Benihana and Sushi Bar

Just received word that this location for Benihana in Austin is now closed. Now Austin does not have a Benihana restaurant. The next closest Benihana is in Houston where they have four. Their recent business realignment left some massive holes in market coverage. Hopefully after they re-​image themselves they will start opening new locations to get back into cities like Austin and San Antonio.
I enjoyed this location though. Over the past several years they put a lot of work into updating the interior. Chefs and staff were always nice and the food was good and more importantly, consistent.
The was the default go to spot for my children’s birthday dinner. It will be missed.

I love hibachi, but chain restaurants aren’t my thing. I came here most recently for a friend’s birthday, and I’m really grateful to spend the time with her and celebrate. So I feel guilty for such a negative review.
First, our waiter was a bit awkward — not what you expect when you’re about to drop that much cash at a «fancy» place. He hesitantly told us we couldn’t sit at the two side seats (which made sense, we were a party of 6, so that left those seats for a couple), he didn’t really know what the specials were, and he seemed really unsure of himself. If I’m paying that much, I’m paying for the experience, and I don’t want to feel sorry for you.
While we were waiting for our chef (is that what you call him?), we were all having a very hard time conversing, because the place is SO LOUD. There’s music right overhead (crappy pop music, making matters worse), and there’s no real separation between tables or areas of the restaurant. People noise, music noise, and the fans from the hibachi grills make a really bad combination (which is not a problem I’ve had at other hibachi places).
The ambiance, in general, just doesn’t quite work. I mean, it almost does. I kinda like it, but then I don’t. I don’t have any particulars except the bathroom. I tend to notice bathrooms (weird, I know). It’s clear that the building is old and/​or the bathroom has not been re-​done in quite a while. There was a sign on the inside of the stall door that said, «Please flush frequently.» I really wasn’t sure how to take this, and I found it oddly disturbing. As a patron who visits the restaurant less than once a year, and the bathroom at most once per visit, I’m not sure how one (as a patron) can «flush frequently.» I could flush every time I’m there (which is not frequent, for me or the toilet). And for that matter, I would expect that any patron would flush every time she’s there. Is this just a reminder to flush? Do your patrons really need reminders to flush, because that’s disgusting. If it’s that much of a concern, invest in automatic toilets (I’ll save my diatribe on those for another day, but essentially I believe people should just flush toilets). And if the toilet needs to be flushed «frequently» in order to prevent some sort of malfunction, well, then, isn’t that the responsibility of the staff? And if this is a note to the staff, why is it on the inside of the stall door? The bathroom left me confounded.
The chef’s presentation was the fun part — of course! He did pretty well, but I wasn’t overly impressed. He put on a good show: he made the onion volcanoes, he flipped shrimp into his chef’s hat. He was amiable, corny-​funny, engaging, etc. I think the inability to hear what he was saying was, again, problematic. He was also a little messy with it. Chicken & rice ended up in my lap.
The food is not anything to write home about. It’s better than I can make at home (you’re listening to someone who cannot cook rice, BTW). It’s filling. It’s good. Actually, I’d give it a «good plus.»
Overall, there’s just no way this place is worth the price. There are so many other fun, special, elegant, exciting, creative, delicious, adventurous, and fabulous restaurants I’d rather spend my money on.

Not a fan of hibachi style restaurants but it was late on a Friday night and we didn’t feel like waiting in line for a half hour for dinner so we took our chances on this place. We knew we would be seated in a U formation next to strangers. We knew someone in the group was going to have broccoli flipped into their mouth. We knew that there will be knives clanking and fire. What we didn’t know was the Hibachi Chef was going to be in training. We didn’t know that the onion volcano would require several attempts at erupting. We knew when the «chef» squirted oil on the onion volcano someone was going to loose their eyebrows (fortunately it was the stranger next to us and not us). We didn’t know when the «chef» was twirling his set of knives and repeatedly falling on the floor, we would have to request him to replace the knives before using it on our food. That was a close call because he almost didn’t switch them out.
Unfortunately our table mates picked this place to celebrate their son’s 8^th birthday. During the «show» the chef was unable to keep the attention of the birthday boy, his younger sister and brother. That seems impossible since flames and flying knives would keep any normal child’s attention. Maybe they were a little put-​off after the «chef» broke the mother’s water glass during his «show» and glass and water went flying over the grill and required 4 incompetent staff to clean the mess up. I was surprised the wait staff was attentive since they were busy watching the small flat screen TV in the bar.
Unfortunately, the food was subpar, deficient service with a 1960’s ambiance. The over priced steak was fair at best. I ordered medium rare and was served medium well, fortunately it was doused in oil. The grocery store dipping sauce was bland and the sake was bitter (rancid). Our server was obnoxious and the hibachi chef was awful. Wish we could get our $ 120 back.

I am not really a big fan of kitschy stuff like this to begin with buuuut my boyfriend saw the Benihana sign and changed his mind at the last minute. We were seated immediately, and our drink orders were taken very shortly thereafter.
Out waiter was pleasant and we had the table to ourselves! The chef was really nice and chatted amiably with us the whole time. He asked we specifically try the ginger sauce… AMAZING. It has a really yummy tangy quality but still has the gingeryness (??) fit for Asian dishes. Turns out he makes it himself! Everything he made was fantastic except my chicken was a little on the dry side. My boyfriend’s steak (I don’t specifically remember which one he got) was really good too. And the fried rice was SOOOOOOO GOOOOD.
I’ve been to other locations that seem somehow a little fancier… And I think maybe the portions are larger elsewhere. I definitely feel like we overpaid (it was like $ 63…) for the amount of food we received. I’m familiar with their prices but it’s always annoying when portions aren’t even remotely similar.
Fantastic services but very meh for what you pay for.

Not really a fan of going to Benihana in a strip mall but I don’t have much choice.
The food is always great but they have definitely cut back on the portion size they used to give you –in particular the veggies. You definitely don’t get as much as you used to back in the day.
For some reason this location feels it is ok to jam 11 people at one table. They add an extra seat at each corner of the hibachi table which is way too much. The last couple times I have refused to sit at tables that are fully packed and have waited the extra time for a smaller group seating. No other location I have been to stuffs that many people into one table –not even in New York City or Hawaii!
Sadly things seem to have gone downhill since Rocky Aoki passed away. I used to see him a lot when we lived in midtown Manhattan and my father knew him personally (back when he was also raciing boats) and used to frequent his first location in the theater district of New York City.
This is probably my least favorite location (Been to Honolulu, Short Hills New Jersey, Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Chicago, and Schaumburg Illinois).
We only go 1 – 2 times a year but they really should cut down on how many seats that put at each table. It’s bad enough sitting with strangers but to be wedged in with a bunch of randoms is no fun!!!
Also I’m pretty disappointed you can’t use your birthday certificate towards the Chef’s Table special of the month, so basically whether you use the monthly dinner special for 2 or apply the birthday certificate towards your full price menu meal you end up paying the same amount (probably more) as the chef’s table special –total mind f*ck.

I guess I expected it to be a little more classy. I had grown up thinking Benihana was «top-​of-​the-​line». Sadly my first experience there left a lot to be desired.
I had the Tuna Hibachi while my gf ordered the filet mignon. I suppose we should have ordered the Hibachi Steak like every other person at our grill. The Tuna was cooked perfectly but just lacked any kind of flavor. The Filet tasted great, but that was about it.
Everyone at our grill raved about this fried rice. We order it. Burned and bland.
Our chef seemed extremely nervous, which was a let down after seeing the grill next to us, and every other grill, get a pretty good show.
Also, I guess «Saturday night» translates into «bring your kids to Benihana’s night». Amazingly, every grill in the restaruant was accompanied by at least one child. Not really what I expected.

Don’t know if they deserve 4 full stars but I think the overall rating is too low so I am giving them an extra star.
The thing I really think is missing in this restaurant is the feeling that the staff is truly concerned with you.
It seemed the customers were kinda in the way of what the staff was doing instead of being the top priority of the staff.
Food was good
Drinks were good
$ 30 B-​day coupon was cool
NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: Make the customer THE most important thing and show a genuine concern for their enjoyment. Then train the staff to do the same.

My wife and I look forward to our date night every Friday night. Being parents with no parents in town, we let our little bundle of sunshine tag along. We always appreciate nicer restaurants that aren’t so upscale that we feel weird about taking our kid along.
That being said, we were sitting by what appeared to be a 12 year old’s birthday party. It was pretty loud, which is totally understandable. But the chef’s mode of entertaining them, tossing bits of food across the table to let them catch it in their mouths, didn’t help the volume.
We waited longer for our food here than most anywhere I’ve ever been. The restaurant was not at all busy, but we waited for around 15 – 20 minutes to be seated, which isn’t bad at all, but we were at the table waiting for a chef to reveal himself for nearly an hour. Trying to entertain a one year old for this long is more work than relaxation. Plus, every minute you wait brings you closer to that near bedtime meltdown.
Every 15 minutes or so someone would come by and say the chef would jut be a few more minutes. I would rather the waiter be honest and say, «the chef will be by around this time tomorrow, so if your stomach is eating itself you should probably go elsewhere.»
The manager even came out to offer «fruity drinks» and or appetizers, but no «on the house» at the end of said statement so we declined.
The chef was definitely entertaining, and was the best part of the night and the food was good. Other than the fact that we ordered «medium well» and still had blood on the plate. But everything tasted great.
I was surprised to see how expensive everything was. In my mind, the cheapest plate being the chicken at 20 dollars is kind of high. ESPECIALLY if the service is no better than what I described.
At the end of the night our bill was $ 56. I was shocked that they didn’t comp anything at all. I thought for sure they’d take off at least one appetizer after a ridiculous wait, and our good attitudes and patience. No one tried at all to make our experience better and to get us to come back. We don’t sit around and chat for hours or sit for drinks. I mean we have a kid, so who could? We got there around 6:30 and left around 9:00 even though we are eat-​and-​run type folks. This is an eternity for a parent.
We’ll be trying Fujiyama next time.

The entertainment isn’t bad but unfortunately, everything else is only mediocre. The seating at the tables are a little crowded, but if your neighbors are friendly it’s not a big issue. The chef was nice and perform some cool tricks.
However, the food was not that good. Overly simplistic dishes and much too salty. I’m also not a slow eater but they were already shuffling everyone at the table away when I had only finish half my meal. Almost everyone had to take to-​go boxes. For the money you’re spending, I don’t think it was really worth it.

I have not reviewed a place in a long time, but felt like this place is under-​rated. The hubby and I went because I had a bday $ 30 gift certificate. After reading the reviews here, I was a bit worried that it was going to be a horrible experience. We had a wonderful evening. I had the seafood sampler with 4 types of seafood and asked for a side of the garlic butter (yummy). He had the spicy habachi chicken. Our waiter was super nice and our chef was very fun and did all the expected tricks. We chatted with the people around us and overall had a great evening with good food. I would not go without the $ 30 gift certifcate since I feel it is a bit pricey for what you get.

A few points:
Come for the entertainment. It can be loud. It can be cheesy (not literally), and it can be goofy. It isn’t Cirque Du Soleil, but it is entertainment nonetheless. 4 stars for the family friendly entertainment.
Don’t go to the bar for the service. We waited there for the rest of our party. The bartender asked what we wanted (two glasses of water) and placed two napkins in front of us, and then he walked away. He came back and did some chores at the bar for ten minutes. We left for our table without our water, and without doubt that service at the bar was terrible. Service at our table was much better, but not enough that I’d ever come back willingly.
Don’t come for the food. The food was boring and generic. The rice in the fried rice was not thoroughly steamed. My noodle dish was also undercooked and hard. No thanks. I can get better Japanese food in College Station. That’s not saying much.
Only come because someone happened to get their $ 30 birthday coupon. It seemed like there was at least one birthday at each table. There were two birthdays at ours that night. I guess this place is only worth going if there is a $ 30 coupon, and no one wants to upset the birthday boy or girl.

I would give it two stars except we used the $ 30 gift certificate. We had some nice people at our table including a little kid who had never been to Bhana. The chef was blowing his mind.
Same expensive food and the same silly chef tricks. Can’t turn down free $ 30 though.

Benihana said «thank you for being born» by sending me a $ 30 credit for my birthday from Chefs Table (Sign up now!). I decided to take my boyfriend on a date for being amazing about all the craziness in my life. We had a couple of martinis, the tuna steak and the «rockys special».
Martinis were delish (i mean, its vodka), the tuna steak somewhat unimpressive and the rockys special well seasoned and pretty typical of any hibachi place.
This place is A-​Ok, similar to the other hibachi places with valet, well trained chefs and good service.

It’s a theme park.
Table sat one hour late/​but they comped 25% of the tab.
Kids loved it. It is entertaining. It’s like going to a small market comedy club. it is cheesy and the décor us tired AND it is over priced but it was fun. Staff was friendly and the service was actually good.
It’s like an Asian Magic Time Machine… Wish that place was still around.

Went for my birthday because I’ve heard good things and wanted to experience something different for dinner. The wait was long but we were able to sit at the bar and order drinks. The food is very very pricey for the portions that you receive but I did enjoy our cook and his jokes. At our table there were 2 other birthday celebrations so we had a big sing song from the staff and a picture from benihana which I thought was very cool!
Would I ever go again? MAYBE when I get my coupon for the birthday other than that no way I’m spending that much money.

Eh.
This place is supposed to be better than Tokyo Steak House, right? More established, more legit, little priceier on the menu, yeah? So why did I walk out wishing we’d made the extra drive out to Round Rock?
We went for the hibachi. Weird mix at our table, me and the woman, to our right a mom, dad and two kids. Dad and mom were pretty cool, if a little desperate for fun. The kids never said a word that I could tell. To our left was a tragic nerdy couple, not drinking, didn’t eat with chopsticks just shoveled the food into their maws, didn’t talk unless you directly looked them in the eye. The table behind us was way more fun and loud, but cest la vie.
Our chef was pretty funny, mostly because he was very obviously Hispanic but affected the Japanese accent and words. He was very good in terms of the shtick but he actually overcooked my tuna steak. I am all for the show, but not at the expense of the food.
Do have to give them credit though, if you sign up on their website you will get a gift certificate for $ 30 off for your birthday. So that covered our martinis last night. Plus they had a very good sounding special right now, filet mignon for two for $ 39. It wasn’t bad enough to make me not come back, but it may be a while.

Brad Brad Brad this place is so bad you don’t even see it because you’ve been too close for too long. Your son is now vice president over WHAT, your food establishments? eeek Wings or Benihana such a culinary twist.
The list — filthy menus, 25 yr old décor, tiny meat portions of low quality meat and spanish speaking cooks with cute americanized cooking style and jokes.
The stupidist part is the Sushi bar opens at 430pm and ½ price sushi at 5pm and you have to wait until 5pm until you order or they will charge regular price. wt? what lame ass excuse is there for that rule ?
Brad, keep running your low rent apartments around town and leave the cooking to the pros and during your travels go to a real Benihana and see how it’s done.
real —
faux -
We won’t be back.
How this place has made it this long escapes me and I wish it all the best.

I love the hibachi food. There are only a couple of things I don’t like.
1. The bill-​who does, right?
2. The show is always EXACTLY the same. Spice it up! Live a little. Try something new. Hell, hula hoop on the table, just do something… ELSE.
But, again, I love the food. And my service always rocks!

Absolutely HORRIBLE experience here. Took more than half an hour to have a waitress take our order. When our orders came 40min later, half of them were wrong, and the other half had obviously been sitting on a counter, stagnant, for awhile. To top it all off, the waitress tried to charge us full price for the sushi, claiming that though we had arrived and ordered almost an hour before the happy hour ended, that didn’t matter: what mattered in her mind was that the food was delivered to the table after happy hour had ended, not that we had ordered it beforehand. Was like what the fuck.
NEVER visiting this sushi shithole again.

Austin has the WORST Benihana’s in the North American Union. I occasionally enjoy the faux-​ethnic feel of B-​hana at locations around the country; it’s kind of like «Chinese» food at Pei Wei — non-​threatening and (generally) consistent. And Mai-Tai’s in ceramic take-​home mugs of the buddha are a big attraction for me.
Anyway, the Austin Benihana is in a strip center at Burnet and 183. As said before, the atmosphere is depressing. Old and tattered. Think: A visit to grandma’s house with weird smells. Prices are high — higher than even the SF Benihana’s — so you think they could afford to freshen this place up. Benihana’s specialty is teppanyaki fare — stuff prepared on a grill in front of you.
Here, it is performed with all the skill and pride one would give to making a burrito at Taco Bell. Food dropped, eggs broken (THREE times!) by a soused ‘chef’ named ‘Omar,’ and a prodigious use of sauces on the grill to disguise the craptastic quality of the ingredients. All this for about $ 60 a person. Oh yeah, that $ 8 Mai Tai was watered down. Thanks Benihana Austin! You’re the latest addition to my «Extreme Boycott» list!