benihana.

Though group projects have been quite a bugger this year, my FSA group took a trip to Benihana, the company we're researching, for some "due diligence."

I've never really been a fan of Benihana, and this trip did not change my opinion. To start with service, it was below par at this branch. There weren't enough staff on duty, with our waitress often leaving mid-sentence to attend to other customers, and the chef was uncharasmatic, under-wowing, and quite awkward. It is really loud in the restaurant, because of the many birthday celebrations and drunk corporate folk, and therefore hard to have a pleasant conversation.

And the food. Oye the food - so mediocre and overpriced. The premium for the "theatrics" wasn't even justified as our chef did his mandatory two tricks and moved on. The "Japanese" meat is just flavored with "Japanese" soy sauce and "Japanese" salt/pepper (our chef kept saying that for some reason). Throw in some grilled veggies here and there (also flavored with the Japanese soy sauce) and you've got a $40 dollar dent in your wallet.