Benihana

I Want to start off by saying that I usually have a great experience at other Benihana I have been to in previous years. I was hoping for a great experience on my daughters birthday and it turned out to be a horrible expensive experience. First our reservation was for 515pm and we were seated more then an hour late at 620.We were bought to our table right smack in the entrance of restaurant. So apparently these two tables were added to utilize more space. While you were eating everyone is staring at you. So our waiter started off friendly and attentive until the chef came over to cook and they got into an argument right in front of all guest. I believe the manager went outside picked out a homeless guy and gave him a job on the spot to cook food. Our cook was definitely not a chef and an armature to say the least. So our fastfood cook by the name of Sahad had no idea what he was doing. Our fast food cook did not say a word didn't do any tricks and his portions were wrong. He served us undercooked chicken and our shrimps were raw. There was a family that were vegetarians and they specifically told our fast food amature cook not to use same knife he used on meats to prepare their food ha ha ha he didn't care or forgot because he did use same knife they were livid. My wife was so *** she asked for manager which in a nutshell looked at her bowed twice and gave her a stare like get out of my way. I blame the manager more then our cook because he hired this cook with no training. We honestly would have had a better meal at a corner food truck

Myself and other guest saw rats running downstairs. William C the general manager can be heard screaming and cursing at the host staff in front of guest. whistles at women guest as they walk by .

Pathetic customer service at Benihana Ontario,CA
I visited the Ontario, CA Benihana on June 13, 2019 at about 4:20pm my time. I just received an email regarding the gift card bonus offer and decided to get my husband some gift cards. Upon arrival I asked the female employee for $100 worth of gift cards. She proceeded to the back and after a longer than usual wait she returned to tell me that this promotion was over. I immediately corrected her and reminded her that the offer is good until June 16, 2019. Once again she went to the back and after another longer than usual wait she returned to tell me that yes the offer is valid but they are out of bonus cards. Very disappointing given that this is an advertised special offer and Benihana should be prepared. I expressed my displeasure to the employee who went to the back once again to speak with the manager who eventually came out and spoke with me. I once again expressed my frustration to the manager who informed me I should purchase gift card online. I let the manager know I wanted a physical gift card instead of an e-gift card and I also asked if anything could be done for the inconvenience such as giving me a $20 gift card to replace the bonus cards they ran out of. She replied no and to add insult to injury this manager had the nerve to tell me I should go to another Benihana location. I have to drive to another location which is no where close to Ontario to make up for their poor service. First I was lied to by an employee who falsely stated the promotion ended then to top it all off the manager has the audacity to ask me to go somewhere. Pathetic customer service.

Birthday Coupon Not honored
I came and placed my normal order for benihana. When I got ready to pay I was given another excuse as to why my coupon could not be honored the way it normally is? I generally get the same items that I normally get every year and this is the first time it has been an issue

Love Benihana just didn't get the service we expected from our waitress. I visited the restaurant on 3/21/19 to celebrate my birthday. For starters our soup was cold then the replacement soup was cold. The manager made it right and threw out that batch of soup and brought us fresh soup. Unfortunately our waitress went on break and the replacement was horrible. She failed to sing happy birthday, offer ice cream or a picture and to add insult to injury when we asked for to go boxes she just threw them on the grill and said "help yourself " instead of boxing the food for us. We sat and watched the table across get great service while our service was lousy.

Ordered was incorrect, complained to manager who was supposed to call back but didn't. Spoke to a different manager who stated no refund
3/21/2019 my fiance and I had dinner at Benihana's where we had dinner and a drink. I order a chicken Teriyaki with steam rice to go for my daughter. After dinner was done waiting for my waiter to bring the to go order I step away to the rest room. When I reached back to the table the to go order was there, so we grabbed the bag(s) and left. When I reached home to give my daughter her food, the only thing that was in the bag was a container with 5 little nugget pieces of chicken which I think was teriyaki and that's it no rice or anything else. Now on my receipt they charged I believe $20.80 for that "chicken" and $8.00 for the rice. Now both managers advised me that the rice comes free with the chicken teriyaki, however I was charged. They have offered me a free appetizer, but I don't want that. I want my refund for the chicken teriyaki meal that was not complete. I also want a refund for the rice that I didn't receive nor should have been charged for and I would also like the $10 tip I provided refunded, because it was an error that was made by the waiter twice in the same night. One of the couples that was at the table with us did not receive their rice that was supposed to be with their dinner. Pure negligence and management clearly is not trying to make amends or fix what the waiter did wrong. The refund total should be in the area of $40.82.

I ordered a gift card online on Aug 28 with FedEx 2 day delivery. Now they say it will be delivered on Sep 4th. That is 7 days. I want a refund.
I ordered a gift card online on Aug 28 with FedEx 2 day delivery. Now they say it will be delivered on Sep 4th. That is 7 days. I want a refund.
This from the Gift card dept:

Marcia (Benihana Gift Card Support)

Sep 3, 9:41 AM PDT
Hello,

Thank you for contacting gift card support.

Sorry for the inconvenience, it take 2 business days for processing and then your order is shipped out. Orders are not processed nor shipped on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) nor Holidays. Your FedEx Tracking # is XXXXXXXXXXXX.

Best,
Marcia

FedEx picked it up on Aug 30 per tracking number and Benihana tracking. Marcia's comment is not relevant since it already shipped.
I would like a refund. I do not want further business with such a shady company.

I had the worse service possible by staff and I reached out to the manager who did nothing at all to rectify the issue and she was rather rude
On 03/31/18 I took my son who has a disability to Benihana due to that he has been asking to go. When we arrived we advised the staff of the number in our party and he was very nasty and rude and said he would not make our reservation until the whole party was there we made him aware that it was no parks and they were coming down the street with the Uber. He advised that he did not care and that we could not make the reservation.I was so upset due to that I made them aware that it was our first time and the whole staff was nasty and rude. When Our party arrived we had to wait an additional 45 min to an hour and I was so upset due to that my son had a disability and had became very agitated. We then were placed with a couple who was trying to enjoy there night and it was not a great match at all. The cook was not interacting with the kids not friendly and when my son kept asking questions he did not respond smile or anything. The couple with us kept asking staff to bring my children starter items and things since it was there first time and over and over they were ignored and my kids never received the great service as they should have and the couple that we sat with advised that the experience was much better and that the interaction should had been a great experience . They served the wrong food to each other it was a true disaster for it being our first time. I reached out to the manager and she was very rude over talked me and more told me that it was unfortunate as to what happened but it was nothing she could do but apologize for the event. What made matters worse is that not only did we get the wrong food it was very bland with no seasoning or taste at all

Today we went to Benihana restaurant in San Francisco on Post Street. We went around 4:15 PM. from 4 to 7 Monday through Thursday they do Happy Hour in the Bar area. We sat for 15 mins before even being greeted by our waitress, as she was the only one doing the bar area. We ordered our food and was in there roughly the entire happy hour. WHen it was time for the bill to be paid- she took the credit card and was gone for about 10 minutes and came back saying- (I YOUR CREDIT CARD DOES NOT HAVE A CHIP ON IT WE CAN ACCEPT IT HERE)!!! I making then ask her WHEN did this rule apply and she said a while now! I told her that was a lie because I did a take out few weeks ago and used this same card. She couldn't explain so she went and got Jeff her manager who WAS RUDE and defensive as soon as he approached the table. He explained the same information as his employee did and I told him I never heard of that before and I think he is intentionally doing this to me because of my color. He said his best friend is BLACK!! I told yeah whatever, and that I had no card with a chip nor any cash. He said I cannot accept this card without government ID and I said Benihana never ask me that and he said corporate told him not to take ANY CREDIT OR DEBIT CARDS WITHOUT ID. I asked why didn't they put that on their website or put a sign up? He said, he had to follow orders from his head corporate office and if you have no ID on you you cannot use this card- but it was strange- because the waitress took my card with no problem and she knew I had no chip and so I said to him what are we going to do because I have no other means of paying for this? He said I need something to prove who you are! I said I have a debit card with my picture on it he said no GOVERNMENT ID ONLY! I said well I don't know what to tell you and he snatched the card off table and left for over 5 mins and then I got up to see what he was doing and then the waitress says I don't know what's going on and that BLACK people have been coming in here paying for food and running out.
WOW!!! Basically this manager Jeff is judging every black person that comes in there and putting them through a hassle if paying with credit or debit because OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS CAME AND DID A SCAM SO THE ENTIRE BLACKS WILL SUFFER that is very embarrassing and judging a book by it's cover. I told him I was going to the media and he got so nervous he only charged $19.96 of the bill when it was $46.32. HE KNEW HE WAS WRONG and didn't charge full amount. Then when I walked back to the table to get my family at the bar was a Asian family who paid for their food with a credit card WITH NO CHIP intentionally to see if it was true and the bar attendant rang them up no questions asked nor was ID asked for and told the bar attendant they won't be coming back because how they treated me. We all walked out together. This was embarrassing and unprofessional.

You should do a investigation and send Black person decoy and white and see how they act when JEFF is there.

***

***@gmail.com

Horrible service ending with the restaurant wrongfully calling the police.
On 7/7/2018 I went with some work friends to Behnihana to celebrate a couple of coworkers birthdays. We were a party of 7 and we had reservations for 9PM. We were served by a blond/brunette server named Brandon, who proceeded to give us the worst service imaginable. Our table had to repeatedly ask for water numerous times before we received it. Brandon rarely checked on our table and when we mentioned this to a food runner she snapped at us and said that he was new and was really busy and didn't have time to come check on us so we should just be patient. When we did see Brandon again around 10:30 PM, some of our table requested for another drink for the bar, however, Brandon advised the bar was closed and then he proceeded to walk away (before I could even ask for a soft drink instead). What was also odd was that around 11:00PM the table next to us received an announcement for last call. So it appeared that our table was being singled out in this respect. At this point most of the party had had only 1 or 2 drinks so it was not like we were being cut off for drinking too much. So at the end of dinner (about 11:10PM) we asked to speak with the manager to express our complaints. And Martina came out and we advised what the experience we had during the evening and Martina apologized and advised a 10% discount would be applied and she would get us our checks as quickly as possible. Our table then sat for another 30 minutes. We began asking to speak to the manager again since it seems quite a long time to get the checks sorted. However, the manager would not come talk to us again. Additionally, the security guard informed us that the police had been called and they would not provide our checks until the police arrived. Let me just say that again, the police were called when we were just trying to pay our check and leave. The police arrive around midnight and things start to get even stranger as Brandon begins to bring some of the checks and it doesn't appear to be accurate. It appears he added food to some of the party's checks (especially the one who spoke for us when talking to the manager originally) that we we didn't order. Brandon had attempted to add 4 salmon entree's to one of our checks, when no one at the party ordered salmon. We had to get the chef who served us, Tony, (who was a wonderful cook and the only redeeming quality of the night) to come back from the kitchen to confirm this. The police even said that if the server doesn't know who ordered the food or which table it really belonged to then he can't just charge us. Luckily it was removed. However, I can't help but get the feeling that these actions were malicious and retaliatory. Additionally, why would the police be called if the manager already came out and apologized for the atrocious service that was transpiring. I do certainly hope that this was not racially motivated, as half of our table was comprised of people of color.

Before Christmas 2017, I went to Benihana, Citrus Heights and purchased $600.00 worth of prepay gift cards, which totaled 18 cards; 16 cards with $25.00 & 2 cards with $100.00. Prior to mailing the cards I called the 800 number on the back of the cards and only 3 cards had a cash value. I took the cards back and turned the cards into be fitted, hoping to have Christmas gift cards. In January 2018, I returned the cards still didn't work and I ask for my $600.00 to be returned. I've gone to Benihana's on 6 different occasions and heard every excuse as to why I haven't received the refund, but no solution. I've waited 3 months, I just want my $600.00 back.
Product_Or_Service: $600.00

by the time they had cooked the lobster they had already brought boxes and togo bags to the table, yet we still had to receive the shrimp cooking on the table... we took the hint and boxed ALL of our food up for them to drop the check on top of desert. I signed the check for the complaining waitress and she rushed off, not even two bites into my icecream and glass of wine. A bus boy comes with a full tub of very dirty dishes and sets it right on top of the table where our food was just cooked on. DID I MENTION THEY JUST COOKED THE FOOD ON THE TABLE. the bus tub was disgusting top to bottom and smelt. It was then we asked the employee to remove the bus tub from in front of us. he advised us it was time for us to leave! in disbelief of what he just told me I went downstairs to find a manager only to find a waitress by the name of shanisee and quoted her exact words. she is not getting a manager and that the bus boy put the bus tub on the table because its time to leave and if we had a problem to google her and catch her outside! did that just happened? 20 minutes into the ordeal a kitchen manager appears Masa. and in disbelief of all of this, he couldn't even refund the check. were still in the establishment food in hand and he advised us he couldn't find our check in his system even with a photo of the check I had taken. fortunately the security guard witnessed and had the entire incident on video of the quoted employees and of there terrible remarks of us the paying guests. we even had a by standard cook tell us to meet him outback, he will be waiting for us to leave. between the two of us it was a terrible $300 experience! we left the restaurant to find in the front the same food cart the chef brought to the table covered in dirty trash and gross food in the front of the host stand. what a sight to see as leaving. when getting into the uber we noticed the staff yelling at us as they were drinking the alcohol from the bar in the carried kids cups. I'm am disgusted how they treated us! took photo
Product_Or_Service: dinner

On September 28th me and a few colleagues went into the Benihana Miramar for lunch, which was a usual spot for us. However on this day it was a total disaster. Initally they had a new server serve our table , which we asked for a side of shrimp and asked the cost she quoted us 4 at the table $4.00. While at the table we noticed there was OIL dripping from the vent where the cook was cooking, after he cooked the meal and walked away. We were able to notice a large spill of oil on the table, which made me a little weary for our health precautions and wondered if the oil somehow dripped and splashed in our food, it was gross! So moving along the check comes and we noticed the side of shrimp was $8.80 and since this was false information it should be addresses, so we asked for the supervisor on duty. What a waste!! The Manager named Jared Watts came and had the worse customer service skills in the universe. He was very condescending and basically told us to read the menu, then advised he would provider a gift card for future appetizers then changed his mind. He then decided to remove the charge from the bill, at this point he is upset and speaking abruptly over me and my peers, he SNATCHED-YANKS the bill from our hands and walks away. I was in total shock to see that this was the behavior of a manager in a popular establishment. UNACCEPTABLE!
Product_Or_Service: Benihana Lunch

Horrible felt like I was discriminated against and also Fat shamed.
I went into benihana the miami beach location moday with my sister, Start to finish it was an utter disaster. When we first walked in they Quoted a 30 min wait time. We asked about the lunch special they quoted it was until 2. I stated to the host that the verbiage online states until 3 and that maybe someone should correct this. 15 mins later a caucasian couple walk in they aren't quoted a wait time instead they are seated immediately. We are all sitting now and he manager last name Alvarez comes take the couple on the end order and turns to us and states what you drinking. Once I gave her my drink order she said diet and smirked. That sent me over the edge but to keep the piece I continued the experience. I requested to speak to a different manager. I was called 48 hours later by chan and told that he coached her we were mad because we are cheap and get the lunch special. I felt as if that comment was a direct attack on our culture. My and my sister are both young black professionals and will not tolerate this kind of treatment in a restaurant. Chan did absolutely nothing to accommodate us.. Also the whole dinner there was water dripping on us we didn't complain.

*** A *** Esq.

The customer service was terrible. This is the 2nd time.On September 20th 2017 friends and family went to the Benihana's located in St Louis Park Minnesota. The customer service was terrible. The server acted as if she didn't want to serve us, or as if she didn't even want to be there. The chef, was very impersonal. He didn't do the usual jokes. He didn't talk to us. Nothing. This is the second incident that I've had at this particular location. And my first experience my credit card was double-charged. And when I called to have it straightened out by the manager, she told me that quote my money problems are not my problem. I spoke to the regional manager, and he told me he would email me or mail me a gift card for a free appetizer. Months and months later I still have not received it. But I still decided to go back and give this location another try. When you go to Benihana's you don't only pay for the food, you pay for the experience. Even if the server was rude and the chef was still good it would have been worth it. But, since the chef was not in a good mood and didn't provide us good service and the server wasn't good. And I didn't receive my gift card I'm all around disappointed in this company.

We were having family from out of town and we purchased gift cards on 6/18/2017. There was a promotion going on that with each $50 gift card purchased we would receive a $10 bonus card with each gift card. That evening we received an email that for some reason the purchase was declined (not for insufficient funds). This is what the email stated " To provide our customers with the highest level service, our system has several security checks built in to ensure each gift card purchase is successfully activated and delivered to its appropriate destination.". So, I contacted a lady named Carmen,at their corporate offices, in Florida and she assured me that she would take care of the problem within 3-5 days. I still haven't heard from anyone regarding this issue. We ended up eating there, with our family, at full price and I'm still waiting for a resolution.
Order_Number: 9DW2E3QB2FHB

I visited a Benihana restaurant in Encino, CA. on 07/11/2107 to celebrate my mother's birthday, as well as my own., as they were running a $30 off special on your birthday. I was not able to access my 'Chef's Table' membership prior to my visit (screenshot of error is attached) due to a problem with their website. As a result, I approached the Manager while at the restaurant and he directed me to contact corporate headquarters regarding the issue (i.e. there was nothing he could do). It took five days to receive a response and when I finally did Benihana confirmed my email address was indeed in the system. I thought this was very annoying since I don't recall ever receiving my annual certificate. Needless to say after another 5 days of waiting for a response Benihana simply asked me if I wanted my email re-activated. First, my account should have NEVER been de-activated. Second, if my email address was in fact in the system and you failed to provide me with a $30 birthday coupon why then are you giving me the run around and forcing me to file Revdex.com disputes? This is completely and utterly ridiculous and the person whom I have been communicating with, Benjamin, should be on corrective action. He is unprofessional and does not work well as a customer facing associate. After having been forced to go to this length for $30 I can guarantee that Benihana will NO LONGER be a place that me, my family, nor my friends will ever frequent.
Product_Or_Service: Birthday Dinner
Order_Number: XXXXX