Benihana

If you've never  heard of this restaurant...YOU. ARE. MISSING. OUT.
That said, the first thing you should do is get in your car and drive all the way to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, or Torrance and EAT from there. 

The beautiful temple-decorated restaurant.....*drum roll* BENIHANA


This is one of the few restaurants that provides genuine, authentic, extremely delicious food that would have even you (who probably has never tasted actual Japanese food) say, "Go-chisousama!" -meaning, you had a very good meal.

So, why is Benihana so great, you may ask? Well, as shown in the picture above, this is an interactive meal, where the cooking is part of the entertainment! Every chef in the restaurant prepares the food directly in front of you, and in every occasion, they'll manage to make you laugh, or at the very least crack a smile.


I've been to Benihana about 5 times, so I know the gist of the place, and I'll explain the routine as best I can.

When you walk in, your things are laid out, you can usually alternate between using a fork or chopsticks like typical Japanese restaurants.

1) The waiter takes your order since they need to know which ingredients to give the chef when he comes to cook for you and brings you your drinks, as well. The last time I went, we had a coupon for Benihana that they send to you the month of your birthday so you can get a free Japanese mug, so my sister got the Buddha, and I got a woman in a kimono. Although the last picture shows that there are many many more choices to choose from!
 

2) The waiter asks you if you prefer soup or salad. The soup is a mushroom onion soup and I HIGHLY recommend it, but a lot of people tend to choose the Caesar salad. To each their own.


3) They bring you sauces to put in your food, but I never use them, haha.



4) After this, you have to wait a while for the chef to arrive, but when he does, he pulls up a small cart with all of the utensils he'll need. It'll be a table exactly like this one, which is the typical arrangement in most Benihana restaurants.


5) He'll start off by making the fried rice (or serve you the white rice, but again, I recommend fried rice) and then go on to make noodles for the ones who ordered, hibachi chicken and sushi...and so on. Each time he finishes making a specific thing, he serves it drops the food on the plates for each person that are around the grill. If you notice in the picture above, the plates are ALWAYS next to the grill, and each plate has a serving of something.


6) The chef will clown around! This is typical, and nearly every chef has a lot of charisma, their jokes are usually funny so don't worry about that.

7) After they're nearly done, they'll start to clean up the grill, so you can evidently see that the conditions are very sanitary, which is very important. 

8) EAT! I usually order from the kids' menu, and in case you guys didn't know...I EAT A LOT but I can never finish my meal because the entire meal is too much. You're most likely going to have leftovers and that's really awesome! Reheated Benihana food is still delicious.

On a scale from one to ten, I give Benihana a 100 because it's such a good restaurant it breaks the scale. 
Take your kids, take your fiance, take your sister-in-law, they'll appreciate it more than any boring trip to typical places like Olive Gardens or TGIF's. Just saying....