Benihana - Minneapolis (Golden Valley) — Restaurant in Golden Valley

Had to revise my previous 5 Star review and turn it to a 1 Star (0 Stars, truly). Sadly, I had the worst experience at this location. Stopped in with my family for Happy Hour. I asked to sit up top (where we have been seated in the past) and was told by a manager by the name of Mary that they do not seat parties of 4 or more in that area. I was shocked because, again, I've been seated there as recently as a couple of weeks ago with no issue. I asked her if this was a new policy and she replied that it has been the policy for over a year. She said that my children and I only have the option of sitting at a table directly in front of the sushi bar (which is a high traffic area and not ideal for anyone with small children). Upon being seated, the police officer who sits at the front came over to my table and without saying one word HE GRABS ONE OF MY MENUS (which was for my Husband) FROM MY TABLE AND RETURNS IT TO THE HOSTESS STAND. I did not understand why he came over to my table to begin with- but then take a menu (which was for my husband who was on his way to join us)??? A hostess who I usually see when I dine at this location walked past and I asked her why I wasn't allowed to be seated up top- she replied that it was due to being short staffed. Soon after speaking to the hostess, I see the General Manager (a brunette woman -by the name of Kim*) and call her over. She acknowledges me with a head nod yet deliberately goes to the hostess stand where no one is waiting and brushes me off for a good 5-7 minutes. She was about to walk away and I had to make eye contact with her to get her to approach my table. I asked her why I was not able to sit in the upper seating area and she responded that the restaurant doesn't seat anyone up there during dinner hours. It is only 4:45pm at the time (Happy Hour). I literally received three different excuses of why I was forced to sit where I was. I mentioned to Kim the reasons the other two employees used to justify my seating arrangement and she said yes to those reasons as well. Now, I don't know why I was being treated like this but this was not consistent with my past experiences and I felt like Kim and the other manager were making up reasons to not allow my family to sit where we preferred. The whole "we don't sit parties of 4 or more up top" was BS. The last time I dined up top near the bar- there was a party of 10 or more people next to my family and I who were dining up there. I shared this with Kim and she said "yes, we allow waiting parties to eat appetizers up there." We were ordering appetizers as well but were denied seating?! I'm not quick to bring up race but this felt like blatant DISCRIMINATION and I will not come back to this location. I also had a huge piece of egg shell in my rice- see attached picture. Gross. We spend good money here only to be treated as if we're inferior and invaluable. My family and I were looking forward to an enjoyable Happy Hour dining experience and instead were turned off and got up and left without dining. The leadership and overall quality of service at this location is horrible to say the least. I've also contacted them via their customer feedback link and have had no response. I'm appalled and disgusted by what happened and how we...

So we actually went to Benihana for my birthday. We had a reservation for 6:30, and showed up at about 6:10 wanting to make sure we were on time. We went up to the bar to wait, and ordered one of their large fishbowl style drinks, which ended up being $65 with the mandatory 20% gratuity, which we ended up paying both for the drink and then later again for dinner instead of as one bill.

We were seated around 6:45, as it was a busy night which is fair, but then we were served our soups and salads…and then the chef did not come. At one point the server came and said it would be about another five minutes, but then it was another 30 minutes until the chef actually came, which happened after we had spoken to the male general manager (who’s name I am afraid I didn’t catch).

The chef was fantastic, but he was clearly set up to fail. We didn’t have any sauce dishes, which a member of our party had to go ask for, and he wasn’t given enough of the basic ingredients, even just simple ones like rice. The food though, I will say was delicious.

During the meal the server only came over to our party of four once to offer more water, and left so quickly I didn’t have a chance to order a cocktail I had wanted, and she almost missed giving one member of our party more water who had two empty glasses in front of them.

When it came time for dessert, my partner declined ice cream, as did the two others in our party, but I was putting my leftovers away, and didn’t answer - the server left before I had a chance to. So, for my birthday treat they brought out a sauce cup of whipped cream with two sticks of Pocky and a candle. I did eat one of the sticks of Pocky before taking a photo.

When we received the bill we had been advised there would be a discount on the bill, and it ended up being 10% of a nearly $300 bill. Given the issues we had we wanted to speak with a manager, but the manager on duty, Chelsea, seemed to be actively avoiding us. Eventually she did come over after we requested it of our server, but she seemed extremely dismissive and irritated to be speaking with us.

Chelsea then sent the server back and made her apologize to us, but did not come back herself. The server was very apologetic and nice, but she shouldn’t have had to do that. The newly amended bill was now 20% off, even with the manager now aware of the issues we had. When we requested to speak with Chelsea again, she was even more irritated.

She asked my partner what we wanted her to do, and ended up taking off another 5% for a total of 25% off, which ended up really being just the mandatory gratuity and tax we had to pay. At that point we clearly weren’t going to get any kind of satisfactory resolution - which honestly could have been reached if the manager just seemed to hear and care about the complaints, but she just seemed to be annoyed with us - so we paid and left.

Honestly it was a really disappointing experience, especially considering it was something I had been looking forward to and was excited for. The food was delicious, but the server was overwhelmed, and the manager was dismissive, and truly didn’t seem to understand why...

I am so saddened to have to say this but the last few times I've come to this location, have been extremely subpar. And I'm not the only one who has had this happen to them. First off, if you have any allergies, know that there's extreme exposure to cross contamination!! While trying to order, we had to Repeat it several times to the point where my husband had to physically call her over and show her on the menu exactly what we wanted. My husband and I ordered the hibachi rice. Mine had to be gluten-free and we wanted to add shrimp for $2, and we ordered a lemonade and water to drink. So the chef started making the food and he did not understand that my items needed to be gluten-free even though I explained it To the lady who took our order, as well as to the chef. The lady who took our order even explained it to the chef and yet he pure ignored it. He continued to chop gluten Ingredients everywhere including on my plate then he tried to separate an egg that he cooked in gluten to put in my gluten-free rice. He didn't even try to change the utensils!! I had to remind him about 6 times! Eventually he said he was gonna have the manager make my food in the kitchen. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my rice and shrimp to be finished. First they brought me a few shrimp and then they still tried to give me rice with gluten in it! Then they did it a second time also. (There was a young couple that set next to us who also ordered the same gluten-free rice but they came in and ordered 20 minutes after I did and she got her rice first.) Everyone was finished eating by the time I finally got my food. Then we get the check... and the lady literally tried to charge us extra $40 on top of our check , which should only have been around $25 or 26 dollars. She comes in with a check for almost $70 and then tried to say that we ordered more food then we did. They did this to our Whole Table!! Now mind you, we had several people as it was a birthday celebration. Once we complained she tried to take off $20 off of our bill, after having to stoop to arguing, my husband refused to pay. The chef supposedly admitted he gave my husband some mushrooms and vegetables that he wasn't supposed have, but that doesn't explain a $40 upcharge! Yet they still tried to charge us for their mistake even though I pointed to exactly what we wanted. After holding our credit card for over 20 minutes, and all the unnecessary drama...and embarrassment they finally fixed our bill! And we left! We assuredly will never go back again! Especially after the experience we had!!! Here's another one for ya..... The next week my Elderly auntie come from out of town goes to this restaurant, not even knowing what happened to us, and they overcharged her on the bill for about $200!!!!!! and they made her pay the bill she was too scare to make a complaint until after she left the restaurant! *so be careful of the fast talking waitresses and the extra items just randomly put onto your plate... and be ready to debate with management... and you better be good at math,!!!!...