great fun for everyone. ever go to benihana where they flip and throw the knives and all that crap? get it to-go, it's totally pointless. "did that dude do all that crap? yeah? because if he didn't, i don't want it."
i had $150 in gift cards to be used so it was off to lunch at benihana today. my parents had never been to benihana before and we wanted to get together for lunch so we all decided to make a day of it. we arrived just before noon and the place was pretty empty but by the time we left it was packed. we were sat at a table with a couple so luckily there were only 5 of us at the table so it was very spacious.
we were greeted by our server and the 3 of us decided to get the steak and lobster. my parents both got the deluxe treat- filet mignon and lobster tail. i went with the cordon bleu- center cut beef tenderloin and lobster tail. all of our meals were served with onion soup, salad, shrimp appetizer, chicken fried rice, hibachi vegetables, mustard and ginger dipping sauces, green tea and ice cream. wow! we were definitely in for quite the meal.
next our chef came over to the table to greet us and began our meal. once again we got a mexican cook at a japanese restaurant. i find it weird all of the servers and most of the staff are asian then all of the cooks are mexican. you gotta love concord! his name was pedro and that was perfect. he started out with his technique and i was highly impressed. his knife skills were so good and he was very good with everyone at the table. i must admit pedro put on the best show i have ever seen at benihana. the metal was flippin, the food was flyin and his art skill with the food was top notch. when he was preparing our fried rice he poured the egg onto the grill and created a picture of a chicken within seconds. when he mixed in the rice he shaped it into a heart and actually made it beat like a real heart. i looked around and noticed all of the cooks on that day were mexican and then the cook next to us came out and he was actually japanese. i have to say i'm glad i got pedro because he was by far the best! he had us clapping and mouths wide open for most of the meal. i looked over to see how the japanese cook was doing but he was very quiet and stiff. i definitely vote for pedro!
as far as the actual food goes everything was fantastic. i'm not sure what it was about today's meal compared to other visits but i had a really fantastic good time. the onion soup was a great way to start the meal and had the best sweet pieces of onion. our steak was cooked perfectly at med rare and so flavorful. the lobster was sweet and cooked just right. as most will agree the chicken fried rice is some of the best you can ever get. all of the vegetables were tender and crunchy and so good with both dipping sauces. there was so much food but i was somehow able to make a pretty good sized dent in all of it. i finished it off with the orange sherbet to cleanse the palate and sweeten the deal. even the sherbet was some of the best, so darn fruity and sweet. put a fork in me i'm all done!
i have had my share of meals and this is definitely one of the great dining experiences. for all of what we ordered the bill came to over $130 so i can't say i would come back often at these prices. luckily we had gift cards so it was a huge meal all for free so you gotta love that. if i go back i will definitely go with the lunch menu because you get so much food for so little. it was definitely funny to see the look on the couples faces when they saw 3 lobster tails put on the grill. i had to say it's a really great treat when you have free gift cards to get steak and lobster. he laughed and thought we were just going high roller style for lunch. i will be back again one of these days and hopefully someone will give me some gift cards and will definitely ask for pedro.