Benihana — Restaurant in Torrance

After reading many other reviews this unfortunately echos the same. My wife, family and friends have been coming to Benihana Torrance for 35 years. This particular vist is the worst we've had in all that time! We had a 7:30 reservation and checked in as usual. The greeter mentioned we'd have to find a place in the bar or outside to wait. Assuming it wouldn't be long, because nothing was stated otherwise, we made our way into the bar area where we were met with at least 50 people either sitting or standing around and packed to the hilt! We stood for a bit and then a few opened up at the bar to sit. After 20 minutes we checked back in at the front and we're told they're waiting for a table to open up. Waited another 15 minutes and again checked in at the front for the wait time. Same answer that they're waiting for a table to open up....another 20 minutes, almost 1 hour past our reservation and I went up to check with a manager and strongly give my dissatisfaction, to which there wasn't one around, so I continued to let the lead attendant at the front know my opinion. And apparently I wasn't the only one. A number of people were also complaining. When I said how long we've been waiting for this "magic table" to open up and have seen numerous tables being sat I wanted some type of real answer! The person continued with an answer that they were still seating tables with reservations 15 minutes before ours. How in 35 years can this be so far off I asked when the longest we've waited was about 15 minutes. I was told that rather than booking 24 people every 15 minutes as previously used, it's now 40 people per 15 minutes. And if that isn't bad enough when I asked, "then why couldn't someone be honest and give us a straight answer" we were told that withholding that information comes at the corporate level. What the hell kind of new business model is that?!! Many complaining customers hearing this agreed that this model just pisses everyone off! (Pardon my French!) Finally called to be seated we sat a while waiting for the order to be taken. Then no chef for a while. Received our salads 1 hour 45 minutes after our reservation. Chef finally arrived. For the first time ever the food was bland. Scant amount of garlic butter used in the fried rice so was flavorless and dry. Scallops had an odd texture and no taste and are usually great. Filet had no garlic butter which we have had every time making it flavorless. And when I asked the chef for some garlic butter after our steaks were served, he replied "give me a minute" and continued to finish is other cook and then actually cleaned the entire grill! While our steak is getting cold. Shrimp "appetizer " came a few courses in after veggies, much of the meal out of order. The condition of the restaurant, especially the floor was dirty and looked like a hundred years old. The bathroom disgusting with urine all over the floor "near" the urinal. The clientele and noise level is at a level anymore like it's a free-for-all and animals were let out. Upon leaving and looking at our watches, we were there 3 hours! Unacceptable! Upon researching we realized that Benihana was purchased by another company. Let me just say that the new Benihana does not look the same and as business owners ourselves, don't condone the model being used and withholding info from the guests as well as the state of this particular location. With so many choices out there, we're sad to say after 35 years, we will not be returning. Hopefully this gives the corporate executives some insight on what the real public experience is...

Unfortunately, I have to change my review for one of my favorite restaurants. The essence of Benihana is gone. I thought my past experience was bad due to a restaurant technical problem, but this time it was worse and this was only one month ago.

We made reservations ahead of time for my daughter's bday, as we arrived, I knew there would be a problem bc so many ppl were at the front desk complaining they had waited for 1 to 2 hours. I went to check in, the hostess (a girl) said they were running behind 40 minutes and said we could wait by the bar or in our car. We decided for the bar. The bartender was rude 100% and I even sensed discrimination to a degree (a man, I don't know his name bc no one had name tags. Therefore, we don't know names) it took us about 30 minutes to order drinks, he constantly ignored us and pretended to look busy, he would loudly tell his friends if he makes more money than him tonight, he'll buy him a drink. He was talking without a care. A lady next to us who was waiting for an hour and a half, just wanted some water, he wouldn't help her so finally a nice woman bartender gave her some soda on the house.

An hour and a half later, we asked for another round of drinks, alcohol and non alcohol, same bartender kept ignoring us, put his hand up at us left, came back and told the ppl next to us, is there anything you need? Completely ignoring our order once again. When we finally ordered he was once again very rude.

After 2 hours I kindly went to ask about our table. It was 9pm at this point, my kids and we were hungry. The young guy host said do you want to speak to my manager, I hadn't asked but said yeah ok, at that point he got defensive and rude with me then came back and said if I was sure bc he knew he messed up. He signaled me to go to her, I did, and she can tell you I wasn't rude, I was nice and patient even after 2 hrs but staff really has no customer service skills.

Once seated down, for the first time we were given our soup and salad at the same time which isn't like before and definitely not a good idea to eat cold and hot and the same time. Then we waited very long for a chef. Our server was young and forgot our waters and coke but when we asked again, he brought them but never refilled my water. $500 later after a bad night, not one coke, sprite, appetizer, nothing complimentary for everything.

Regardless, staff seems to be very cool with each other, but definitely not trained for nights like there have been lately. The essence, the benihana experience, is gone at the Torrance location. That makes me very sad as it was one of our favorite...

This place has the worst customer service We got reservations at Benihana for 5:45 for a party of 7 to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We had an 18 month old and a 7 year old. Upon arrival we checked in and were told to wait at the lounge, we didn’t get seated until 6:45- yup, an hour past our reservation! At this point the kids were really hungry and I think any parent would understand how stressful that can get. We placed our order and waited 20 minutes until we got served the soup and salad, we are still calm at this point and I respectfully asked the server if she knew how long it would take for the chef to come and she said she had no idea but she will check. Another 15 minutes go by and nobody shows up, I approached the manager and explained the situation- at this point it is 7:20 pm and already my toddler’s bedtime with no food in his stomach. But that time we have watched multiple parties get seated after us and already eating their food! This tells me this is due to poor management, not only because they’re busy The manager went to check and came back to let us know our chef is coming and it will be worth our wait because he is the funniest chef, at this point we were more interested in eating. No other efforts were made to make up for the long wait, not even free dessert. The chef finally comes out and asks who’s birthday it is- at this point nobody is celebrating, so we looks at me and says he knew it wasn’t my birthday because I didn’t look very happy. I told the chef that since we have been waiting for so long we are no longer celebrating and my husband and I just want to feed our hungry 18 month old. The chef immediately got upset and started explaining that it wasn’t his fault- that is understandable but he didn’t have to crack a joke at the expense of the mother who is upset because her toddler is starving. The chef continues to cook ( no jokes for the rest of the meal- fine by us) but he didn’t even give us any sauces and being as hungry as we were we didn’t even realize he didn’t give us any sauces until after we were done eating. What’s even a bigger joke is we were offered ONLY two ice cream scoops at the end of the meal, one for the birthday and one for the kids meal. Safe to say my family and I will never return- we have been to the Santa Monica location multiple times and have nothing but great things to say about our...