My wife got me the BEST GIFT EVER for my birthday - the Master Teppanyaki Chef Experience (www.benihana.com/bethechef)! I love teppanyaki probably more than I should and definitely more than anyone in my family so I don't get to go as often as I would like. I mean it's dinner AND a show! How can it NOT be awesome with fancy food tricks, fried rice, shrimp, and steak? Mix in some saki bombers and you can't go wrong.
For the Master Chef Experience you are trained at the fine art of teppanyaki then are able to bring your friends/family in for dinner that you cook. Training is held Monday through Thursday at 1:00ish which I guess is understandable because they don't want you messing around with knives and hot food in the midst of the lunch or dinner rush. It still pisses me off though because I work during normal business hours. I guess it is a small price to pay to hopefully make a fire volcano and fling some shrimp at my wife.
The training was awesome. My personal teppanyaki chef/teacher (Hideo) and I pretty much had the place to ourselves so I would not be embarrassed if I sprayed rice everywhere. The training took about 30 minutes and my teacher pretty much went over everything. He taught me some tricks, some jokes and of course some safety stuff that went in one ear and out the other. The whole thing was a blast.
On the day of the big even where I would cook for my family they gave me an apron and chefs hat so I looked pretty legit. Everything went off without a hitch and I made some awesome teppanayaki. My technique still needs some work but I did excellent for my first time.
Anyway, the whole experience was a blast and I would recommend it to anyone. The manager (I don't have his name) and Hideo were awesome and really did make the whole thing special throughout my training and main event.