Benihana — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Benihana was our favorite restaurant for years, but after the death of owner Rocky Aoki, COVID and a corporate takeover, Benihana has declined. We've only been back twice since COVID, and Friday night was the worst. A year ago, our cook barely spoke English and ruined everything. We thought it was a one-time issue, despite other problems like filthy bathrooms and sticky tables. But last Friday was another timid cook, bad dinner, unsanitary bathrooms, and pricey night. For reference, the bill for 5 of us was over $400 before the tip. Our cook, Olivia, should not be near a Japanese cooktop again. Ingredients were great as usual, but wrecked by the cooking. None of the 7 people at our table could eat anything she made. Everything was soaked in oil, and she meticulously coated all the vegetables in black pepper. The tenderloin was inedible, overcooked for me and raw for my wife. The shrimp tough and oily. Olivia seemed terrified of her own knife. The vegetables are supposed to be cut to the same sizes, but zucchini was sliced to almost 1 1/2" wide - not bite-sized. The steaks cut too big to eat and couldn't be cut apart armed with a fork and a pair of chopsticks. When we asked for a steak knife, the waitress sheepishly said they only had plastic ones. Are you kidding? The towel Olivia pulled out to ‘clean’ the cooktop at the end was already so black and oily from previous use that it looked like it had been used to mop up a diesel truck oil change. If cleanliness was the goal, it was the opposite. She acted like a dishwasher who got shoved onto the floor when a couple chefs pulled a no-show. Turns out from other reviews she’s been ruining other diners experiences here for at least 3 months. I’m not some jerk who thinks only Asian men can cook Asian food. We wouldn't have cared if she’d been a one-eyed Episcopalian kangaroo from Greenland if she had been able to do her job. Our waitress was a gem, sweet and efficient. So was our bartender. They won't last. The fried rice now tastes of vinegar and maybe liquid smoke? To try and save it, I added more soy sauce which made it worse. I'm convinced it’s NOT Kikkomon brand as the bottle says but it must be generic crap. Rocky would have cut off his own hand than mess with the ingredients he perfected. Salad dressing, soup and sauces all tasted fine but soy sauce makes up a huge portion of the ingredient list that this change is disastrous to the entrees. The little girl at our table begged her mother to bring her. She loved the show the chefs put on last time. Both picked at their food, her salmon dinner was untouched, and she just looked depressed by the time it was all over. If she came for the old "showmanship" of twirling knives, choo-choo onions, 'egg rolls,' and all the old schtick, she didn't get it. Olivia barely worked up the nerve to set fire to the onions - adding MORE oil when the fire went out! I’m sure the employees get weary of the same old gags, but that’s show biz, and Olivia just seemed too tired, scared, or unqualified to try. (I had much more but Google won't post it all) I tried calling the next day to speak with the manager but the phone won’t connect to the restaurant. Reservations are handled by robot.Asking to speak with a manager shifts you to a central switchboard, that will only connect to their national ‘resolution department.’ Complaints are so numerous they have a national office to give a canned apology and send a gift card for a future visit, instead of responding to specific issues at the store level. Conglomerates make lousy owners. And managers who don’t retain standards and hide from the public doom their restaurants.

NOTE: In response to this review I just received an anonymous, machine-generated comment from Benihana that no human there had anything to do with....

I'll start with saying the food was delicious. I've never had a Benihana (or hibachi meal) I haven't loved. Additionally, we did alert the manager of the situation prior to leaving and he seemed genuinely sorry and was going to issue a partial credit to our cards.

We made a reservation for 7:45 on a Saturday night. We arrived and checked-in at 7:45 and waited to be brought to our table. We were finally seated around 8:15 - no biggie. It was a Saturday night and you can't always control how quickly people leave after they finish they're meal. After we were seated we were waiting awhile for our waiter/waitress to come over to our table. After waiting for far too long, one of the members of the family we were sitting with talked to another waitress and she said she was going to look for our waitress. Still no one. We continued to get this run around from other waitresses. Finally one of them took our drink orders while we waited for our actual waitress.

Around 9PM our waitress came to our table very frazzled and asked what we wanted to drink, but we already placed our drink order (which was being delivered by someone else at that time). The only drinks that arrived were the non-alcoholic drinks and our tablemates were told their drinks would come from the bar soon. We placed our food order which was fine (and yes, I know most people probably would have left by now. But we were hungry, wanted hibachi, and weren't in a massive rush).

The drinks from the bar never came, so the gentlemen from our table went to the bar to get his own drinks - wild! We were all increasingly annoyed, especially since the table on the other side of us was seating quite a bit after us (about 40 minutes after us) and had their drinks before us and was placing their food order at the same time as us. Eventually our tablemates ordered another round of drinks which never came.

Our cook had ZERO pizazz. He literally just cooked our food in front of us. He did the onion train but there was no fun. No spinning of spatulas, no smiles, nothing. Again, just cooked in front us like he was in a kitchen with no one watching. It was definitely weird, but it didn't phase me or the people I was with because we were starving adults. At that point I wanted the food cooked as fast as humanly possible so I could shove it into my mouth. I was a bit bummed for our tablemates through because they had 2 young kids who would have loved the "show" that is expected when you go to hibachi.

Check-out process didn't come as quickly as I would have expected, especially since we were all sitting there annoyed and ready to go. Our tablemates checked out first and they were charged for 2 drinks (which they did order, they just never got the second round). The waitress modified the bill, they checked out and left very promptly (understandably so since we had been there for over 2 hours at that point). We had our bill split and the check-out felt uncomfortable. You check out on the portable POS which I like, but the waitress felt like she was hovering quite a bit - like she wanted to see what we were each tipping.

As I said, we did speak to the manger when we were leaving and told him about everything. He was very apologetic and seemed genuinely sorry. He offered to comp our next meal but we were passing through on a trip and would not be returning to that location. He said he would issue us a partial credit to each our cards (I have not logged on to see if there is a credit, but he said it would take 2 days to 2 weeks to appear). I mentioned the other family at our table who also deserved to receive a credit, so I hope he is able to find them in the system to do the...

DON’’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. I’ve been to at least 7 different Teppanyaki style restaurants in the area (Carmel and Westfield) others in other states and even one in Japan itself. Do yourself a favor and go to a different Teppanyaki style (Nori in Westfield, Hino Oishi in Carmel). Also, the other places have true Japanese chefs; not an American trying to put on a show (it sounds stupid and shouldn’t matter, but it really does).

This is a sad representation and flavor of what you should get. Not great, barely ok. (Note: this is from someone who loves hole in the wall places, many of which are run down. Those type of places have great food at fair prices that make up for the other missing niceties). While not as important, the first impression of the outside of the restaurant: was overgrown, full of weeds and not maintained (grounds or parking area); could barely see the sign over the front. Ended up being an indicator of inside too. This place is worn down inside and not maintained or clean, it is dirty. Gives the vibe of a place just barely clinging to get the last profit before being torn down or gutted at minimum.

This style of restaurant (Teppanyaki ) and pricing is expected to be nicer than your average sit down place. This one has the prices high but the look and feel of a gas station joint.

Now to the food. The food was okay at best in itself (lacking in many of the traditional seasonings and general flavors). Japanese cooking has layers of flavor traditionally. This place was pretty one layer. Their yum yum and ginger sauces were a super disappointment (these are typically stars of this style). Yum yum should have a slight sweet flavor, theirs looked right but tasted like straight mayo. Ginger sauce was horrible and very salty, tasted like they just tossed soy sauce on ground ginger. The fried rice was under seasoned (might as well have had white rice; again not a huge deal if their other sauces would have been good). Shrimp, steak, and chicken were all cooked good (lacking flavors though again). They lacked in the vegetables that they gave (only squash, mushroom, and onion).

It may have just been our “chef”, not sure if this was across the board; but there was a lot of waiting between each section of food. While this is common, they usually don’t drag it out into so many small things (food gets cold between). So first was the rice (typical), then instead of all the veggies being ready together (typically how it would be) they pieced each one at a different time (three veggies all at waiting intervals between, not how it should be). Then the meat which was also not cooked at the same time so you end up with chicken on your plate before they even start the steak (this isn’t how it is supposed to be done) meat should be all close to ready at the same time. One of the few highlights, the meat was cooked well just under seasoned (butter and a touch of pepper isn’t really seasoning). Ended up having to ask for teriyaki sauce to get a little flavor.

If you want this style restaurant, which I love and highly recommend, go to pretty much any other one and you will have a better experience and better food.

Benihana was what really made this style restaurant popular in the U.S., but based on this location, they are now bottom of the...