Benihana — Restaurant in Downey

This was, by far, the worst encounter I have ever had at Benihana's, and I believe it is crucial that someone from corporate reaches out to me immediately to address the numerous issues I encountered.

Firstly, despite having reservations at 2:45 PM, my party and I were forced to wait an astonishing two hours before being seated. To make matters worse, we had to endure an additional one hour and fifteen minutes before a manager even approached our table. This level of disregard for customer service and blatant mismanagement of reservations is completely unacceptable.

Secondly, the wait time to be seated was excessively long, further adding to our frustration. This lack of organization and efficiency reflects poorly on the restaurant's ability to handle customer flow and provide a pleasant dining experience.

However, the most alarming incident occurred when the waitress served my six-year-old child an alcoholic beverage. Fortunately, we noticed the mistake and intervened, but the fact that such a grave error occurred is deeply concerning. Despite the presence of security cameras, the waitress denied serving the drink when confronted by her manager and the entire table. This dishonesty and attempt to cover up her mistake is both unprofessional and unacceptable.

Furthermore, the waitress failed to inquire if we wanted a refill of the alcoholic beverage, instead assuming and bringing another drink without our consent. This lack of attentiveness and disregard for customer preferences is highly disappointing.

Despite the manager's promise to review the security camera footage, no such action was taken. This lack of follow-through and failure to address the issue further highlights the restaurant's lack of accountability and commitment to customer satisfaction.

The waitress's unprofessional behavior continued throughout our visit. She displayed a clear reluctance to serve us lunch, despite our reservation being made before 3 PM. Additionally, she refused to provide us with any desserts to compensate for the extensive wait time, even though she offered them to another party who arrived after us. It is worth noting that we were served after the aforementioned party, despite having a reservation.

To add insult to injury, we discovered hair in our food. Instead of promptly replacing the contaminated plates, the cook simply added extra chicken to cover up the issue. Shockingly, the waitress had the audacity to charge me for this additional chicken, which we did not even request. This lack of accountability and disregard for food quality is deeply concerning.

Moreover, the absence of any entertaining tricks during the meal was attributed to the other party's request to avoid noise due to the prolonged wait. However, this decision was made without considering the impact on our dining experience, further highlighting the restaurant's lack of customer-centricity.

The overall demeanor of the staff at this location was rude, unprofessional, and displayed the worst customer service I have ever encountered. It was evident that the employees were dispirited and seemed tired of their work environment. Their casual use of profanity towards customers was completely unacceptable and left a lasting negative impression.

I implore you to take this matter seriously and address the numerous issues I have outlined. The level of service, professionalism, and customer care demonstrated at this location is far below the standards expected of a reputable establishment like Benihana's. I strongly advise against visiting this particular location, as it has consistently failed to meet even the most basic expectations.

I sincerely hope that you will investigate these matters thoroughly and take appropriate action to rectify the situation. As a loyal customer, I am deeply disappointed and will never consider returning to this location. I trust that you will prioritize this issue and ensure that such experiences are not repeated in the future.

I eagerly await your prompt response and resolution to...

I did not enjoy my recent outing at Benihana! We went as group of 5, 2 of which were celebrating their birthdays and collectively we were celebrating one of us who had just gotten a clean Cancer free scan!! We arrived happy, lively, and ready for a show!! Benihana essentially snatched all the fun out of our dining experience and killed the entire Vibe!! Our reservations was at 7. We weren't seated until after 8 and the whole time we had to stand in the bar area where the employees kept opening the door!? It was windy and freezing cold outside so we couldn't even enjoy our little drink & mingle time while we waited! We get to our table and have to wait another 15 for our order to be taken. We were given soup and our salad came shortly after. Side bar- they really need to work on their soup and salad because that iceberg lettuce with one cherry tomatoe was ridiculous and that greasy, salty fried onion soup was just gross! Some of our party couldn't use chop sticks so we requested forks- those forks never came even after asking twice!! After we were given the soup and salad, we just sat and waited and waited! The waitress keeps refilling our drink cups and announcing our chef will be there shortly, but no one ever comes. Now it's 8:50 and we still don't have food or any clear time frames of when it's coming so I get up, and go to the front to ask for a manager. I finally speak to Nick and tell him our reservation was at 7 and it's now almost 9- it's getting super late, and we still don't have food! He says he'll send somebody over.. Now it's 9:20 and the chef finally comes out and starts! By the time he's finished, it's almost 10 and everyone's just ready to go home. What should of been a fun show, just sounds like a bunch of noise because everyone's now too tired, irritated, and full off the soda and water we drank while waiting to eat! Unfortunately, most of us just ask for to go boxes and pack our food to go. It's now 10:15 and they finally come and offer us dessert- most of us declined- they sing Happy Birthday to the Birthday parties at our table! We get our check and because some of us had the birthday coupon, we get this whole spill about them no longer being able to scan them due to some company fraud situation. The policy now is that you have to forward the email you received to them, wait for them to verify that the coupon is your name and then they will apply the discount! This charade took forever, so that was more time sitting and waiting because the waitress had to separate the bill and have each person forward the coupon blah blah blah- I'm done done by now!! This whole experience was a complete drag and after paying roughly $80 per person for a horrible dining experience, we'd missed our movie reservations, so we just ended up calling it a day! Two thumbs down to Benihana for delivering horrible service, ruining our party plans, and messing up our...

The reservation was booked for 845pm for a party of 9 people on a Saturday. On the phone they recommended to show up early for a possibility of being able to be seated earlier. We arrived at 830pm and were told that the wait time was at least 45 minutes because they were running behind. We waited calmly and patiently. We were sat at 1045 pm. Our drinks were brought to the table by 1115pm and the onion soup by 1125pm. The onion soup that I love had no mushrooms and I told my waiter and he said he was going to talk to the head chef. He came back at 1135pm and said the chef told him that they ran out of mushrooms and he also brought our salads. The chef rolled in with the food cart at 1145pm and I noticed a tray full of sliced mushrooms. I told my server that I thought the chef had ran out. He apologized and said they must have just sliced some more. We were all hungry because our last meal was at 1pm and now we were going to go to bed with a full belly. Boy was I wrong. I made a request to the chef to skip the show since the table next to us had just finished theirs and we saw the whole show life and got a little more hungry. He said no problem that is was easier for him. The rice was cooked poorly and was really sticky. As soon as he put it on the grill I new we had a problem. The rice burned on the grill and the chicken wasn't cooking properly. The chef was really struggling to get the grill to heat up evenly but couldn't do it. He started serving the fried rice and it looked really nasty. I then told my wife not to eat it if she didn't like it because I wasn't going to eat mine. My other guest were hungry so they eat some of it with a weird face and at this point I told the chef to request moving us to another table before he started cooking our main courses. He brought the manager and by this time it was 12am and we had enough. We made the decision to leave and go eat tacos. I've never experienced anything like this at other Benihana's but the one in Downey just seems so different than all the others. I will complain to the corporate office about my experience since it was a very important birthday for my mother in law and this is just unacceptable. I recommend that Benihana let's their guest know at the time of the reservation the possibility of being sat 2 hours late if tables take longer than usual to finish their meal so I know we might not be seated at our reserved time. By doing this you are transparent and informing the guest the possibility of having to wait for 2 hours or more with a...