Benihana — Restaurant in San Francisco

I have never been so insulted in my life. The manager Sean was so disrespectful and should never be put in a management position. Mind you, this was on a Monday night, not peak hours on a Friday or Saturday night. We waited for over an hour to be seated. When we went to ask how much longer it would be, they had no answer for us. Should we get a drink? Uhhhh sure? No manager came over to apologize for the wait or give us any kind of explanation. Instead the dumbfounded hosts in the front just told us that there was a delay and they could not explain why. (You should probably train your front of house staff on common courtesy and managing customers' expectations) Finally we get seated next to another party of 4 who has been waiting over an hour as well. They offer a sushi roll as an apology. Another twenty minutes go by, and a table of 2 get seated next to us (they had just asked if there was a table available while at the bar and then were seated right away). I ask for the manager, and they say that he is busy and will he right with us. 5 minutes later their chef rolls up to the party of 2 and now both parties at our table are PISSED! I went to the manager to complain, clearly I was upset and was given attitude as soon as he came out to speak to me. Instead of speaking to me in a calm manner, he takes a defensive and starts yelling back at me with attitude. The other party of four is so upset with how everything was handled that they left and walked out. My sister comes over to try to talk to the manager and now he starts yelling at us both. Clearly he is not willing to help us and now my birthday is ruined so I decide to just drop it and walk away. As I am walking away, I can hear him yelling at me as I walk away. We decide to sit and try to enjoy whatever we can of our evening. Our server LY was amazing, and very attentive. We felt bad for her as she did nothing wrong and we told her how gracious she has been through everything. Our chef Antonio was great and tried his best to cheer everyone up. The food was delicious which is why we come here in the first place. As we are starting to actually have our spirits lifted, the manager comes over. My sister politely tells him that he is an hour too late to check on our table, has already ruined our evening and has kindly asked him to walk away and leave us alone. He gives us attitude and says "YOU CAN'T SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!!!!" I'm sorry, but isn't it management 101 that the customer is always right??? Our appetite is now ruined and we just want to leave. The manager now comes back with an army of employees to back him up as if he thinks of us as a threat. Tells us that he has us on camera, has called upper management, has been told to apologize, comp our meal and ask us to never come back. IM SORRY... WHAT!?!?!?! You provide HORRIBLE customer service as a manager, you yell at 2 women (one birthday girl) with attitude, disrespect us infront of a restaurant full of people, but yet WE ARE ASKED TO NEVER COME BACK???? How does that make any sense??? That man should never be in a management position if he cannot calm his anger management. It's called grace under fire. Learn how to speak to people and how to...

We came to Benihana for a special Father’s Day dinner, and it was disappointing from the moment we sat down.

Our reservation was for 5:15pm, but the chef didn’t show up to cook for us until 6:45pm. That’s an hour and a half of just sitting there, watching other tables who arrived after us get served and nearly finish their meals. We asked the managers several times about the delay and kept getting vague answers with no accountability.

I ordered an espresso martini right when we arrived. After checking in multiple times, it finally came out 30 minutes later and looked and tasted nothing like an espresso martini. I brought it up to the bar myself because I was so frustrated. The bartender admitted they didn’t have coffee liqueur. I told them someone could have let me know that earlier instead of bringing out a half-made drink with the wrong ingredients 30 minutes later. I wouldn’t have wasted all that time waiting for something you couldn’t even make correctly. They offered to make me a margarita instead, which came out another ten minutes later.

To make things worse, the entire staff seemed like it was their first day on the job. At one point, someone at our table asked for a refill on iced tea, and the server literally brought the empty glass back and said he couldn’t refill it for her because they don’t serve iced tea. She had just ordered and drank her iced tea, so clearly they do?

By the time we were finally eating and trying to enjoy the meal, the manager Salman came over to “apologize,” but it was just more excuses. He said our order was put in thirty minutes after the table who arrived after us, which, if true, is clearly the fault of the server. But even then, it sounded like a silly excuse and another example of a total lack of accountability. To top it off, Salman asked us to write a positive review for Benihana, which all 9 of us audibly laughed at after the negative experience we had. Instead of offering us any discounts, comps, or anything at all to apologize for the awful service, he somehow felt it appropriate to ask us to write a review based on our experience.

So here it is, Salman: the honest review you asked for. The food was subpar, it was so loud we could barely hear each other, the service was a mess, and the whole experience felt chaotic and unprofessional. We will not...

I haven't been to Benihana for years and thought I would try the restaurant because I wanted to see how the Peace Plaza renovations were coming along and to help a local business.

As soon as I walked through the door, I was greeted by two persons with a smile. They advised me that it will be about a fifteen minute wait so I went to the bar. It happened to be "happy hour" so I ordered pan fried gyoza dumplings, shrimp tempura, vegetable spring rolls and a White Peach sake. The food came piping hot, just the way I like my food. Ingredients taste fresh and food presentation was good decorated with a real orchid flower. That sake drink was perfect - delicious and appealing. I should have ordered another sake for dinner because at dinner, that same drink was doubled ($18).

I was seated at a table with a couple being engaged that night and a family of three celebrating the mom's birthday. My grill/table companions were nice and friendly. The person who took our orders had a super nice personality; she made you feel welcomed; she listened intently when taking our individual orders and kept checking in to see if we needed anything (eye to eye contact which made you feel special). Our chef was charming and personable. He did his usual tricks when preparing our food. He checked in with us individually to double check on how our preferences were and likes/dislikes.

The menu was hard to understand. It was so confusing that I simply ordered one of the fixed price dinners. I could not understand why rice did not come with most fixed price dinners. Anyways, I ordered one bowl of chicken fried rice - portion was small and overly priced. I never paid that much for even a small bow of rice.

Overall, the food was so so - they all tasted the same since they use the same seasonings (garlic butter) when cooking on all dishes (except for the green salad). The cheesecake was not worth ordering or eating. It was not restaurant made, was semi-frozen and horrible that I only ate one bite. It was super expensive for that small slice of cheesecake.

I am giving it a four star because you are paying for the ambiance, a show from the chef and probably the same price if you ate elsewhere. It's a good place to eat with entertainment with good, efficient,...