Benihana — Restaurant in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

First off, my stomach isn’t hurt, but my heart is broken. As a kid I always had an amazing experience at Benihanas with my parents and long deceased sister. What I got on my visit on February 1st was anything but acceptable.

From the beginning of the experience, the hostess team set the pace for what was to come. They refused to seat us because the 2 people out of our 7 top have not arrived yet. Understandable that they would want a full party there before sitting. While we were told to wait at the bar, there was no one available for us to place an order for drinks or water. Also, when we requested kid menus for the children, we were given attitude that my 11-year-old and 9-year-old could not order off the kids menu because it was for 6 and under, but the kids menu has it printed on it that it is for 12 and under. When the rest of our party arrived, we had to wait even longer because they had to find our server. While we waited we did notice that the entire host team took the opportunity to check whatever updates they had on their phone for their social media sources, rather than checking the plot to make sure we had a server. Regardless, we finally got to a corner table with a view of the water, so we thought things would get better from there.

Our server, Vanessa had to be new to the service industry. She did a great job of greeting the table by letting us know her name, but right after that she asked what would we like to drink. She assumed we had knowledge of how things were ordered, and never toured the menu for us. After some coaching from myself, she finally spieled the menu so we can have a basic knowledge of what to order.

The Chef took forever to mise en place his station, and lack-lusterly greeted the table. There was no showmanship at all towards my guest or myself. The Hibachi Chef looked as if he was more embarrassed of his peer’s performance than we were, and he showed the same energy that all the other staff we encountered showed.

In the beginning of the meal we did mention to the server that we had a birthday at the table. By the end of the meal the server asked begrudgingly if we wanted them to sing happy birthday. We declined due to the joke of a service that we already experienced.

After receiving a $268 bill for the service, I still did tip the server $30. The only reason I tipped her what I did was not because of the amazing service we never received, but because she was failed by the management team that was present in the restaurant. She should have never been left alone to attend the table without a server lead, or manager present.

The failure to execute falls down from the management side first and foremost. They are the ones who control the flow of the restaurant, and their lack of passion has infected your team like the plague.

Altogether, $300 for the bill and 2 days later I am still irate and embarrassed in regards to what this Benihana location labels as acceptable.

Thankfully, the silver lining to this whole situation was that as a Chef of my own restaurant, I can see what happens when you stop caring for the mission of the restaurant and lose sight of the bigger picture. Simply an embarrassing state to be in. The team in charge of this location need to take some actual constructive time to guide their team members on how to provide at minimum...

Hold onto your hats, folks, because this dining debacle is a rollercoaster of absurdity you won’t believe! We locked in a reservation at this joint, only to twiddle our thumbs for a comically long stretch—turns out, that torturous wait was the five-star moment of the night, because it all nosedived into chaos from there!

We’d put "NO SHRIMP" on our reservation, called ahead to confirm they knew how to handle shellfish allergies, since one of our crew has an allergy that’s no laughing matter.

We’re talking “called ahead and ask” levels of diligence, we told them when we got there, and we waved that warning flag at the table too, and still, the chef swaggered out and flung shrimp onto the grill like it was nothing. Naturally, when we lost it, he gave the grill a quick clean and cleaned the utensils.

pro tip: The proper move is to chuck the tainted grub and start fresh, not play “good enough” with someone’s life. Our allergic pal paid the price after we escaped this circus, their reaction hitting like a delayed sucker punch. Friend is okay but ruined our night getting the medicine we needed.

Must be company policy to not replace the items that were tanted on the grill, gotta save that $4 in chicken and rice they charged us $32.50 for.

Then there’s our toddler, innocently sipping from one of those sneaky opaque kid cups we thought held water. Psych—it was Sprite! We only caught the switcheroo after she’d chugged half, turning her into a sugar-charged gremlin. Stellar work, team.

The order was a clown show—missing items, wrong dishes, and a bill trying to gouge us for items multiple times, which we didn’t even see.

For the kinda cash it takes to eat at a place like this, we expected at least McDonald's level service, not this hot mess.

We had to beg for a manager—multiple times, mind you, while the server tried desperately to get us to pay and leave instead of exposing this to her boss—They finally comped the single plate of our suffering allergic buddy. Big whoop.

Oh, but they did toss us a bone: free ice cream! Gee, thanks—nothing says “sorry we almost killed your friend” like a scoop of vanilla.

I wouldn’t crawl back here if they paid me to eat there. And for the first time ever, I left the tip line blank. Nada. Zip. Zero. I've always tipped and rarely complain. Check my review history to prove it. This place has earned my trophy for the worst restaurant experience of my entire life. And I'm a fatty, I eat out a lot. I think I'd rather go to the gym than eat here again.

To top it all off, the food was burned because the chef left it cooking while he went to go clean himself up. I did eat all of it... because once again... I'm of large proportions.

My advice? Stay away from this place if you have an allergy. If they screwed it up with how many times we told them, there is nothing you could do to prevent it either. Don't listen when you call, and they say they can handle it.

They can't.

Zero stars and...

Before I give this admittedly sad review, I have to say that Benehana is my favorite restaurant. I also have to say that I rarely give a 1 star review. I really hope that I came on a disaster day, which is why I had such a bad experience.

We made reservations online, and arrived about 20 minutes before we were supposed to so we could get some sushi. We checked in, and let the hostess know that we would be in the bar. We ordered drinks and a couple of sushi rolls. The drinks were just fine, but the sushi was terrible. The rice was dry, and the flavor was bad. Maybe I'm just used to better sushi being from Seattle, but I would expect Florida to know how to make seafood as well.

We checked back in with the hostess, and then I did something I normally wouldn't do. I asked to talk to the manager. I let him know that we had problems with the sushi. He went to the bar, and when he came back he said he had thrown out the rice, and they were using a new batch. He offered us a free sushi roll, but we refused, not wanting to sound like we were complaining just to get a freebee.

We waited for another ten minutes to be seated, seeing two tables, and only one chef. Someone from the table that did not have a chef came up to talk to the hostess saying that they had been waiting an hour to be served. At this point, we decided that this was probably not a good choice. I didn't want to be even more frustrated with my favorite restaurant. We decided to find another place to eat. Later I found that they had put a negative mark on my reservation, saying that I had never showed up--even though we checked in twice. It is true that we didn't wind up eating dinner there, but we did wait for a table.

I do want to say that the manager did try to make things good with us by offering us a free roll. I suspect they were probably understaffed that day, most likely because one or two chefs didn't come in. At least that is what I am telling myself. If I ever get back to Florida, maybe I'll try again to see if I can raise this to the 5 stars I normally give Benehana.

Corporate, if you are reading this, I hope you can help this branch get up to the quality that I expect and love from you. I have been in several different Benehana restaurants, and have always had good experiences. We were even the absolute first customer in the Las Vegas Strip Benehana, getting our picture taken with the full staff and several corporate members who were there for the grand opening. I hate writing a bad review for one of your restaurants, especially when this is one of the only 1 star reviews I have given. As a side note, please open a Benehana in Seattle...