Benihana — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Addendum 9.16.22 Immediately, following the post below. the manager from Benihana's reached out to me. He said, please send me your email address I would like to offer something to use when you come back. I was surprised and did not expect that. He said he would followup on my concerns and hoped I would return. That day I sent him my info thanked him and told him I would be back to the restaurant and I would write an addendum if things were better. I'm sorry to say I have received numerous flyers, on specials but have still not hard back from the manager at all. I used to run a an italian restaurant in Chicago I know somethings can get away from you. However, the last thing that should get away from you is a customer complaint. Good luck here. Would like to know what others think?!

This was on May 19, 2022. Benihana restaurant has been a family tradition since I was 16 years old. I am now 62. I have had 46 years and many, many dinners in multiple states, with my siblings, parents, aunt’s, uncles, children etc. My husband and I have 8 children & 10 grandchildren. We regularly celebrate birthdays, graduations, anniversaries usually at one of the Benihana restaurants. I have given many 5⭐ reviews. I wish I could do so today but sadly I can not! For some very specific reasons. Our dinner was not cooked and served per usual, meaning Drinks, Soup, salad, appetizers, vegetables, main course. There were 5 of us in the party. I ordered a Pina colada, I was served a (virgin Pina colada) I ordered scallops, filet mignon (From dinner menu). The lunch started soup, salad, fried rice, (NOTE: the fried rice had so much pepper I could barley eat it.) my filet mignon, vegetables, (carrots & zucchini), waiting …. Then waiting while other noodle dishes were made. Then he started mushrooms…still waiting then appetizers (Shrimp), finally my scallops as an afterthought, which were not cooked with butter or lemon. Nor were they seasoned. He scraped them of the grill. Dark Brown and to say the least had NO flavor! Then he cooked the onions. He was done. Because I was the last served my guests had to wait while I was eating. My sister asked for ice cream, they asked if I wanted one I said l, we would share. When they brought the dessert they were singing, I was still trying to finish dinner. The waitress tried to take my plate I said, “I’m not done”, she said ok, and moved my plate. As I was thanking the other ladies who came to sing our waitresses grabbed my plate. I looked down and my plate was GONE! The rest of my lunch not on the table nor put into the EMPTY box next to me so I could take home the rest! So for the $40. Dinner I received heavily peppered fried rice, (inedible) ½ of my entrée right away the other ½ last with the appetizer, onion. Neither of which they let me finish, nor box it up! I have saved the best for last. After sitting for 2hrs I had to use the ladies room, which smelled, was not clean and amongst 4 stalls had a total 10 sheets of toilet paper on 1 roll. In this day and age that is ridiculous! I am sure I was not the first person to let the Hostess know by the irritated look I got. They were moderately busy during lunch and 1 and they table finishing as we left. I doubt very much the Hostess did anything about it. Since our reservation was made for right after they opened, this means the night person DID NOT restock the bathroom however, neither did the day manager before they opened. We drove 1 ½ hours each way for my birthday lunch. I am shocked at the condition of the ladies room. So will I do it again….? Not sure it’s worth gas nor the several hundreds of dollars we spent there! A HUGE...

I was just escorted out by the nightime manager on duty (12/9/23 at 7:40pm) for being BIG, BLACK and UPSET. Apparently those combinations threaten the manager to the point he grab his phone to dial 911 as he told me I can wait outside for corporate number and email address which I still do not have.

I am a well respected leader. However on this day I ordered my meal online as I normally do and proceeded to walk over to this location to be told when I got there that the algorithm online sent my order to RA Sushi. I asked the host to contact them and make sure that my order was there so she proceeded to get the manager. He comes over and tells me unfortunately there is nothing he can do I can just go five minutes down the road and get it. I proceed to tell him I have walked to this location and the next location is another mile and half opposite of my house. He goes and calls and confirms my order is there. I asked was it a way that they can transfer my order here as I have no way of getting that one. He said they can refund it and I can reorder and pay for it here. I asked what will I be receiving for the inconvenience he said he is not give me anything for nothing because it was not his fault . I said its not my fault it came here either. So I asked him for corporate number and email address so that I can complain about how this was an inconvenience. He says thats not going to solve the problem I said while I know that It will prevent this from happening again. He says the system is not going to change because its designed that way for door dash and those comparable companies. I begin to tell him again how this is was a serious inconvenience and I should get something (a desert, a drink, an appetizer or something) for the inconvenience of having to have to authorization holds on my card for something that was not my fault. He said I am not giving you anything free. I said I did not ask for something free I am saying this is a huge inconvenience and to have a hold on my account (since its the weekend) for days because of an algorithm for door dash, Uber eats etc is not fair to me. He says he has nothing to do with whats fair to me. I said sir as a manager one of your jobs is customer service and conflict resolution. I say just give me the contact information. He said I can refuse you service all together for talking to me like that. I said how am I talking he says yelling I then speak louder so that the person behind the counter can hear me and I have I been yelling or being irate. He gets his phone to start dialing 911 and says I want you out the building. I asked him his name he said out the building and begin to dial on his phone. Another employee came and stood on the side blocking me in. At this point I am the one who should feel threaten he is in front of me, this employee on the other side of me and behind me is the half wall; the only way out of that space was into the enclosed bar sitting area. (PLEASE REVIEW THE FOOTAGE). When I asked the guy why he blocked me in he said I can SQUEEZE between him and the half wall. THIS LOCATION'S MANAGER ON DUTY HAS PROFILED, PRE JUDGED, AND TREATED ME LIKE LESS THAN A CUSTOMER and I still don't have their name or the corporate contact or my food.

I have NEVER been escorted out a restaurant with a phone to call 9-1-1 especially when the system algorithm was to blame and all I wanted was some type of meeting in the middle for the inconvenience or the corporate contact...

We had a really unfortunate experience at Benihana’s that left me sick for hours and ruined our family birthday celebration. We have been to Benihana numerous times in the past and always had a nice time. The experience started as normal, but once the food really got cooking, I was noticing how all the smoke off the table was coming directly at me and not up into the hood. At first it was just making me sneeze a bit and my eyes water. However after about 10 minutes of so much smoke, I started to feel nauseous. The chef kept apologizing and said he tried to turn on the hood but it didn’t seem to be working. He flipped the switch numerous times. This was a birthday celebration for two members in my family and I didn’t want to ruin the meal, so I was trying very hard to not make a fuss, but I needed to be out of the smoke so I turned around in my chair so I wouldn’t be directly inhaling the smoke. A waitress walked over and apologized and tried to help by turning on fans of other tables around us. When I was turned around I did look at another table and it appeared the smoke was moving into the hood above the table as it should. My mom said my eyes were watery, my face was red and I looked like I was going to pass out, so I just stayed turned around for the rest of the cooking, as awkward as that was. Switching places with someone would have meant putting one of my elderly parents, my children or husband with asthma in the smoke, so none of that made sense. The chef kept apologizing and saying things like I am trying to get you out of this as quickly as possible. By the time the cooking was done, I had a massive migraine and was feeling too unwell to continue eating. So much for a birthday dinner.

At the end of the meal we asked the waitress for the bill and to speak to the manager. We paid in full as I wanted to be clear this wasn’t about wanting some kind of discount, I wanted the manager to just understand the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen to other people. We were pretty surprised when the waitress told us we were definitely not the first to have an issue with the smoke. When the manager came over, he told us the hoods were in fact working, but it was a problem with the powerful AC. They have had 3 companies out to try to fix the problem, but no luck so far. He didn’t seem to have any real sympathy for such a terrible experience in his restaurant. He said he wasn’t aware it was happening on the particular table we were at, that it was other tables, which was not comforting. He did offer us a discount, but we were not asking for that, I just wanted to let him know about a problem that I assumed he wasn’t aware of. It turns out they are already well aware of the problem. And yes one day they will find a solution for the problem they are having, but until then they are just going about business as usual and whoever the unlucky guests are that get sat in the seats to inhale smoke for 30...