last night truly took the cake - We received one drink and then sat for 40 minutes before the soup and salad arrived so late they were brought out at the same time. This creates a huge lack of space at the already tight table and is irritating. We received only a blank stare like we were being a pain when asking why both courses came out at once. ~15 minutes later we still had no real food started, so we went to the front and asked for assistance getting a chef. The manager immediately went to check but then told us he was just in the back "getting ready", like we hadn't been waiting an hour already for someone to cook our food.

By now, it's 7:15 and thankfully the chef coming out was a great one, BUT even after all that extra "getting ready" time, he still had to go back to the kitchen at the end of the meal for more chicken, because the staff didn't get his cart prepared in full. At 7:41, the chef walked away as we finished eating. Shortly after, our waitress came back to ask what ice cream we wanted. The seasonal special I ordered came with a slice of pie, so I reminded her of that and she said she'd make the pie look really nice with the ice cream etc., which was a sweet gesture. However, by the time we got the ice cream it was almost 8pm and there was no pie brought out. I ask about it and the waitress tells me that it's being prepared by the chefs because they dont allow the wait staff to cut the pie. At that point I just give the ice cream to my eagerly waiting four year old, and ask if they can box the pie to take home. We finally got the pie slice and left around 8:15. The pie was NOT worth waiting for BTW.

We received $20.63 off our meal as a courtesy. I can appreciate it but with as much as the meal still ends up being, even after a discount and reward, folks need to be treated better and not left to feel like we're being demanding or unreasonable in our request to spend under 2hrs when the cooking portion is over...

We visited this restaurant for the first time with some friends, and unfortunately, it was the worst dining experience we’ve ever had. Our server was incredibly rude from the beginning. She actually sat down at our table while taking our order, forgot to bring our soups, salads, and sauces, and rushed us to finish even though we were clearly still eating.

One of our friends politely asked if she could get a clean tea mug, as the one provided was dirty. The server looked at it, rolled her eyes, and tossed it onto the table.

To be fair, the chef was very kind and the food was good—but it definitely wasn’t worth the price. We were surprised to find that fried rice cost extra. For just two drinks, one hibachi steak, and one teriyaki chicken, our bill came out to $150.

When the bill arrived, the server charged us without giving us the option to select our own tip. We later realized that she had manually added a 22% tip to three out of the four checks at the table. We asked to speak to a manager, and although one came over and said she would look into it and return shortly, she never did.

Instead, the server came back and aggressively confronted us, yelling, “What do you want me to change the tip to then?” When we asked why we weren’t given the option to choose the tip, she simply replied, “I was tired and wanted to leave as soon as possible.”

It’s shocking that the manager allowed the server to return and speak to us instead of addressing the issue herself. I was told I would receive a full refund for the unauthorized tip, but no one ever followed up or reached out to resolve the situation.

It’s clear that management here has little regard for customer satisfaction. It is completely unacceptable for a server to take advantage of guests by selecting her own tip—and even worse, for no one to be held accountable.

This place is a joke. I had to reach out on my own just to request a refund for a tip that should never have been added. We will absolutely not be returning. Do not waste your time or money at this...