I've been going to Benihana for years. I feel over the years the service, the workers, and the experience has gone downhill tremendously. I went just two days ago with my boyfriend, he had never been and I was a little embarrassed to experience the dinner with him considering I talked it up so much. (We both work in a fine dining steakhouse)
First we walked in, the hostess was not friendly and told us the wait would be twenty minutes when there were MANY tables open, her verbiage was very off and not professional at all. We waited. The server was not good. He forgot a fork for my boyfriend, and told me my tea was not complimentary refill. He took forever getting out soups and salads out and our whole table was not happy.
We ordered a tempura banana for dessert and it took 30 minutes just for the dessert. What got to me the most is before we even got our dessert, the staff were cleaning up to close. We understand putting things away, and simple "closing" duties, but they pulled out the VACCUM and he was vacuuming around our table and the whole restaurant!!! Totally unacceptable and very appalled that this happened.