Benihana — Restaurant in Ontario

I have been dine at this location for many years and have to say: today is the worst experience ever. It's labor day today so to avoid the crowd I made reservation a week ago, at 16:30. We got seated 10 mins after checked in. The server took our order, the whole table waited about 50 mins right by the grill table, I think they really didn't get ready for labor day long weekend, apparantly they are short of chefs. So they kept clients waited and waited, grill is on and it's super hot right next to it. I was sweating crazy non stop. The meal come with soup and salad, finally I asked another waitress if she can at least serve soup and salad first while everyone is waiting. Well she brought soup and salad and the chef finally came. and we also ordered appetizer. they are way after our entree meal. The spicy tuna roll, we ask another waitress ( we don't see our waitress for long time) if she can bring us small dish and soy sauce for the roll, she said yes and never come back. So end up we just ate the roll without soy sauce and wasabi. no one ever refill our green tea. the other clients at our table didn't get refill of water and drinks. while the chef cook chicken fried rice, end up he found there are no bowl for him, he tried catch waitress several times and no one stopped for him, he had to stop cooking and ran away to the service station to get rice bowls by himeslef, it looks funny seriously. the rice are little over cooked because of this. No one take pic for us, It is my bday today, We always got pic every year when we celebrate bday here. The table next to us, I noticed their server is an asian gentleman, last time when we were there he was my server. I saw him celebrate his clients bday, took pictures for them, constantly check their drink, gave kids the kids chop sticks, he is amazing, I point it out because while our table has been totally ignored, We were waiting and waiting then we started notice other table. I asked for his name, and his name is Ferry. but unfortunately he is not our server today. I saw some bus boy and girl holding their both arms in front of their chest and do nothing, I have to say, the whole management there is a mess. at the very end, we need to pay for our bill, our waitress brought us the paper which is Customer Copy which belongs to us. but she drew the line on the receipt for us to sign there, but are we supposed to sign on merchant one??? that merchant copy is not in the folder. weird??? and we spoke to the female manager, she was inside of the kitchen while the whole dining area was a big mess. she said sorry to us and repeated: if you can tell me before everything is finished maybe I can do something to get better. oh please, we are not looking for any incentive or credit, just want to let her know how bad is the whole experience. We loved Benihana for years. Many great memories. but today we stepped out and won't go...

Less of a cultural and authentic setting. No more hot towels. Smaller grills and tables. No more birthday ceramic Buddha, geisha or ninja. No more provided birthday photos. No more slicing up shrimp. No more 5 star chef performances. Dirty lights. Dirty ceilings. Bird poop covers outside waiting area. Bad hostesses. Expensive 5-6 course meals. Guests don't all get the same quality soup or salad. Some will have many mushrooms, while you get just one. Food tasted good. Lobster was okay at best. Chef was nice to talk with but didn't seem very happy. No one seemed happy. One female chef with... questionable... tattoos. Still sort of fun for someone who's never been to a hibachi restaurant in general. Likely a higher standard at other places.

You DON'T get what you pay for. Support a local competing hibachi or mom and pop instead.

Went for my birthday. Made a reservation a day in advance. They sent a message that the table was ready 20 minutes before the reservation. We got there with 3 minutes to spare and they gave our table away. Treated us like trash too. Very lax at the hostess desk with 3-4 hostesses.

They served the onion soup and I got 1 thin mushroom slice while everyone else had many mushrooms. I provided pics of the soup as it was served and compared with my friends.

The chef was okay, didn't seem happy to be working.

The server was okay at best, got odd vibes from the whole staff though. Like they didn't want anyone to be there and the "better not complain" aura.

The ceilings, lights and grills were not so well kept. Grill surface was clean, but table was kind of dirty with grease. The birthday celebration was like "here we go again" and was obnoxious when it used to feel friendly and cultural. No pictures anymore either. The server can take a photo with your phone, but ours turned out bad.

Bird poop covered the railing outside, right where the benches are for guests, uncleaned for some time.

Benihana used to be an excellent birthday experience and place to have celebratory or entertaining and somewhat elegant meals. Ever since Rocky left the company, it has just gone downhill more and more.

It was nice being with family and friends and I told them all it was fun but honestly, I won't be celebrating here anymore. 35 years of birthdays Benihana. A good...

I met with Brenda the manager last night and discussed with she a number of concerns my group of 8 had with the lack of service provided to our 9pm reservation. Food ordered not being brought, it was forgotten about, our chef Wayne specifically stated and showed signs of how disappointed it was for him to be on a team who lacked the ability provided a good customer service. Our waitress was assigned to four tables. Other chefs procured a birthday song to there table, our chef was so tired even from the start that he didn’t even give a greta presentation of tricks, so while we were served by a tired and unhappy chef who was at least honest about it, we watched Roger tables with Greta chefs and waitresses to the left and right of us. Our waitress stated she told Brenda the managers that it did not make sense for her to be caring for four different parties in different areas of the room at once, when I brought this up to Brenda she stated it was not true, but our table watched our waitress go Accross the room doing so. It was the worse way to celebrate two birthdays at a restaurant that has a long history of being a great place to celebrate, but for our table of 8 we we’re already to tired to go anywhere else. I even saw Brenda come out the kitchen confused about where she was to deliver food, showing a lack of coordination and relationship with her team on the floor. Our waitress lack the ability to multi task and ensure everything was done in order under stress. She brought out ice cream while we still had dirty plates on our tables, so we’re like eating ice cream over dirty plates because she didn’t know how to communicate with other members of her team timely about clearing our table. Then our waitress forgot to offer us our green teas to conclude our meal. So we brought it up to her and waited several minutes for it to come out. I had been to this restaurant in over a decade, it had been missed ; but this experience gave me a reason to be disappointed for awhile whenever I see the Benihana business sign and talk to friends and family about how we spent time celebrating birthdays. Brenda the manager also never came over to show a sign of thank you for your understanding and patience as they navigate challenges. That’s a lack of leadership in dealing...