This establishment is pretty posh. Â This Benihana's is without a doubt my favorite hibachi restaurant in the state of New Jersey. Â Located on top of a hill gives it a secluded feel. Â The view inside of the restaurant is very nice. Â Inside and out! Â What's great about this hibachi place is that the host does not wait to fill a table before a server is sent over. Â Some places make 2 people who walked in first wait 10 minutes until a party of 5 shows up and is seated immediately because they have to complete a table. Â This establishment understands customer service and nobody waits if they don't have to. Â Service was top notch and relatively fast. Â Food is always excellent! Â This is a must visit hibachi restaurant in NJ.
Review Source:I love Benihana. Â I have since the 70's. Â The Short Hills Benihana is conveniently located off the highway and right near my house. Â My family goes often and we enjoy the spectacle as well as the food. Â The seafood with hot sauce and noodles is great and really hot. Â Sushi bar and drinks are also fun here. Â I sometimes stop here after work for a quick drink. Â We celebrate the kid's birthdays here every year. Â Service is always excellent. Â I could eat here every day and never get bored. Â Is it haute cuisine? Â No. Â Is it really good all the time? Â Hell yeah.
Review Source:Came here for dinner one night simply for hibachi and boy was I unimpressed. Being that this place is erected on a hill with a grand entrance, I thought maybe it would be a little upscale than usually. FAIL. I walked in and saw three female hostesses at the front desk, chitchatting away. The three of them did not even look our way as we approached the desk until the female who sharing her story was done. WOW.
After telling her that we were a party for two she was able to sit us immediately. Okay, fine. So we were sat together with a few other couples waiting for our server to approach us. She took our drink orders and food orders and came back in minutes with drinks, soup and salad. Before you know it, the chef was at the table ready to whisk us away with his magical hibachi tricks.
Food was just okay. By the looks of how the chicken came out, it looked like the temperature setting of the cooking top was a little too high. Our food was okay. The shrimp was great, the chicken was subpar and the steaks were satisfactory. Our fried rice however was a little garlic-y.
I was surprised at how we got green tea after our meals. That was something I never experience. It wasnt necessary, but nice.
After all was said and done, we left again passing the hostess table and again, they were in their own little world. One of us had to say "have a good night" first!
What a letdown. Â Went here to celebrate my Dad's bday. Â First, no one was at the front desk for at least 10 mins to seat people. Â There were 2 other parties who arrived and just stood there waiting. Â The chefs were boring. Â No expressions, no joy, no interaction with the guests. Â We looked around maybe just our table but this was the case at most other tables as well. Â We went specifically to hibachi for a show otherwise it would have been better just visiting a regular restaurant. Â We had one person in our party with food allergy and the cook was totally insensitive and made a rude face when we told him not to put in butter and soy sauce in her dish. Â Food was very bland. Â I usually do not use any add-on seasoning but had to douse my steak with sauce. Â Fried rice is an additional charge whereas is included in most other places. Â Waitress service was fine but there was 18% service charge automatically added. Â Overall a disappointment, not the same Benihana experience we had a few years ago elsewhere.
Review Source:how can you not love this place. Its just fun and the food never disappoints. Dipping sauce is from the gods. Its not a couples restaurant so dont think you are going to have an intimate dinner. This is a place where you go and sit with random people possibly families with kids or other couples and have meaningless conversation, eat, laugh, drink, and leave. Some of these reviews take this place way too seriously. Just go and enjoy it. tip the chefs.
Review Source:Have been here many times. Each time there are gazillions of kids, screaming and yelling and doing anything they want. It's not great when you go with a date and you get distracted with kids throwing all their food up in the air. Parents, it's not cute. My guess is that these kids are the offspring of the Short Hills crowd who think their brats are above reproach. So, now we go to the Edison Benihana which has somewhat civilized kids who don't carry American Express Gold cards in  their wallets.
If you want to have a nice time, don't go to the Short Hills Benihana.
Also, I noticed that their mustard sauce, which used to taste like mustard sauce, has been watered down. I complained to Benihana and the next time it tasted like mustard sauce. However, several times after, it was back to the watered down version. My guess is that they are making the sauce less strong for the delicate American palate.
When my friends decided we should go here I was annoyed because I was on a diet and in my past experience at other hibachi places they drown the teriyakis in way too much unhealthy sauce. But I was very pleasantly surprised by Benihana. Our chef put just the right amount of sauce (not too much not too little) on my teriyaki. It tasted great, including the vegetables.
Review Source:I really don't like writing 2 star reviews...but I'm not one of those Yelpers whose gonna lie to you.
I have never been so disappointed in my life.
And this is from a guy who loves the NJ Devils and sat through their last two seasons.
First, I'm gonna let ya'll know that my girlfriend and I came here with $30 B-Day coupons. Our birthdays are 5 days a part and the coupons were gonna expire in less than 5 hours. So yeah, we had 2.
The waitress said we could only use it on things that had no alcohol in them or anything on the menu that didn't have the word 'Special' on it.
Okay, cool...I read the fine print. Not surprised.
Our waitress was awesome btw. My only gripe with her is that she didn't bring us any plates. Only gripe regarding her...she was like 4 out of 5.
We get a salad. Bland. Soup. lol. Gyoza. O RLY? Fried rice...
...this is what baffled me.
She got hibachi shrimp and I got hibachi chicken.
Neither come with rice, so we ordered rice.
And it came out before our meals.
We wanted it with our meals :-(
Her shrimp came with no mushrooms as it should have...and my chicken came with shrimp...as...it...shouldn't have.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY was there shrimp in my chicken!!!!
I was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out.
Oh wait! Amidst all the sub par and mediocrity, I forgot that there was a light in this bleak dark tunnel. A white light.
The white from the rice from the sushi we ordered.
The sushi was pretty good.
Now, where were we?
I dunno what it was, because I hate sodium...but I felt the need to dump the sauce onto my chicken. This is after I dumped soy sauce on it. My meal was like a classroom...
Chicken? "Here!"
Mushrooms? "Here!"
Shrimp? Shrimp! What are you doing here? You're in the wrong class!
(So I pulled him out of class and dumped him on the side with the left over wasabi)
Fried rice? "I've BEEN here and I'm cold!"
Oh yeah. Whoops.
Flavor? Flavor? Has anyone seen flavor!?
Nope. No one has because he wasn't there.
So I had to enroll soy sauce...poor soy sauce...he's usually in the sushi class on the other side of the table.
But not even this brilliant exchange student could save this class from a low average.
I dunno if us having coupons resulted in the cook intentionally crapping on the school system Chris Christie style, but DAMN Pink Floyd, we DO need some education up in here!
That is all.
Class dismissed.
So glad it was free like public education.
Thanks coupon from saving us from Ivy League prices. You were like scholarships.
I've been to Benihanas numerous times and have always enjoyed it. Make sure you get the fried rice, and the salad dressing is excellent. I usually get a combo hibachi dinner and like how they take the lobster tails out in front of you and present the meat in the tail after cooking.
The only "bad" things about Benihanas can be the wait: I've waited up to a half hour after my original reservation time, and the service: the girls at the bar are super slow and unfriendly and some of the waitresses are as well. I do love their sangria and have never had a bad chef. I also like how the manager will visit the tables to make sure things went well. It's the little things but they are important.
3 stars: one for the food, one for our waitress, and one for the manager who tried his absolute hardest to make up for our abysmal experience.
As others have stated, there's really no need to talk about the food. Benihana is a chain, the food is perfectly acceptable and quite consistent, both across restaurants and at this particular establishment. I've gone to the Short Hills Benihana many times before (let's say about 10). It is my go-to place with a specific group of friends, and tonight was no different.
I made an 8:30pm reservation for my party of 3 for hibachi. After a few "please wait"s from the front of house, we were seated by 8:40pm. Our waitress took our order and placed it at 8:45pm -- the computer print-out was placed at our table for the chef.
By 9:30pm, our chef had yet to show up. Furthermore, there were 3 tables in our direct line of sight that were seated after us that were already being served food. I stood up and walked to the front of house to ask for the manager, but the station was abandoned. I walked to the nearest waiter and requested the manager come find me at our table.
5 minutes later and we're still waiting for the manager. I stop the next waitress and ask her for the manager. The original waiter stops by and says, "Sorry, the manager is on his way, he's just really busy right now." 5 minutes later the manager (whose name I did not catch, and he did not offer) came by to speak to me.
The manager began to apologize profusely for the wait. He explained that in his establishment he sets a maximum 20 minutes between sitting a party at a table and having a chef come to begin cooking. He understood that it had been an hour and continued to apologize. I explained that I was so upset and appalled at the service here that I had personally lost my appetite and any desire to continue dining there. One of my friends actually ordered a sushi roll (received it and ate it) during our one hour wait to tide herself over. She did not have to do that -- bad service should not have to be compensated by purchasing more food in the meantime.
He explained that if he were in my situation, he would be just as furious. I wasn't angry, nor did I raise my voice -- I was just completely appalled by what my friends and I had been through. He offered to comp our entire meal, give free dessert, more drinks, and some sushi/sashimi/tempura to tide us over while the chef cooked our food. I explained that the combination of the large portion size of the meal -- as well as my general loss of appetite due to being upset -- made extra food unnecessary, but I appreciated the offer. My friends and I were very much set on speaking with him and leaving to go to a diner nearby, but the manager begged to make it up to us and allow him to serve us our food (and more), free of charge.
I give the manager (and his restaurant) an extra star. He handled the situation very well -- he managed to convince us to actually stay. His apologies felt sincere. He came back later to make sure everything was ok and I reiterated to him that I appreciated his gesture. I said, "Honestly, an hour wait is horrendous. Something failed logistically somewhere down the line and as a manager you need to know about it... and fix it." He nodded and thanked me for speaking with him as opposed to just walking out -- he said he would have a serious talk with the staff about it as he did not find it acceptable.
Our waitress came by afterwards many times, apologizing for what happened. We all understood it was not her fault, but it was clear she felt very bad. Our meal was comp'd, but we still tipped her. She was completely shocked, but we explained once again that it was not her fault. So an extra star for our waitress, who was there for us with taking our order, putting it in, giving us our soup, salad, water refills, drinks, and dessert.
Overall, definitely a roller coaster experience at this Benihana.
I think I must have been spoiled going to Arirang on Route 22 for Hibachi my entire life, but my experience at Benihana fell extremely short of expectations. I'd heard about Benihana forever, and decided to give it a shot a while ago...BAD MOVE.
Service was AWFUL. It took about 20 minutes to get drinks ordered, THEN we finally ordered our meal. The food in general just didn't taste good. Seasonings were a bit weird, appetizer soup was lukewarm, and the salad had bad dressing; and the main course of steak + chicken wasn't as flavorful as I expected. Again, maybe it's my tastebuds doin a little bit of "ARIRANG'S THE SHIT" and I just wasn't used to sub-par Hibachi, but I definitely won't come back here again (unless friends wanna go). I also got the feel others got here: NOT AUTHENTIC.
If you want GOOD HIBACHI for your money, I'd recommend going elsewhere!
Decided I wanted to go to Benihana's for my birthday....Made reservations for 7:30pm and arrived on time but, had to wait 1/2 hour to be seated....Young lady came around and took drink/food order after 5 minutes....waited again for 10 minutes for drinks (which was just water and soda) to arrive....soup,salad came shortly thereafter....nothing to brag about.....finally the "Japanese" cook (or lack there of, since he didn't speak english, had a Spanish accent and his name was Diego, and threw the tools at us a few times).....food was ahhhh, okay....nothing to write home about....they ask if you want fried rice, thinking it comes with the meal....(nope $3.25 per person, when you reveive bill)....I feel they should tell you about that...there isn't much organization as far as the food goes....you get cooked zucchini, your rice.....wait a few minutes then get cooked mushrooms and onions....then finally they cook whatever protein you ordered....I wish they cooked the meat first and as that was cooking they could cook the sides....so, that you would receive all of your food at the same time.....as soon as your somewhat finished they're rushing you to make your choice for dessert...ice cream....which is Haagen daz....sooooo good....they have no coffee only hot green tea....don' know why they couldn't have coffee.....my niece also brought a cake for us to have there....they lost the cake to finally find it after a 10 minute search....even though our name was on the box.....we had to cut the cake.....and after my husband cut everyone a piece the young lady came and said oh, you shouldn't have had to do that....oh well.....she took the cake back to the kitchen,tied it back up and to our surprise when we got home 1/2 of the cake was gone....and it was chopped to pieces....my husband didn't do that so someone else did?????? All in all it was okay....not sure if' I'd go back....bill was $160.00 for 4 adults and 1 child.
Review Source:Since it's Benihana, I don't think it needs any introduction because it's a chain restaurant. Â It's safe and reliable. Â The salad dressing is really good, and you are able to purchase it to bring home. Â I really like the dipping sauces and scallops.
True, you can say "this is so simple, I can make this at home", but what you pay for is the big hot cooking surface and high temperature you can't get at home ~_~ Â
The dinner filet and lobster combo is DELICIOUS!
A good go to place if you want sushi and hibachi.
Ok so i get it this place is a chain and the only reason i ate here is because my friend only eats chicken and rice and this was a place she could get that. Â First of all my server speaked zero english and i can forgive that if she was japenese. Â At least then i would get a more authentic feel but she wasn't. Â Next up the lunch special used to be like 5.95 now its double and i can forgive that and i understand inflation but the portions were also half the size they used to be.
I ordered the scallop hibachi lunch and a spicy tuna roll. Â The roll was all mayo mixture and no tuna and a poor spicy mayo mixture at that. Â My scallops were overcooked to the point that they had the consistency of a rubber bouncy ball. Â They forgot to put mushrooms on my plate. The veggies were bascially just sauteed onions and they no longer give you the noodles with the lunch special. Â Oh yea the tomatoes in the salad were the worst single grape tomato i had ever ingested. Â Ugh this place just sucks dont come here unless you are looking for a place to take your twelve year old and there 15 annoying friends for a birthday party, i guess then there ADHD can be temporarily cured by shirley temples, mediocre knife tricks and onion volcanos. Â CHeers
Every time I go here the food (especially sushi) is excellent. I think it's 10 times better than Arirang and it's more low key. I don't like to walk into a place and see drunk people spilling out everywhere and then watching them pull out onto 22. The service has also always been good when I went- I hate waiting around for them to come over and start cooking at Arirang but they will start cooking immediately at Benihana even if there's 2 people at your table.
Review Source:Service - 0.25 stars. Â Not a zero, because they showed up to work.
Food - "A-OK" which is 3 stars on Yelp for the Hibachi.
Cook - "Alex G." on name tag - if you want food cooked w/o conversation nor tricks, this is your guy. Â Won't bother you at all. Â Just cooks the food and goes.
NOTE: Â Plain "ALEX" (no last name on name tag) according to the name tag was at the table next door, and he was making so much noise, movement, tricks that our kids want to turn their seats around and watch him.
We went for the "Chef's Table" invitation I received for my birthday. Â But oddly enough, even though I presented the printout and my kids mentioned it, NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON ON THE STAFF said Happy Birthday, nor did they smile, during our entire visit. Â And don't tell me it is one of those stoic Asian things because I am Asian, and if I cooked a meal for you on your birthday, I'd be smiling and singing Happy Birthday every time.
If you're going to push out email promotions and have a big fat sign in the foyer about the "special" Chef's Table with "exclusive" experiences, etc, I would expect a Happy Birthday thrown in there somewhere...or at least a smile. Â C'mon Benihana.
We went on a Saturday for lunch. Â They open at 11:30a and apparently lock the doors until exactly 11:30a. Â So don't bother walking from your car to the door until 11:29:55am. Â BTW, Lunch specials are available 7-days a week now. Â So most of the "classic" steak, chicken, etc hibachi lunch specials are $9 as advertised on their street sign.
NOTE IF YOU HAVE KIDS: THEY PAY MORE. Â Yup, that's not a typo. Â The Kids Meals are $12!?!!??!?!?! Â Adults pay $9. Â Kids pay more. Â Have you EVER been to a restaurant where kids pay more for kids meals? Â It was bizarro.
hostess seats us and gives us 4 menus...
US: Do you have a kids menu?
Hostess: Um, we ran out. [indefinite pause]
[seriously, we were just hanging there, she didn't move, frozen]
US: So, the kids menu?.....so if there a kids menu offered?
Hostess: Your server will explain it.
US: O......k...?
[server comes later]
US: Do you have a kids menu?
Server: Oh..um. Let me see. [goes to the back and then returns]
Server: We don't have them right now. [again, dramatic, indefinite pause where we were just staring at each others' eyes. Â Not me and my wife, I mean we and the server. Â As if someone hit "PAUSE" on the video tape, type of pause.]
US: Well, are there kids versions of the meals? How can we find out?
Server: She starts to list the items and price of $12.
US: $12? For the kids meals?
Server: yes.
US: You mean it's more than the adult meal?
Server: Um. Yeah.
**Also nominated for the most annoying part of the experience experience:
The server went down the choices while ordering and asked if we wanted noodles on the side. Â And said they used to have noodles, but not anymore. Â But she can give us noodles for the two adults. Â And we could share them all with the kids too. Â So you want the noodles right? "Sure!" Â And it turns out that was an UPSELL tactic for $8 more.
It was annoying because her wording was intentional about making it sound like one of the standard options, and not disclosing her upsell side step there. Â It's right up there with menus that don't put a price on drinks and when you get the bill, sodas are $4 each or something like that. Â In general, I find that in life, if you have to hide something in order to get it done, it means something ain't right.
FOOD: It was standard hibachi steak, chicken, shrimp, rice and veggies. Â I had the meadow's dream entree $27 which had "colossal shrimp" and steak. Â The shrimp were big, but you only get 3 of them. Â The steak portion was sizable, but my kids steak tasted better to be honest. Â The spicy chicken (some type of picante sauce was used) was ok -- just being different than the plain classic hibachi chicken was good.
HINDSIGHT: If you go for lunch, the fancy entrees are not worth the price. Â If you think about it, you're better off buying 2 or even 3 lunch specials ($9x3=$27, while my Meadow entree was $27+).
I agree with the other reviews here. Â Service and the cook's entertainment value was lacking in a big way here. Â Seems like it's more than just the entire staff coincidentally having a collective bad day since the lack of good service was experienced consistently over several reviews.
Kids still had a good time. Â But I'm personally glad that we didn't come here for my actual calendar birthday meal.
We'd go back, but it's the product, not the service.
Food and value - 4 stars. Â Service - 1.5 stars. Â Averages out to 2.75 stars, rounded up to 3.
Benihana lunch special with chicken/steak/seafood hibachi, fried rice or noodles, veggies, and salad is classic. Â You can also substitute soup for salad. Â But not feeling overly hungry, I went with a salmon skin, avacado and cucumber sushi roll and miso soup. Â Pretty decent.
Our waitress however was pretty abismal. Â Our drinks didn't come out for 10-15 minutes, and our soup sat on the counter for a while before it was brought over to us. Â She also never offered to refill our glasses - we had to ask each time we wanted a refill. Â And nothing in her demeanor made up for her lack of attentiveness. Â
We were also informed that onions on the steak would be an extra charge... ok no problem... but $2 extra?! Â On a $11 meal?! Â Seems a little ridiculous but guess that's the policy. Â Interesting side note: The extra onions charge was put in as "Best Buddies" on our bill... makes you wonder what a $2 Best Buddies is. Â Can I buy a best friend for 2 bucks? Â Or if I'm special buddy of the restaurant is my meal super cheap?
Anyway, good lunch food for a chain, but hope you get a different server. Â
P.S. Ask for the tea - it's free, but they don't automatically bring it out or tell you about it. Â At least offer me my free tea gosh darnit!
The food is always good, and as long as you dont go too often, the hibachi is always fun. Â Its expensive, but once a year or so, i enjoy it a lot. Â
The shrimp and scallops are surprisingly good, and a fruity rum drink is always a good thing. Â I enjoy the soup and the salad and all the sides, (def get the fried rice-- or maybe even two orders!). Â Extra ginger please!
Benihana is a chain and they really can't mess up the food too bad so I won't comment on that. Â Regrettably I have to give this location 3 stars because the service was so slow. Â I took my wife here for her birthday, made a reservation for 7:30p. Â We arrived about 7:20 and much to my surprise they didn't have my reservation. Â It wasn't like I made it online. Â Well, they told us to have a seat and they'll get us in right away. Â I thought, okay there aren't a lot of people waiting so we should get in pronto.
WRONG!
Not only did we have to wait about 30 min, I noticed 2 other fairly large parties came in who also made reservations. Â Now the difference is their reservations were verified but they were also asked to wait. Â Maybe about 10 minutes into their wait, both parties decided to leave. Â One of the moms in the group was courteous enough to let the maitre'd know they were leaving. Â Wow, I wouldn't have done that. Â The two groups combined probably had about 15 total people. Â I figured Behihana lost well over $400 because they couldn't seat these people fast enough. Â I mean, what's the frickin point of making the reservation? Â
We finally were seated (we drove 30 min to get here so we weren't about to leave to another place) and there were at least 7 teppan tables open. Â Whatever...
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