| rev:text
| - Benihana.
Outside of hearing about in The Wolf of Wall Street and hearing about it in a few movies, I didn't know much about them.
Benihana is all about the performance. It is surreal to see the chef performing in front of you. The chefs I have seen have been very entertaining, and it was the most enjoyable aspect of the experience (outside of the main course).
Soup: Their version of Miso soup is meh. It is a watery miso soup with little fried onion slivers in the bottom of the bowl. There is also a few green onion pieces in the bowl. It was disappointing to the say the least.
Salad: Ack! This is not a great experience! The salad is just a hodgepodge of different veggies with a drizzle of their insipid dressing. It is just this orange/yellow goo. It is like the people in the back blew their nose into bowl. I keep forgetting to tell them to hold the salad. Torture should not be part of my dining experience...
Appetizer: This is when things start to really pick up. The hibachi shrimp beyond tasty, and the two sauces really help the experience. I started to actually enjoy this restaurant.
Fried Rice: If you order white rice, they will bring it to you from the back. If you ordered the fried rice, they will prepare it right in front of you. It is really good, and it is makes elevates the experience seeing it made fresh right in front of you.
Main Course: Will the chef makes the hibachi vegetables, they will do a little show with that. They will make a little volcano with the white onion. They will also do a train as well. It is kind of funny seeing it for the first time. It really makes you feel like a kid, and the vegetables are great when cooked on the grill.
Both times I went to Benihana, I went with the Hibachi Supreme (Chateaubriand and Lobster) and the Benihana Trio (Filet Mignon, Chicken, Colossal Shrimp in lemon butter). My wife and I both enjoy the Chateaubriand from Benihana. It is her favorite in the valley (her all-time favorite is the Chateaubriand from Bern's in Tampa, FL, but no one can really compete with that). The Benihana trio gives you more food, but the Hibachi Supreme is better tasting. So, I guess it is a trade-off there.
Dessert: Since I went with their specialty selection, I get a bowl of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. There is only three flavors (strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla). Both times I have been here, I went with chocolate. My second evening here, they poured chocolate sauce over it. That was pretty good. But, it is still just Häagen-Dazs ice cream that you can buy from the store. So, it is good, but not great.
Overall, the four stars is over the main course and the appetizer. The point deduction is mostly from the salad (ack!), and their Miso/Onion soup doesn't set the world on fire. I will go there, but I would skip their salads. They are not worth it.
Price: the price for food is lower than what you would pay at Donovan's, Flemings, etc, but it is higher than the typical asian restaurants (it costs a little bit more than P.F. Chang's). I did not feel cheated, and the quality of the main course and appetizer more than made up for it.
I will definitely go back to Benihana's in Scottsdale!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)