Benihana — Restaurant in Plymouth Township

This was my first time and last time here. We were on a work sponsored reward outing. Two of us brought our husbands with the knowledge we had to pay for his meal. Backstory aside, we had our reservation for 730pm. We all arrived and were seated not too long after the reservation time. So far, so good. Took almost 30 minutes just for our waitress to take our drink orders. I advised the two men with us would need their own checks. That is the one thing of the night that went as it should have: the check separation was correct. It took another 5-10minutes to get the drinks (just sodas; additional time for alcohol/milkshakes). Once drinks arrived we ordered the appetizers/meals. It took close to 20-30 minutes to get apps. The calamari was chewy which is normal if overcooked, but crispy breading usually helps counter this. The breading was soft AND the calamari itself took a while to sufficiently chew to be swallowable. The dumplings were decent. We had both pork and spicy chicken ones. Around 830ish, a chef came to the table and began dishing out sauce into bowls but then realized he was at the wrong table. Now there’s a stack of bowls on the chef side, half filled with sauce just sitting there. One of my coworkers ordered a second milkshake by randomly stopping the waitress walking past and never received it. Thankfully it wasn’t on the bill. Now fast forward to 915pm. We received our initial drink orders and appetizers but had not been followed up with by our waitress since. No refills, additional requests/orders, nothing. One of the girls was going to leave if the chef hadn’t arrived by 930. About 5 minutes later, the chef arrives. Dr Peters had ordered shrimp, yet he was confirming scallops with her. He continues down the line and others are wrong. We figured out it is because we have 7 people and there are 8 entrees. Carry on with cooking. I see something out of the corner of my eye moving across the smaller side table they used to stack extra stuff. It was a roach. My coworker beside me grabbed my arm and I realized she saw it too. It ran from under the topside of our table across the side table and around a plate, out of sight. My husband later confirmed that was the SECOND one as he saw one before that but kept quiet since no one else saw it. The chef was fun. However, the food was so lame. No teriyaki or hibachi sauces added like any other hibachi I’ve been to. Oil, salt and pepper, soy sauce, and an insane amount of garlic butter. There IS such a thing as too much garlic – it creates a weird flavor and the rice reeked of it. The same “seasoning” is used for the meat. The chicken tasted like the steak and vice versa. The steak was juicy, but just … blah. The shrimp tasted like the steak and chicken but with its natural briney flavor. Everything was the same. Nothing else was used to help bring out individual flavors of the meats. The waitress comes back as we are finishing our meal to ask if we need anything else. I was able to ask for my soda refill and she had the sense to put it in a to-go cup, so bonus point for that, I suppose. I had to go to the restroom and I found it to be as equally disgusting as the roaches. The floor was so sticky with nasty “schlek” sounds with every step. Back at the table, the waitress brings 5 to-go boxes and 4 carry-out bags for 7 people. She also brings our ice cream. I probably had a teaspoon or two worth of ice cream. There wasn’t even a single ice cream scoop worth. Others had more, the little bowl almost filled, but mine was maybe 2 normal size bites. Once the ticket was brought out, the extra meal the chef marked off his list when he was cooking was still on the ticket, so it had to be reprinted. Why would you ring up 6 entrees on a ticket for 5 people? We left around 1015-1020pm, almost 3 hours post reservation. The bad part was it wasn’t by choice of fellowship with friends but by the awful service. The dinner was good simply because we were all together and laughing but the experience of the restaurant will never be forgotten, and sometimes that isn’t...

Hi Benihana, We tried to visit the Plymouth Meeting PA location again, this time as a dine in customer with family celebrating a birthday. I have to say that I will not ever set foot in this location again until management is changed and the store takes a turn for the better. My experience starts at 6pm on April 15, 2023 with it being smokey so I assume the exhaust hoods are not working well. From there I found myself sticking to the carpeted floor anywhere I stood, in the waiting area and by our table. Furthermore, as we were waiting and I was soaking up the experience since my last experience was take-away I noticed that the TV in the waiting area was dripping with grease and this was the same at our table where we were eating. It did not get any better from there. After waiting for two hours one of the appetizers cooked in the back came out shortly followed by a chef that left our table because the griddle wasn't hot. We were told that he would be back and we waited for another 20 plus minutes before we had a chef (not the one that left) come out to cook. We had our child with us and were told when we were seated that their food would come from the kitchen. It was not until the chef was done cooking at the table that they brought her food out. Overall, this location has management issues. We were told that and it showed when they took their time to come to our table to listen to our concerns and complaints then we never saw them any more. All I know is that he was a bald headed man dressed in gray. When we asked again we were sent a lady dressed in red that told us her name was Ronda. She tried her best to help the situation by photocopying free apps cards and handing them out along with discounting the check. Apparently it was shared with me that the tips that are supposed to go to the wait staff are split between the front and kitchen crew as well. We all felt bad for our waitress Nyla who was also training a person while the restaurant was short staffed and was doing everything she could to help us. She should get some sort of acknowledgement for her efforts. We saw more of her than any manager. I have never been to a place where as you walk past tables you hear people complain about the service. I have been to places where if they are short staffed the Manager sets the expectation when you enter the door and is also helping out by getting drinks or taking orders and at least stopping by the tables to see if everything is going well. Lastly, there are pictures of my experience. Benihana, I know you reached out to me after my first post and I figured that after some time had passed from our last visit and dining in the  experience would be better but it wasn't. Since there are not a lot of locations near this one it might be years before I or anyone from my family will visit this location. I don't know if there is a way to fix this other than starting over with an overhaul of the store and new management. Thank you for your time! Review from August 2022: Rating at 1 star after sitting in the parking lot for 60+ minutes waiting for fried rice when I order online 30 minutes prior to arrival. Be prepared for a wait here! This isn't fast, quick or timely food. Disappointed so far and I haven't even tried the food. Not worth the wait! They lost the order and on top of that food looks so so. Your results and experience may...

So I wrote a letter to the President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Baldwin to share my experience at this location. It was the worst location I have ever been to. We thought it was odd that the parking lot during lunchtime was empty. Reading the comments about their wait times confirmed that was the first red flag we ignored. We were seated immediately, so we thought we were off to a good start but when we arrived at the table realized they sat us at a table with a dirty grill. Second red flag but we were famished so just chatted amongst ourselves. Then a new waitress approaches the table to get our drink orders. I asked for bottled water and was told they have a big bottle but after waiting a while she returned to say they do not have any. The third red flag this location only serves faucet water. So I was forced to purchase a drink from the bar. The salad and soup came out fast so we inhaled that while awaiting the chef to come and clean the grill and cook our food. The waitress was not visible at all. I had to get up and ask for the silverware that she removed when she took our empty soup/salad dishes. An hour goes by and during that time an unprofessional black lady comes to our table saying “the grill will be cleaned.” A fourth red flag is unprofessional staff. So finally received our drink orders and the chef comes out that has seriously neglected oral health. He was very nice so we sat there thinking it has to get better. Not a chance, the shrimp was not cleaned and the food was bland. The rice wasn't good it was missing something. The waitress had someone helping her when we order and they ordered the wrong steak. We were over it and just wanted to get on the road. So the chef cooked large-sized onions & squash together and say that they were on our plates first. Uncommon but we rolled with it to see what was going to happen next. Then the seafood and then the rice then he cooked the meat. So people with seafood at first then the meat eaters at last. No hibachi tricks just an overall poor experience. When we thought it couldn't get any worst another unprofessional black lady (the manager) approaches the table and announced “the card didn't go through.” Mortified by her lack of customer service skills my sister who is a nurse practitioner tells her to rerun the card. She handed my sister a white handheld credit card processing machine that my sister placed the same card it and was approved. My sister requested a receipt to ensure she wasn't charged twice. As professional black women, they expected us to behave poorly when being provoked by such poor service but we remained calm. Lesson learned always check reviews before going to Benihanas. I’ve received better service...