Benihana Piccadilly: 37 Sackville Street, London W1S 3EH
Contact: 0207 494 2525 http://www.benihana.co.uk/piccadilly_benihana.html
Price: £30 5 course set menu
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Since Benihana first burst onto the New York dining scene in 1964 it has wowed diners around the world with theatrics and simple but effective Japanese food in teppanyaki style. I went on a busy Friday night to the Mayfair branch with Monsieur and another friend, MM. As a fan of Japanese food, MM was curious as to what the Benihana experience involved. We made the booking on Tuesday afternoon, seemingly with the rest of London seeing as the pre 9:30pm slots disappeared before our eyes!
Onion Ring Volcano
Upon arrival at the restaurant, we were escorted to our seats and walked passed the other grill stations, which were buzzing with activity. Knife juggling, flames and the smell of sizzling food whet our appetite for the experience ahead. Six other diners joined us around the grill station and we waited expectantly for our chef. We opted for the special 5 course menu consisting of salad, soup, appetiser, grilled meat and seafood combo with fried rice and ice cream. We ate our salad and soup while being entertained by the theatrics of our appetisers being prepared. The onion ring volcano with smoke and flames was the highlight. The salad was a basic iceberg lettuce and tomato version with a gingery, tangy dressing. The soup was a simple, warming onion broth – nothing special really. The appetiser consisted of grilled king prawns, courgette and onions from the volcano with 2 dipping sauces – horseradish and zingy ginger.
Main course
We were “treated” to more juggling and cheesy jokes while the main course was prepared. Unfortunately our chef wasn’t as skilled at juggling as the others around us so we missed out on some of more adventurous tricks but we didn’t miss out on witnessing expert cutting skills. We had steak, prawns, chicken and did a little swap on the salmon with each other. Everything was cooked perfectly (I suppose the pressure of cooking in front of the diners brings out the best in the chefs) and the egg fried rice was tasty and a generous portion for me. The quality of the meat and seafood was decent for the price we paid. We had the same dipping sauces for the main meal. The dessert included in this set menu was a small scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream with real vanilla pod – a bit lacking in imagination.
If you’ve never been to Benihana before, I suggest you go for the experience. It`s entertaining, fun and the food is decent. Book before Tuesday in advance of the weekend though otherwise you’ll be dining way into the night!
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