Benihana

Ruined my friends birthday chief was flirting with one of the girls sitting at my table and even with a reservation we had to wait no where to sit and it was very hot.

I love this place! The last time I went, our cook, Louis, was amazing, even though it was my third of fourth time there I felt like I was discovering everything again. Louis was interacting with his guests a lot, being very friendly and making sure everyone was having a good time! Food is always great and it goes well with some sake!
Only thing I noticed, you do not have the chocolate martini anymore? Pleeease bring it back, it was so good!

Amazing service from Adrian!!! Great server, and great experience at this location. Absolutely loved the chef as well!

The upside:
Ok prices on sushi.
Decent quality nigiri and sashimi and correlating prices (for miami, bc even bad sushi is expensive).
A happy hour that makes the sushi that much more appetizing.
Fast service
A separate bar area if you don’t feel like the stunt Hibachi show.
The downside:
Seriously run down building and interior. Woefully apparent that the building needs a major face lift.
Kinda dirty. You can’t quite be sure that the place hasn’t been cleaned or is just the Norman Bates’ version of a Japanese restaurant. Scary and not pretty.
Always packed. You know… it’s a Benihana so every Dick, John and Harry comes here for their birthday. The wait for Hibachi I usually an hour or more. Skip the silliness and go to the sushi bar.
We eat here exclusively for the sashimi

This place falls far below the Benihana standard of the franchise! I understand that this particular restaurant has been around since the beginning. but PLEASE REMODEL, CLEAN, or DO SOMETHING!!! Upon entering I couldn’t help but notice the tired looking carpet and once seated on the hibachi table (with a few rice crumbs left from the previous seating) I look up and the HORROR of the dirty A/​C vents with mold growing all around it left me wondering if dining here was even a good idea. The waiter was nice and brought our our drinks quickly. The soup and salad are standard and nothing to rave about. When the chef arrived, he quickly began cooking and a few times I noticed he had to change sauce plates (they were dirty) and rice bowl plates (which were also dirty)… I was starting to think cleanliness was an issue here but what confirmed it was the tray of shrimp… which were not de-​veined and all I wanted to do was GAG. If the shrimp are small, i understand. the poop disintegrates. but shrimp that size? Ugh no. Lets not forget that we paid extra for the Lobster & Filet Mignon combo that was suppose to come with green tea ice-​cream. Upon finishing our meal, the server returned to inform us that all ice-​cream was melted and that we would not be getting any dessert. Seriously disappointed.

Good food, good service, great ocean view. Can’t complain !
Place can use a renovation though.

Let’s cut to the chase. Benihana is a chain and overall they deliver consistency across the board. This location attracts a lot of tourists from all over the US and beyond. The staff at this location is hit or miss — as it depends on the time you arrive.
I was there a week ago at around 9P on a Friday — they seat you until 11:30P so it wasn’t late late. The server took around 15 minutes to check on you. The chef was non-​traditional — nothing fancy or traditional in the way he cooked or did the meal. I get the filet and shrimp — it was a 6 out of 10. Dinner for two will cost you over $ 100 on average.
It’s not awful, but if you spend some time checking the local area you’ll find places that are a bit better quality by locals. This place is just a bit hectic and out of all the Benihana’s I’ve been to — this one has the most potential but my least favorite. There’s no true leader running the show in there and it comes off careless.

The atmosphere is nice and our cook had a great and fun personality. Overall it was a fun experience. However, I give it three stars based on the food. As a vegan, I ordered the spicy tofu but wonder why the same cooking utensils were used as the ones that cooked the meat. I also wonder about what type of oil is used for cooking and why low sodium soy sauce isn’t used or at least asked to customers for their preference. So I give it three stars because I don’t think it’s a very healthy place to eat.

Yes I am a fan, but of such a cliché and obvious Japanese restaurant that everyone and his brother has seen the show of three times over? Yes, of course.
Benihana Miami Beach is truly like no other. From the pristine view of the bay, to the multi leveled and thoughtfully crafter floors of seating, to the secluded lounge area that still has a view of the water that no one can touch, to the Zen garden outside that is a work of art. Al that, plus real good food and friendly hibachi chef’s and servers is what you will get at this location.
Do not be scared away at Miami Beach prices either, tourists and locals alike — this location is right on par with pricing its sister and cousin locations are at further down in either Coral Gables or South Miami. Trust me, I have gone to those locale’s for years too. This spot rocks and they even host great parties!

All show and some go.
What you can expect is decent food and entertainment as well but we don’t even sit at the tepanyaki tables anymore. We sit downstairs by the sushi area.
The biggest rip off here is the option for chicken fried rice instead of white rice. They charge an additional $ 4 now from the $ 3 they used to charge for an ounce of checker and some garlic butter. Sure it’s better than the white rice but at $ 4 more per person who orders this?
That’s an overreach into the pockets of patrons.

We showed up with reservations 15 minutes ahead of time and the hostess said we could not check in until the exact time since we had used open table to make the reservation. We saw walk-​ins get seated before us and when we asked if we could check in every five minutes, she said she had to wait. I was very displeased with the treatment given by the host-​staff.
The food is consistent and the hibachi was enjoyable. We love to frequent this location and appreciate the waterfront views.

I have to admit I’m pretty disappointed by Benihana. The best part about our evening was the amazing view of the sunset as we finished our meals.
I hate to complain on Unilocal,so I’ll just say it’s really not worth the trip over here. It is definitely not worth the $ 50+ bill at the end of the night.
Disappointed, because I love a good hibachi! Unfortunately, I would not recommend this place for dinner.

So over rated nothing spectacular about the food. It’s just ok, but the chef was entertaining that’s all.

So… disappointed with this place tonight. I used to come here at least once a year for a birthday, but tonight not sure if i will comeback. We had a reservation and they wouldn’t sit us until the last person came, then they made us wait an additional 25 min.
Next reason why I won’t come here is NO PINK SAUCE WTF?! Apparently they don’t serve it at this location anymore. They only serve the ginger or some nasty watered down mustard sauce.
HOWEVER, THE SERVICE WAS GREAT! Food was pretty good, standard benihana, and Manager was very gracious and our server was amazing.

Best @ lunch time, a la carte dining in the lounge. Awesome view, food is great for the price, the staff is courteous and attentive. Huge con — the cleanliness of the place! For the luv or Mr. Clean un grease the floors!

Great food and very friendly staff. Beautiful location as well with gorgeous bay view.

We had a reservation and it was honored. Check.
The food was superb and the chef was great. Check.
Bay view. Check.
Ambience is terrible: dirt and grime on all hard surfaces and the carpet’s built up residue is disgusting. Maybe, it’s because it hasn’t been cleaned since 1986? The menus also come with extra bits of bugs and food smashed between the pages… YUCK! **Benihana, you just need to set aside one Sunday, get Stanley Steamer in the house, hire all 6 of your hostesses to wipe down all the menus, and voila! Fresh, clean start! REALLY, it’s not that hard and will be so worth it.
Service is really slow — I mean, it was about an hour before the chef came to our table. This was somewhat problematic with a couple of hungry kids and a toddler in tow.

Teniamos muchas ganas de volver a este lugar por la comida y la vista. El lugar no es bonito, esta desactualizado en su decoracion. En esta oportunidad queria tener el show del chef y sus malabares pero a nuestro chef le falto muuuuucha energia para llegar a hacer algo notable. Lo mas notable que hizo fue coquetearle a una de las comensales, tanto que llego a ser incomodo. La comida muy buena, no tengo queja de ello pero si del servicio desde la entrada al lugar. La zona de espera es muy pequeña, el tiempo que transcurrio luego de estar sentados hasta que nos atendieron el pedido de bebidas fue de 15 min y luego de eso para que llegara el chef otro tanto que se me hizo eterno. Recomiendo el Mai Tai para tomar algo de modo que la espera no se haga agobiante

Not too impressed. Food was great and the chef gave us a good show but the chaos going on in the restaurant was a little too much.
There was a table behind us with about 10 kids who kept throwing food around and who were so incredibly loud we could not hear ourselves talk.
It took a very long time to get drinks and even longer to get the food going.
They did not honor our reservation and we had to wait an hour to get seated.
I just may not even bother giving them a second chance. I drove all the way from cutler ridge for a crappy experience. ehh I think not again.

200 hundred years ago (or so it feels) I was the General Manager of this restaurant. 79^th Street was the Rodeo Drive of Miami. Every big Hollywood star would come to Benihana. The food was great, the shows were great, service was always horrible and reservation system never worked. No matter how busy we were, we were always behind on reservations. No matter what, you waited. If it was Saturday, you waited an hour.
Sadly we were there about 2 months. It hasn’t changed at all. The air conditioning system still doesn’t work, the exhaust system doesn’t work. The host/​hostesses were rude and quite frankly dumb as a stump.
I worked for benihana from age 15 to 37. I loved working there but they just can’t seem to fix the very basics of the restaurant. They have a very fancy web site with reservation system, but they haven’t figured out how to keep a reservation.

Benihana used to be my all time favorite restaurant. Yes, I know. What was I thinking? I was young, naïve, and I didn’t really know what the culinary world had to offer. After Benihana and I broke up because I began my love affair with being a foodie, I didn’t visit for a very long time. Recently, I went out to dinner and Benihana was brought up as a place to go, and I was intrigued to see if it was as I remembered.
Benihana is exactly the same as it has been for years. The food taste the same, the chefs are the same, etc. What has changed are the hostesses. They were not very friendly and I was surprised at how rude they were. Why was I surprised? I don’t know, this is Miami. But, Benihana has always had decent hostesses so I guess I expected more. For my meal, I decided to get something different. I was a firm believer in the goodness that was the hibachi chicken, but I wanted to expand my palate and I tried the yakisoba. The yakisoba was really great. I love noodles and it was cooked perfectly.
Will I visit Benihana anytime soon? I don’t know. It’s a good place, but we already broke up and I don’t know if I want to go down that road again.