Benihana — Restaurant in Lombard

The reviews of overpriced food and bad service is 100% true. We went to Benihana in Lombard for my moms birthday. They charge $30 for drinks that taste like juice! Their “Long Island” was weak and tasted like juice. We asked if they can remake it and the bartender refused to remake the drinks. I’ve had stronger Long Islands at Longhorn Steakhouse smh. We brought a cake for my moms birthday so we arrived 15min early and asked them to bring it out at the end of the dinner as a surprise. However, one of the waiters thought it was funny to tell the rest of our party INCLUDING my mom that “the cake is coming” therefore spoiling my moms birthday cake Surprise!! IN ADDITION, They charge gratuity that is not reflected or printed on the receipt so they have the AUDACITY to write it in pen a suggested gratuity and adds it to the bill calling It a “service fee”. But the service was not worth it. All of the waiters and bartenders were rude they were passive aggressively rushing us to leave. For example they were putting on their coats and jackets and sitting at tables across the room watching us eat our food. It was so awkward and uncomfortable. Keep in mind, The establishment doesn’t close until 10pm our reservation was 7:45. We ordered drinks but waited 10-15 min for our drinks to be served. We were all half way done with our drinks before our cook came to serve us. A lot of our time was spent waiting even though there was only 2 other families in the entire restaurant. We were a party of 10 the cook and waiter decided to write themselves a $200 dollar tip for a $500 bill. Not sure what percentage that was or what service the “service fee” was for because it surely could not have been for good service. It couldn’t have been for the tricks either because the cook Adan dropped both eggs on the floor. It could not have been for the yum yum sauce either because it was the nastiest yum yum sauce I have EVER tasted! It tasted like soy sauce and mustard. Super salty, none of our party ate it. Even when my 11 year old sister saw the sauce she said it appeared “dark and liquidy” and refused to eat it. Even after the cook finished cooking and serving us all, my dad gave Adan a cash tip in his hand as he was walking away and when the bill came they STILL decided to include gratuity onto our bill. My family was appalled at the treatment and felt scammed. They ruined my moms birthday surprise. I cannot believe We drove an Hour to be treated so horribly. After voicing the concern to a family they said “Fuji is better”. So maybe we’ll try Fuji instead next time we are in the mood...

The last time I went to Benihana it was for my daughter’s 2nd bday…and she’s 16 now! Lol Decided to stop in last minute for dinner with my best friend and our kids. Our chef, I think his name was Rodrigo?, was very friendly and did a great job!! Food had great flavor and good portions.

The issue that we did have was with our waitress/server who took our order. I think her name was Tina. The first thing that rubbed me the wrong way was when my friend was ordering salmon and white rice for her young son Tina said “are you sure you want that? That’s going to be veeerrry expensive!”…did my friend look broke or something? Lol. That was unnecessary and my friend usually orders that for her son and has never had a problem. When we ordered our dishes, my friend ordered white rice with her meal, which reminded me to tell her I wanted white rice for my order too. When Rodrigo served the chicken fried rice for the table, he said he had “extra” rice so he gave it to me and put it in front of my plate. When Tina came back around to pass out the white rice she was almost arguing with my friend that she ordered chicken fried rice and it was not extra! She politely told her no she had asked for white rice and Tina walked away with an attitude mumbling something under her breath.

Where it was time to pay, the party next to us finished their dishes way before us and Tina was bringing out to go boxes and taking payments for the dinner. Me and my party were still clearly eating and yet she asked us twice if we wanted to go boxes. She put the check down in front of us and just walked away. I felt so rushed! She must have seen the look on my face because she walked by and was like “take your time, take your time”. There were plenty of empty tables around too.

We quickly finished up and left but I don’t think we’ll be returning, at least not to this location. I felt super rushed and it ruined the experience if I’m being honest. 3 stars because Rodrigo was great! We also still left a good tip because I didn’t want the cook to suffer when he did...

2025-04-21 Update.

Benihana has stepped up their game since I last visited. Mandy did a great job as our server and the chef entertained our table. Updating my rating to 5 stars. Benihana is back! And we will be back also!

Past reviews below.

First of all, we love Benihana. They make my sons favorite chicken teriyaki. The staff is great and we always enjoy our food. And, it was the first restaurant we visited when indoor dining was allowed.

However... Despite all that, tonight's experience was tainted because of how long it took for our meal to get started and end. Despite coming at our scheduled reservation time, we waited almost an hour before we could even start our meal. Our host said something about being a chef short. But it does not ease the frustration of taking more than 2 hours to complete our meal after arriving on time for the reservation.

Mind you, everyone was still very nice. Our chef was attentive and engaged. But there's something wrong with the logistics and you simply can't have people sitting around looking at empty plates for an hour before they can start eating. It was almost enough for us to pre-decide to not come back again until after COVID restrictions ease further.

Update 2022-03-09: It's frustrating that the wait time seems to get longer and longer. We had a 6:00 reservation, and then we had to wait another 10 minutes to get seated. And then after being seated, we waited almost another hour before our table chef started making our food. It's one thing to say that you are short staffed. But don't seat tables that can't be served. Our chef was great and the food was excellent. I should also say that our server was pretty good. But the experience is grating to have to wait so long to get our food. My rating goes down from 4 stars to 3 stars.

Please stop seating tables that cannot be served in a...