"The World's Most Famous Restaurant"

"The World's Most Famous Restaurant" is what Benihana boastingly call themselves on front of the menu I looked at in their Encino, CA location. It was my long-awaiting first experience at the well known Japanese Teppanyaki steakhouse and after eating, I realized I wasn't quite sure what I expected to be so impressive there in comparison with other Japanese Teppanyaki restaurants. I have always loved Teppanyaki restaurants: consistently delicious at all places I have had it and always one of the more entertaining dining experiences I can think of.

The menu offered quite a large selection. Of course, I was only interested in the traditional steak, chicken and shrimp selections which all included soup, salad and dessert.. After a few minutes of indecisiveness, I decided to go with with the Benihana Excellence: shrimp with teriyaki beef and green onions.

After I got started on my hot sake (which is the guilty culprit behind my lack of pictures for this entry) we were brought out soup. I was expecting miso even though the menu said our dinner included 'Japanese Onion Soup.' Definitely not miso and not anything I had tried before. It tasted a lot like very thin french onion soup. Not bad. Almost too quickly after the soup they brought the salad. Plain iceberg lettuce with a few shredded radishes and carrots with my absolute favorite thick ginger dressing.

The chef came before I had finished my salad and began grilling the vegetables. Zucchini and the onion volcano were first, along with a small side of shrimp:



Soon after, the chef added sliced mushrooms to our plates. Next was the fried rice which unfortunately my boyfriend and I did not order. Watching the chef make the fresh fried rice (with chicken!) was probably my favorite part of the show.


Doesn't that look tasty?

At this point I was the only one distracted enough with my Sake that I hadn't finished more than half of my veggies by the time the chef got around to the meats.


My Teriyaki beef was the last thing to be finished up


My experience at Benihana defintely felt rushed and very commericalized in comparison with the few other similar places I had been. The food was excellent, however the dining experience was lacking in the 'flair' that Benihana brags about. A successful company, I could see that it was important part of their business model to turn customers in and out as quickly as possible, which for me hindered the dining experience. I would consider going back, but not after visiting at least a few more smaller non-chain Teppanyaki restaurant next time I am craving.