Benihana - San Francisco

Had to wait long time for service after seated. Atmosphere and furnishings looked s little tired. Noise level high. Food quality not high. Aroma of salmon not pleasing.

My sons’ birthday.

After we were seated, we waited over an hour until our chef appeared.
I spoke to the manager and he said they were having trouble managing the employees' mandated break times. He agreed to take 15% off of our check. But I had 2 small kids in my party who were practically asleep before the food came.

The host was rude, they sat us about 30minutes late. But we took that time to have a drink at the bar. Waitress forgot two of our orders. She was very nice. Would I go back? Prolly not for the price.

The restaurant closed.
Very bad, very folt .

Lunch was absolutely delicious! My dad had scallops, my mom had a filet, and I had the spicy hibachi chicken. We kept talking about the wonderful experience on the way home!

Three hours. Sat one hour after reservation. Then sat at table for 90 minutes before chef arrived. Sunday night. 8:15pm reservation. Left after 11pm. Should have walked out.

I have been going to Benihana for 49 years and l have never been treat like l was treated on Sunday at 2:00 by the manger in the plaid shirt our reservations was for 2:15 everyone except my 77 years old sister was there she came about 2:25 she walks with a cane and is a little slow when we check in the manger in the plaid shirt said one minute which turn in to 20 mins and then when they sat us down it was another 2o mins another came in after us and the waiter came offer them water took their drinks and no one came to our table l had to get up and go to the front desk to get a waiter the young man had a pony tail with missing hair spots in the back of his head he took our food and drink order it was about 3:00 he never came back it was 3:25 and l had to go to the front desk again. The manger in the plaid shirt never helps us it was an older asian lady who l knew who had work there for a few years that help us. They end up changing waiters and gave us another waitress that had to take our order all over Billy the cook was very very good it was my daughter 18 birthday and her feelings were extremely hurt she had been coming to Bennihana since birth and it was her favorite place to go no one bother to even sing her happy birthday after we told them it was her birthday yet they sung happy birthday to other tables l don’t want to think they did not want to provide us service because of the color of our skin but it does make sense we were not loud or disrespectful even after it took an hour before anyone waited on us this was really really hurtful because they ruin my daughter birthday

I use to always recommend Benihana Sf to friends and family all over when they come to the bay area however my most recent experience wasnt even near good . Terrible service from management . Reservations were at 4pm didnt sit down and get a glass of water until 5 pm and the service was extremely slow. When I went to talk to the manager he showed no concern he seemed a little overwhelmed even tho it really wasn't even that busy .

Yummy and fun experience!

Was not as good this time. May be due to the earliest dinner time. Our reservation was for 4 pm this time
The miso soup was watered down and hardly any mushrooms in the soup. Just no taste as compared to other times we have been there.

We did not get the festive birthday celebration which was expected. The hostess did not have a camera to highlight our visit. I had to let her use my camera to take the birthday group picture. Disappointed ☹️ this time.

Hopefully it will be better next time.

The service was very slow even though the restaurant was not that busy at lunch time. The food was not as good as it used to be. Not sure if it is the preparation but it does not have the same taste as it used to in the restaurants hey day. And best in mind that the price is not affordable as well. Disappointed to see this place go down in quality and service.

I've been in many places like this and the show was not as good as I have seen in other places.

Had to wait 45-1 hour for the chef to make his way to our table.

We waited too long and there were not enough Chefs to serve all the reservations.

We waited over an hour before they started cooking on the grill. We had 5 kids and 2 adults so it was way too long to keep up waiting. Very disappointing considering the expense of the meal.

Always a great place to go with friends, family, on a date. This time I went on a date. Food was great as always, the Chef was awesome and wildly entertaining, one of the best experiences I've had while going to Benihana. Only problem was the waitress. Standing around, I ordered drinks several times and kept having to remind her while she was watching the Chef that I needed assistance. It seemed like a chore to her that I needed water/refreshments. Also ordered an appetizer which took forever just for some Edemame. Definitely seemed like she forget/didn't care. Other than the lagging waitress everything was awesome.

I dont know what happen since the last rime i was there. But the portions got smaller the menu has changed and worst of all that wasnt yum yum that was served. Idk what the hell that was. But if this is what all the benihana have changed to i wont b back ever.

Service was extremely slow

Waiting time of 45 min even with reservation and more than 30 min to start cooking

Bday event, entertaining and attentive staff. Superior service, great atmosphere.

This place hands down is better then the Cupertino Location !!! It was quite busy, but what place isn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️ What mattered the most was that the service and staff were still awesome despite how hectic it was. I will most definitely be back again and the chef who cooked for us was beyond exceptional!!! Great talent and by far the best one i have seen get down to set a fun ambient at the table .

Service has gone way down. We used to go for fun for every birthday. Kids always had a great time but the service is terrible now. Always appear to be short staffed. Unfortunate

We had a great experience celebrating a family birthday.

wife’s birthday

The waiter forgot my ice cream but other than that everything was okay

The restrooms were extremely dirty. Our waitress staff was was extremely slow.

We had 7pm reservations and arrived on time. We were told that our table would be ready shortly. At 7:30, I checked in with the host and she said they were waiting for some people to leave so they could seat us. At 7:45 we got called for our table. 7:45!!!!! What’s the point of making a reservation if you are gonna seat us 45 mins later???

We get to the table, our server comes over and takes our drink orders. She comes back with only half of the tables drinks. The people that ordered alcohol. I guess since we ordered water we had to wait. But as I look over she brought those customers their waters. Our server then spends next 10 mins talking to the other side of our table and never once checked on us. Once she finally stopped talking I asked about our waters and she goes “ yeah, it’s coming!”

We finally get our waters and orders taking. By the time our chef got to the table it was 9:30. (That’s almost sitting at the table for 2 hours if you are keeping track) I was planning to be out of the restaurant by that time since I had an early morning. We didn’t get done with our meal until 10:30. Then our server took forever to bring the check and our change. It was a very horrible experience. I’ve eaten here a few times but this was the worst.

Our waiter had five tables (which is apparently too many) and they were short cooks. None our fault. But we waited a long time between "courses" and when asking for our check was told by our waiter about his 5 tables and we would "just have to wait.". Not okay.

The food was really good. Our cook was nice and fun, but we waited more than 1 hour till we start dinner!

Have dinner reservation at 4:45pm but have to wait 20 min more to add more people on the table and will not take order unless all the people sitted together on the table are ready, total waste of time of waiting since the other party is still waiting for another person to join in.

Reservation times seem to be a vague notion here. We were made to wait 25 minutes after our reservation time, and the wait looked worse for others. And since so many of us had kids, that’s a miserable situation. The place seemed understaffed.

I end up at Benihana about 4 times/year for birthdays. Overall we had a positive experience, but we waited 30 minutes to be seated (we had a reservation) and then almost an hour between our salads and the chef showing up at our table. (they seem to have been short handed).

we had a 2 year old. They did not bring us kids menu. Our chef was kind of just doing the bare minimum in terms of doing tricks. Other tables seemed to have a lot more fun. I won’t come back.

The first Benihana, 2009 and again this time 2019, it just gotten better. Brian is a good entertainer and chef as well. We're from Vacaville n will be back for more. Thank you. An excellent dinner we had.

If you hate yourself, eat here. This is probably one of the most horrific establishments in all of California, let alone the Bay Area. If you hate yourself and want to put yourself through the most horrific misery you’ve ever experienced then eat here! But if you have any half ounce of respect, do yourself a favor and go anywhere else in all of San Francisco. The service is absolute crap. The food is disgusting. The bartenders have no idea what they are doing. And management is horrific. Seriously if you eat here you are an idiot, because no self-respecting human being would ever eat in this establishment. Do yourself a favor, and run far away from this place.

The waitress was super nice but the receptionists were rude and unfriendly. We got a great chef and food tastes wonderful.

Slow service, had to go to bar to get own drinks
restaurant in run down and dirty
bathroom mirror all scratched in graffiti
chef was good regardless

Server was not feeling it. Probably our 100th time doing a beni bday no surprises. Our chef wasn’t super friendly but definitely did a good job not overcooking my steak. Fun, is it worth it though?

This was one of the worst dining experiences we've had in years. Went there to celebrate a senior person's birthday and had a party of 5. We walked in the door a little early and were met by a very unfriendly reception Nothing professional here in the least.

We waited in the bar area. Everyone had drinks that were totally watered down. The wait staff was not interested in taking our order or bringing us our drinks when we finally put in our order. They were very busy huddling in small groups just hanging out. The facility itself is in serious need of cleaning and renovation.

When we finally were seated we waited at least 30 minutes before anyone came to show the least amount of interest in taking our food order. It appeared that they had not scheduled enough chefs so we had to wait until other people were seated and then the chef prepared their meal. It wasn't like they singled us out for poor service, but that is just the way they worked it. I spent $300 on meals and drinks for 5 people, and was thoroughly disgusted with the whole experience. Had our elderly birthday person not wanted to come here so much, we would have left after the first 15 minutes of being there. We will never go back.