When we first walked into Benihana, we all kind of commented on the crowd of people eating there. Not to sound too much like an awful New York snob, but let's just say that most of the crowd looks B&T (and yes, I realize the complete irony of this coming from someone who lives in Brooklyn and technically falls into that category). But none the less, I don't knock people who want to come into the city for a fun meal, it was just a totally different crowd than what I'm used to. The majority of the seating is upstairs and it's a pretty enclosed space with only 1 set of small windows, so there wasn't a lot of natural light coming in. The menu is pretty long and a bit confusing. They don't really make it clear that you are ordering habachi for yourself. I kind of thought that by eating as a big group that they would have a group menu but I guess it does make sense to have everyone order their own food. On one side of the menu is a list of single ingredient habachi such as filet mignon, steak, chicken or shrimp. On the right side of the menu are combinations of steak and shrimp, etc. I opted for the filet mignon and shrimp combination and since I was starving I also got a side of seaweed salad. But little did I know that the habachi comes with soup, salad, grilled vegetables, shrimp appetizer and rice (fried rice is extra). If I could have held out for just a bit I would have realized how much food I was getting and wouldn't have ordered the seaweed salad. The soup came out first and I think it was supposed to be like miso soup except that it had onions in it and that was a bit of a turn off for a soup that's supposed to have a more clean taste to it. Next came the garden salad which was your standard garden salad with ginger carrot dressing. Meanwhile my seaweed salad came out at the same time and that's when I started to feel like I was eating too much food. The seaweed salad was good but a bit cold and as Jill noted, it kind of seemed like it was sitting in a fridge for a while.
After the salad dish, the "main event" started. I had visions of this Japanese guy throwing and tossing around shrimp into people's mouths and everyone clapping. Instead, a Hispanic guy named Rey came to our table and tossed around a couple of shrimp but nothing like what I thought. He did throw some shrimp that landed in his hat and shirt pocket, which was kind of fun. I had also heard about an onion volcano but all I saw was an onion tower, but then it was knocked down quickly and chopped up to be served. Then for the next 2 hours, Rey cooked, chopped and served up vegetables, filet mignon, shrimp, steak and salmon. With each dish, Rey put more butter and more salt on the grill. The fried rice was essentially Rey laying out a gigantic vat of rice and then pouring tons of soy sauce (I don't know why he kept calling it chocolate sauce - gross) which probably also didn't help with all the saltiness in our food. The rice was good but super filling and I kind of wish I had just had plain rice or if I could have asked for brown rice. My filet was actually cooked pretty well and the shrimp for the main entree was large and quite tasty as well but I was so full by the time they were served I could barely enjoy myself. I did manage to finish everything but I walked about 20 blocks after my meal to really let the fullness wear off.
All in all, it was a fun time at Benihana and it's a great place to bring a group to relax and enjoy yourself. I wouldn't necessarily say that the food is amazing but it's not bad either. The girls and I actually came up with an idea while we were there to create a trendier or sleek habachi experience and call it Jennihana (more for Jenn Yee than for me). Who knows, this might just be our calling! Total bill: $66/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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