A Very Benihana Christmas

I hadn’t been across the magical doors of a Benihana, it’s something that just hadn’t seem to pop up, so when I had a chance to, I had to go. Yes, this is probably some watered-down restaurant version of something somewhere, but so what if it is? It’s amazing and for those that truly enjoy what they are doing here, happiness is blissful. You walk in to an Asian themed space with grill tops scattered around, chairs surrounding them. For a second I was confused if I was in Pittsburgh or an Asian Pagoda. We were ushered into the back and our group took up a whole table.

I ordered the steak meal with chicken fried rice, this is a five-course meal with soup, salad, vegetables, rice (mine was fried with Chicken), shrimp, and of course steak with mushrooms. Two sauces came with it, one being yum yum sauce and the other being a ginger sauce I believe. The yum-yum sauce was preferred but the ginger was good. They brought out the soup and salad for us to start with. The onion soup was full of sodium, it was noticeable, but I didn’t hate this, nothing a few waters before didn’t help with. It’s a rich sodium filled soup with a few mushrooms (I assume) floating around, overall very enjoyable. The salad had a light ginger dressing on it that complimented the light lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes.

While eating the first two courses the Teppanyaki chef came out and was having a blast with us while the grill was heating up. He loved that we were doing sake bombs the right way, even slamming the table for us to knock the hot sake into the Sapporo beer. The chef started with the chicken fried rice which combines ten ingredients into the rice (rice, garlic sauce, chicken, onions, carrots, scallions, eggs, soy sauce, safflower oil, and sesame seeds). This combination was folded together by the chef to create something amazing. By this time, the griddle was fired up and of course an onion volcano whiped the crowd up into a frenzy, quickly then moving onto the vegetables and shrimp. Seasoning each with such care that it makes one wonder what it is that calls one to this career and then concludes that it will not be understood by those on the outside but only those who have chosen this path. The steak and mushrooms are the last things that are put on the grill, cooked to a perfect medium rare with garlic butter encapsulating the flavor all around it. The plate will be overflowing with food by the time it’s all done, I didn’t finish everything but made sure to finish the steak as I didn’t think it would keep that well. All in all, this was a great time, and that may be because I was there with friends but I would say that you should go to a Benihana with friends, the food is good but all together it becomes an experience if done with friends.

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