Benihana — Restaurant in Virginia

Where to start? We decided to give the Benihana franchise another shot after having a very poor experience in another city (Orlando). We figured there was no way we could have a similarly bad time at a restaurant several States away. Boy were we wrong!

We had reservations so were seated right away (good). Our server came and took our order fairly promptly (also good). Then our chef arrives. And that is where it went downhill. First she argued with us on how many fried rices we had ordered. We knew everyone of us had very clearly ordered fried rice, but she had one short. So she had to get more. Then she was SLOW and no "show" whatsoever. It was boring. And did I mention SLOW? She cooked everything individually. And the food was bland. While the steak was tender, we had to use the yum yum sauce to give it any flavor. It just wasn't good.

But I am getting ahead of myself... we had ordered sushi to start. We got three of the rolls we had ordered... had to wait 20 minutes (and finally ask) for the fourth one. 6 out of 8 of us got our drinks... we had to ask after 15 minutes for the other two to come.

Finally, towards then end, while waiting for ice cream (which we had to pay extra for our kids, which is whatever, but for the prices this place charges, you'd think they could throw in free ice cream for kids when you have 6 paying adults... but whatever)... anyway, while waiting for ice cream, I had to take my two young daughters to he restroom. And it was a HORROR. Out of three stalls, only one was useable. One had vomit all over the seat and floor, the other had a literal entire roll of toilet paper thrown in it. I get it that they can't control the clientele, but this restroom clearly had not been serviced in a while. We told one of the employees and they came to clean it, but by that time we were so disgusted we just left (without eating the ice cream). Overall it was a $450 mistake (and yes, that was the bill for 8 people including tip). Anyway, NEVER AGAIN! I will never frequent ANY Benihana again. This place is WAY overpriced and WAY overrated for what you actually get. There are MUCH BETTER local family-owned Japanese Steakhouses in the area where you get more value...

We've been to this location many times, always had good service... Except this past time.... Hostess (wearing a black hoodie with glittery "Juicy" written on the back was clearly overwhelmed, the barkeep was courteous, but clearly too busy... This should have been the indicator... But we got our seats and ordered... The waitress left our table without drinks for a long time. We ordered and the chef came out... All as expected. The chef was new, but I didn't have any major complaints.

Then the checks... Because everything was slow, I had my card ready, and handed it to the waitress after seeing that it was in the right ballpark.. Unfortunately, the people next to us discovered that I should have paid more attention, because I had just given my card for their bill...

When the waitress came back she agreed to rectify, and went away... She came back with a different bill (also wrong) that she ran my credit card for, which I caught immediately.. she said she adjusted the checks via "cash" and that everything was ok... I checked my bank, and for sure, I had two pending transactions for Benihana...both for at least the price of my bill.

After a long time trying to understand what happened, she told me to call my bank in the morning to clear it up. I asked to speak to a manager, who finally went to their central server and printed out a summary of how my card was charged in their restaurant.

This is important because they never showed me receipts for what they did to get to the amount I was finally charged for, probably because the waitress messed up the check so badly..

Finally, after I was understanding that nothing was going to solve the problem tonight because the charges were pending, we left.

Fortunately, the manager had things squared away and I was only charged once...

To make things just a bit worse, I was sick to my stomach in the morning... I don't know if it was Benihana, but with the rest of the service being what it was... I'm not leaving it out of my story.

I hope they get their restaurant back in order soon... This past Fridays visit...

Reader BEWARE. I hope my review helps another deserving restaurant with new business in NOVA because BENIHANA DULLES is simply terrible. It begins with the lack of service even during Covid. I ordered curbside- no signage- no greeter when you arrive and Davana who took my order over the phone was RUDE. I also received the same issue as another reviewer where I had to email him my “birthday certificate”. After 20 min of being directly parked in front of the FRONT DOOR a woman emerges wondering if I am there to pick up food? That was only the beginning. We waited a total of 45 min for the To Go order, my food even waited a portion of that time since they couldn’t find the email that I sent to the address they gave me. Miraculously they found it and then proceeded to tell me my food wasn’t waiting. Since it happened to be my birthday week I decided to redeem my $30 on the Ocean Treasure Dinner for 1 for $48 but there would be nothing to treasure. When I opened the box it was clear this BENIHANA experience was going further downhill. The food was so disgusting my son who loves lobster didn’t even want to eat it. EVERYTHING was overcooked and I was appalled that this establishment decided not to serve me my exact order I paid for. Instead of receiving the Colossal shrimp that are part of the “Ocean Treasure” they opted to give me 3 colossal and 3 regular shrimp. We ended up throwing shrimp away and that never happens in our house. The food was cold and the vegetables a soggy mess. The soup made me sick and that to me was the only decent part of the meal from the beginning, as somehow it was still above room temperature. The sauces given to complement were completely underwhelming and the dressing was pure vinegar. I will not recommend BENIHANA DULLES to anyone EVER- I consider that my gift back to them- the gift that keeps on giving.

I have included photos so you can see...