Benihana - Torrance, CA

1st time visiting. It was great environment and food was delicious. Can’t wait for the restaurant to open fully. I would love to experience the chef cooking in front of us.

Food is okay. Hostess is not informative on the wait time for people with reservations.

I just wished we were all a table apart. Overall the experience was amazing.

Service was horrible, food was cold

Nice to visit again. The only flaw is that the chefs cook at an adjacent table - taking away from the overall experience. I with this would have been known before arriving. Everything else was as advertised, and the servers work very hard to please everyone.

Didn’t expect food to be cooked at a different table. It’s like take out but eating on the table with no cook.
Was not offered photo for birthday party, could of had this at home with our own photos. This place is really going down hill fast in my opinion. I will not go back after this pandemic experience or not.

Experience different than in past, but expected. Dinner not cooked in front of you, but off to side of you and then served at once. Same great taste, same great service even though they are trying to get their footing in this new Covid age. No birthday pictures but they still honor the birthday club certificates. Felt great to have indoor dining again and see familiar faces...we go often!

The only complaint is we didn’t get the true Benihana experience due to the chef not cooking in front of us. Our chef was behind us. Didn’t get the show.

The chef no longer cooks in front of you but it was still fun and food is still tasty.

Can’t wait for a full re-open with chef at our table. Diners want the experience.

When they are seating you, ask for a table away from infants. Parents today don't try to keep their babies quiet.

Hostess was not approachable or seemed very nice, she looked at us up and down and did notify us that the cook will be cooking to the side of us and not In front of us due to the pandemic. However, the waitress made it up with her great bubbly customer service and of course the food was amazing!!!!

The miso soup was lukewarm as was the hot saki. Saki was remedied. Chateaubriand was cooked to perfection! I miss the entertainment of the chefs...heavy sigh!

We were not told that the food will not be cooked in front of us and was instead brought to us by our server. That really took away the whole experience.

The greeter at check-in had attitude and looked overwhelmed. We had a reservation and he snarkily told us that we definitely would not be let in any time soon and that he couldn’t give us an estimate on the waiting time. We were eventually seated after waiting approximately 30 minutes (with a reservation). Luckily our waitress was great and food was good.

Lovely lunch at BeniHana. Appreciated the Covid precautions 👍🏼

We are glad they are available for indoor. It is not as fun with the chef cooking it away from you. We had to ask to do some tricks

Upon arrival we had to stand outside, in line while waiting for someone to come out and check us in. Despite having reservations we were told it may be a 40 minute wait. We were asked to wait in the car until our table was ready and we would receive a text message. Thankfully the wait was around 15 minutes and we were led to our table. The food and service was good, as usual but around the halfway point of our dinner the guests that arrived and sat at the table next to us were extremely loud and vulgar. Our 10 year old was with us and we didn’t appreciate the negative influence. We told the manager of the situation when he asked how we were doing but there was nothing said to them and we had to endure until our departure.

Food was typical of Benihana. It was a bit weird to see it so lonely and of course not the same when they don’t cook the food in front of you but understandable why...

We had reservations. then it still took about 15 minutes before we were seated. It looked a little chaotic like they didn’t know what they were doing with the people that had reservations and people that were picking up food orders.. People were picking up orders that had been waiting for an hour or so. I think hopefully with time everything will become more structured

I’m never the one to write a review but this time I’ve had it. I understand that they are just re-opening due to COVID but if they weren’t ready they should of just stayed closed a little bit longer. First off I came at 2:05pm because I had a reservation at 2:15pm I waited because the host said that I needed to wait a bit longer because they were backed up . It’s fine I understood her. She told me that she would call me when a table cleared. I waited exactly 1hr before a manager walked out trying to sit a new party of 3 I then asked him if he knew how many more minutes I had to wait he then questioned me about where did I do the reservation or what time. I told him he said he didn’t have me in the system I look at my open table app and it said canceled. As we walked in the restaurant the host said she forgot to put me in the system but she knew we were there. Yet she admitted that she didn’t add me to the system. I came in to the restaurant and I’ve seen 2 family’s that came after us inside the restaurant. I then went back to my app and seen that they changed it to my reservation being back instead of saying canceled. By the way I did my reservation 4 days before coming. Also we didn’t get to eat the lunch special because it was pass 3 which once again it wasn’t our fault. Better off going to the Downey one

Service was not provided, until I asked for their corporate office's number.

We had a reservation and when we arrived they told us we had to wait 45-1 hour.

Benihana Torrance did a great job returning to indoor dining. Cleaning protocols and social distancing were enforced and we had a great meal!

Benihana's is great ! Great food and wonderful service !

was excited to eat inside again missed benihanas was a good experience enjoyed it a few glitches but thats to be expected glad you are open again and staff back to work

Food was good service was good . Had a great dinner with my wife.

My fried rice had no flavor

The food was cold when we received it and we received our order wrong. I personally love Benihana but out door dinning is not for this place. I was very disappointed

When I made the reservations online it didn’t state we will be eating outside not enough heat lamps and it was cold!

Will not come back, hostess very rude

Although we normally love the Benihana Restaurant experience, the outside dining doesn't come close. We won't be dining there again until it's back to normal, inside dining.

I will never return , I found a broken tooth in my rice and it wasn’t mine. The manager was disconcerned didn’t charge us for the meal, but charged us for the drinks.

being outside missing the show that makes benihana benihanna was a bummer. the food arrived cold and whoever prepared it went black pepper crazy. they had to take my husbands food back and microwave it (totally could have done that at home) . the food wasn't good at all especially for the amount of money it cost. probably could have had a better dinner at dennys.

We usually love to din in here all the time but our experience on Monday was some not some thing week enjoyed the server was very rude and when we got our food it was cold

The food was way too cold when I got it and it’s overpriced for the quality of food that I was provided.


I don’t think I’ll be coming back again

(Multiple complaints regarding the cold food from other customers as well)

The food just isn’t as hot and the servings are notably smaller compared to when they cook at your table on the grill. I Lao requested a high top and they had given to a random walk-in instead of reserving it - not cool. But the servers are friendly and helpful, and the food is still good enough that I will continue to come, albeit not quite as often.

The server was amazing! The food was cold. The female manager was rude when addressing customers who was looking to walk-in vs. make a reservation.

This was one of the worst experiences I have ever had at Benihana. We were a party of 3 with reservations. We arrived on time. We waited at the entrance for an extended period. When the hostess did arrive, she bypassed us, dropped off a “to go” order, passed us a second time to reenter the restaurant, and then came out again and greeted us. I was a bit irritated at the lack of acknowledgment, but I remained silent. We were shown to our table which was neither cleaned nor prepared. After the table was cleaned, we sat and prepared to order. Our waiter took the beverage order and left. While sitting, we saw our waiter leaving the premises headed toward his car. He never once stated to us that he would be leaving. He didn’t “hand us off” to another waiter. He simply left. A second waiter appeared and he was kind. He did his absolute best but the less than stellar experience was already in the making. The food arrived - cold! The food was so cold, the garlic butter wasn’t afforded the opportunity to melt when added to my fried rice. I asked that my soup and plated meal be warmed in the microwave. It was returned to me hot, but it just wasn’t the same. I was disappointed in the experience, to say the least.

I know the pandemic has created a lot of scurry and impromptu dining objectives and procedures. I really hope that the Benihana experience improves.

Engagement