A friend recently turned 30th and before heading out for her birthday drinks, I treated my other half to Benihana in St Paul’s based in the Grange Hotel. Benihana is a global teppanyaki chain, where food is combined with entertainment provided by the chef.
We checked in with the restaurant and were guided to our dinner table, which we shared with a further 4 diners. The table is surrounded by a hot plate where the chef is paced behind to cook your food.
Before looking through the main menu we ordered our drinks: a lychee cocktail and sake, both looked very appealing. We then opted for the ‘Specialities Dinners’ which include Japanese onion soup, Benihana salad, prawn appetiser, hibachi vegetables, steamed rice and Japanese tea. There were 7 speciality meals to choose from I opted for the a ‘Benihana Delight’ (£36.00) which included juicy prawns and chicken and my other half decided on the ‘Seafood Palace’(£49.50) which included lobster, black cod, salmon and scallops.
Before the chef entertainment began we were given the Japanese onion soup followed by the salad:
The Hibachi vegetables were cooked first followed by the prawn appetiser then the rice:
After this the seafood is cooked, followed by the chicken and beef if ordered by the diners on the table.
The Benihana experience is pricey but good, our lively chef kept us entertained by dicing, slicing, creating big flames and antics like juggling, fast knife chopping and bad jokes.
The ingredients used were all top notch and fresh and seeing them being cooked in front of your eyes was a great fun. The food tasted really good too and we had no complaints, having two other diners on our table that we talked and engaged with, made the experience that much fun. I would recommend Benihana for group bookings.
