17877 Gale Avenue
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 912-8784
http://www.benihana.com
Brother and I took our parents to Benihana for a family dinner. It turned out to be the worst meal I've had in recent years. We made reservation at 6:30pm. We arrived at the restaurant right on time. There were 5 people standing at the host stand. Yes, they were really busy, with maybe 30 people waiting in the lobby area. But do they really need 5 people there? I told one of the host my name, and he said, "ok." So the 5 of us stood in front of the host stand, thought we would be seated, and just waited. We waited, waited, and waited. Nobody said anything to us. Then the 5 hosts/hostesses started chatting/joking/laughing with each other. We just stood there looking at them. Still, nobody said anything to us. We stood there for 15 minutes. Finally I asked how long do we have to wait. A host said, "what's your name again? Oh, I believe they are cleaning your table right now." Then he went back to chatting with his fellow coworkers.
Japanese Onion Soup
We finally sat down after waiting for 30 minutes even though we had reservation. The first thing we saw was a group of waitress leaning against the wall and furniture talking. The restaurant was completely full. But there were maybe 7 or 8 waitresses just standing there talking and laughing. And they weren't just standing. They were leaning against things! Looked so bad!
Benihana Salad
Our waitress was a middle aged Asian lady (like the rest of all of their waitress). She did not smiled at us once. When she took our orders (and our table mates' order), she just had this really annoyed look on her face. In fact, all the waitress at this restaurant acted that way, like they didn't want to be there. The worst part was when they sing happy birthday songs. There were many birthdays that night. Every time the waitresses sang happy birthday, it was in like a really dead singing voice with no express on their faces. No smiles whatsoever. Some of them were even looking around while singing. Then they just hurried away right after they sang. The only time I saw the waitresses smiling was when they were chatting among themselves.
Our teppanyaki chef was a Hispanic guy. He was nice, and tried to be funny. But he couldn't speak English, and we had trouble communicating with him. We had to tell him who ordered what, and how we wanted it done numerous times. And he still got everything wrong. But oh well, at least he was nice and friendly.
There were a few entertaining tricks that the chef did. But the tricks were obviously a lot fewer than before. And what? No onion volcano? What kind of teppanyaki doesn't have onion volcano? We were disappointed.
Hibachi Chicken Rice ($3.25/person x 5)
The fried rice was overcooked. It had a bitter burnt taste.
Shrimp Appetizer and Hibachi Vegetables
Shrimp Appetizer was good. No complain there. But the portion? I got just a few pieces of zucchini for my Hibachi Vegetables. You know sometime teppanyaki chef jokingly give you extra small portion to make you laugh? I thought he was joking, but he was not. This was all we got.
Hibachi Tuna Steak ($22.10)
Sesame crusted tuna steak with tomato, avocado and edamame in a white balsalmic reduction. Served medium rare.
Hibachi Chicken (17.10)
Chicken breast and mushrooms hibachi-grilled and seasoned with butter and sesame seeds.
Hibachi Tuna Steak was pretty good. Well, it wasn't exactly "cooked". Medium rare tuna always tastes good. Hibachi Chicken wasn't good. It was really dry. Also on the menu description, it was supposed to be served with mushroom. What mushroom? We didn't get any mushroom. I ate my chicken with my 5 pieces of zucchini.
Salmon Tsutsumi-Yaki ($22.10)
Salmon with vegetables and a hint of lime and dill, wrapped and steamed on the grill.
Salmon Tsutsumi-Yaki was alright. But since it was wrapped in foil and plastic wrap, and steamed on the grill, there was no cooking skill required for this dish to taste alright.
Hibachi Steak ($37.00 for 2)
New York strip steak with mushrooms hibachi grilled.
They had a Hibachi Steak for 2 special for $37. We ordered the steak medium. It was served medium, but tasted tougher than well-done. The quality of the steak was just bad. No wonder it was on special. But at least I got some mushroom with it.
While I was still eating, our lovely waitress walked up and asked if we wanted desserts. After we declined the offer, she took our plates away WHILE I WAS STILL EATING, WITH FOOD STILL IN MY PLATE. She didn't even ask if I was done. She just took it away. Oh well, it wasn't that good anyway. Then she hurriedly presented us the check, like she couldn't wait to get us out of there. After we got our credit card bill back and signed, our waitress walked up to our table. First she took the check from our table mates, and JUST OPENED IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE to check her tips. Then she walked up to my brother and reached out her hand palm up, and did the gesture with her fingers like "give it to me". She didn't say anything, didn't smile, and just simply rude. Then she opened the check right in front of us, too. We were REALLY disappointed at the service that night, and almost didn't want to leave any tips. But then my nice brother who paid the bill thought at least the teppanyaki chef was nice so we should still leave 15%. When the waitress did that, we really wished we didn't leave any tips.
As we were walking out the door, a host YELLED in an annoying monotone voice with no emotion "AAAAARIIIIGAAAATOOOOOU". He dragged on the vowels too. Ahhhhh sounded so freaking rude and annoying. I really don't think he meant to thank us.
I was soooooooo mad about our bad experience at Benihana that night, especially when it was with my parents. It was supposed to be a nice meal with my parents, but even they left mad. The next day I wrote a complain letter to Benihana on their website. Then I got a phone call a week later from someone at City of Industry Benihana. Our conversation started like this:
"Is this Eileen? Wow you're really hard to reach. I've been trying to call you for a week. You're never http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com or what?"
Seriously? He already made me mad when we didn't even start talking. Then he went on to question me everything that I wrote in my letter.
"So the waitress didn't smile?"
"Yes."
"So you saw them standing around chatting?"
"Yes."
"So the hosts were laughing with each other?"
"Yes."
Finally I couldn't take it anymore, and asked, "what is this phone call about? Did you just call me to repeat everything I wrote in my letter to verify with me? Everything I wrote happened that night. I just want you guys to be aware of what was going on in your restaurant so you can do something about it." Geez, does he really have to call me to waste my time?
Him: "Ok, ok. Fine. I'll just send you some gift certificates then."
Me: "I don't want your gift certificate because I'll never go back to your restaurant again."
Him: "Ok..... are you sure you don't want gift certificates."
Me: "Yes, I am sure."
Him: "So.... I shouldn't send the gift certificates."
Me: "No, don't send the gift certificates. And please don't call me again. Goodbye."
Ahhhhhhhhh.... whoever that guy is, just made me dislike City of Industry Benihana even more.
But a few days later, another guy called from City of Industry Benihana. He sounded much much more polite. He said he just called to apologize, and he was very sorry about my dining experience at Benihana, and also sorry about the phone call the other day. Because he was polite and nice, I had a good conversation with him about my experience, and told him I hope he can do something about training/hiring his staff. He offered me gift certificates again. He said that he hopes I would still give Benihana another try. I don't have to go back to their branch. But he hope that maybe I can return a little later to dine with them again, to see if there's any improvement. He sounded genuinely sincere, so I am not mad at them anymore. But I still don't think I want to go back to the City of Industry branch. I do like Benihana, just not that location. I think I'll try Newport Beach Benihana next time, and hoping the service is better there.
In conclusion, I want to say: If I have bad food and good service at a restaurant, I wouldn't mind going back and give them another try. But if I have bad service at a restaurant, then no matter how good the food is, I'll never go back. Do you agree?
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Sorry to hear about your experience there. I only visited once for their Teppanyaki but in the San Diego location and it was fantastic in every way except for the 45 minutes wait with reservation. Are they franchised? Probably something is wrong with the branch manager. I thought only in some parts of Asia where you would get this kind of service.
ReplyDeleteI visited other branch before, and always had good experience.
The host/hostess/waitresses are all Asians in City of Industry branch.
And I think majority of them are mainland Chinese.
It's well known that Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel Valley do not have good service.
People don't really care because they just go for the food and cheap price.
But when I go to Benihana, I don't expect the typical Chinese restaurant treatment.
That branch definitely needs to hire better employees or provide better training.
For some reason, Chinese waitress always treat Caucasian customers better.
I wonder if they behave that way because majority of the customers there were Hispanic and Asian.
WOW, What a experience and what a bill! We will not visit there soon. I hate the service people act like you owe them 3 million $.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't like their job, then they shouldn't be there. Right?
I was gonna write something nice to agree with you and say that I feel bad for your experience and I can relate to it. BUT, then I saw your response saying all those bad waiter/waitress were from mainland china, now what the fuck is that suppose to mean? Many restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley have taiwanese and hongkong waiter and waitress and their services are equally bad. So stop trying to diss on people from mainland china and be so igorant, this will make you no different than that racist UCLA girl alexadra wallace. I happen to have visited mainland china many times and most of my dining experiences there were excellent, people were polite and services were great. It's a developing country, but it's getting better and they're improving too. I have also been to Taiwan and HK as well, and while some services are good, some services were bad. I'm sorry you had to encounter some uneducated people and low-lifes when you went to this benihana branch, but I hope you stop making references that they're from mainland china so that's why they're rude. There are rude people everywhere, in taiwan and hk too, so stop being so racist!
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against mainland Chinese.
My grandparents were mainland Chinese. My dad was born in China.
I never said they are rude BECAUSE they are from China.
I have been to many Chinese restaurant with great service from Mainland Chinese waitstaff.
But it was a FACT that the waitresses are mainland Chinese.
If I go to a restaurant and encountered a rude Taiwanese or HK waitress, I would say the same thing.
Now I also mentioned our Teppanyaki chef was Hispanic and we had trouble communicate with him.
Does that make me a racist, too? So mentioning people's race makes one racist?
If simply saying our Chinese waitresses were rude makes me a racist,
you just mentioned you've had bad service with Taiwanese and HK waitresses,
does that make you a racist, too?
ahahahahah~ take it easy, Eileen~ You are so funny~ :)
ReplyDeleteNext time, just yell at the sob right away at that moment!
I wish I had the courage to do that.
But I'm a wimp.... haha....
This is how I feel about this. I'm so sorry you had that horrible service, I'd be mad too if I had to pay $136 for extremely bad service AND bad food.
ReplyDeleteHoneybuns and I have adopted a rule: "if we walk in and the host/hostess isn't nice and I see that all the servers are clustering around having fun talking to each other but not serving the customers -- reservations or not, WE'D LEAVE IMMEDIATELY."
It's a sign that the servers don't care about their jobs and livelihoods, they feel that customers are simply sheep to get "sheared of their money". Many times I've been in restaurants where there's a lot of people waiting and the servers are all rushing around, that's OK. But when you see servers sitting and chatting amongst themselves and not paying attention to customers -- I find these servers feel they DESERVE the money, instead of understanding that they have to EARN their money.
Next time, if a server DEMANDS that you pay more tip, DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM. If they made you pay more tip, after you leave call the credit card company and tell them that they changed the tip amount themselves and that was not the original tip amount you wrote.
A tip is given for good service, it's optional, not required. Money is an exchange for a service well done. When the service is NOT well done, why tip? No reason to. Tipping is a convention, NOT a requirement. If I had your service, I'd leave $0.00 tip.
I find that attitude in many foot massage places too - they openly tell the other masseuses how much tip you gave, and compare (if you go in a group). Last time I went to one in Westminster, and the service was so-so (I had really GREAT service at only 1 place in San Diego), the massage was $20 and the masseuse wants a $20 tip! I gave her $4, which she openly talked about in Chinese to the other masseuse and demanded I gave her more. I told her in Chinese that the convention here is I give a tip if I am happy with the service, and it's only a so-so. Plus $4 is already a 20% tip, which is more than what people usually tip.
And YES, I do find that the majority of these cases are from the recent Mainland Chinese immigrants (my parents are both born in China, but they left before the country became communists). It has to do with the way they were raised in China, that they DESERVE to be given money for FREE because they suffered so much in China and that every Chinese outside of China should give them compensation because "we" lived such a good life compared to them. That's why they treat Caucasians better than Chinese.
Guess what? All us Chinese who lived outside China still had to work hard, hustle for our daily living, and EARN our money. So they can EARN their money too. And if they DIDN'T EARN it, they don't deserve it. It doesn't matter if they are from Mainland China or not, if a white server doesn't give good service, I'm not obligated to give a good tip either. That's my 2 cents :-)
*Keep on nodding my head*
I totally agree with you!!
I've seen that happened in SGV restaurants before.
Customers did not leave tips, and waitresses chased them out the door.
Then we heard the waitresses demanded tips by yelling and screaming.
It also happened to myself and Dr. P at foot massage place before.
They thought we didn't tip enough and just ask for more money, and in a really rude way.
Tips should be given when the customers receive good service.
Tips are NOT required, and no waitstaff should ever demand it.
I do not like to see people turn the simple command into political issue, Eileen is stating the "fact" and not attacking any country or area. This is a personal food blog, if you don't like it, just leave.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jessica!
I never meant for it to turn into a political issue. :-(
I totally agreed with Jessica, this is just a critics about the restaurant's foods and services. FYI: If you have read it carefully, I don't think Eileen mentioned about Mainland China at all people. It a good thing that Eileen was kind enough to share her experience with all of us, we should be thanking her instead of attacking her. Anyway, thank you Eileen.
ReplyDeleteThank you, May!
People are just too sensitive sometime. :-(
Eileen, did you finally accept the offer for some gift certificates? I think that you should have after the second person called and treated you with more respect. You paid lots of money for an unsatisfying experience and deserved something back. I have a hunch that the City of Industry location got into trouble with the main co. after you filed a complaint---which is a good thing and I'm glad that you did. Former radio-host/CH food critic Elmer Dills always urged diners to complain about bad experiences because he said that often times the owners/managers of eateries are not aware of what is going on and they appreciate when complaints are made because they could fix the problem rather then lose customers and see their business fail.
ReplyDeleteI read your review and I didn't see anything like Derek claimed about you writing that the waitresses were from Mainland China. Being a white man I usually can't tell the differences among Asian nationalities---but I always know if I'm getting bad service no matter what a person is! When I first started reading your review I was thinking that the chatting servers would be young white girls because I have been getting poor service lately from what seems to be young girls hired for their pretty looks, but who are lousy workers! Oh, and having an Hispanic chef with poor English skills is not a good thing when he needs to communicate with diners. Hopefully, you did this location a favor and they improve (but I would use your certificates somewhere else just in case they don't get better).
Yes, I accepted the gift certificate from the second manager who called me.
I am planning to use the GC at Newport Beach location.
I don't really write complaint letters to companies unless it's really really bad.
Hopefully they will do something about it after reading my letter.
In general, I find services in Orange County much better than Los Angeles.
People in OC are just nicer and friendlier.
I wanted to add something about tips. Restaurant critic Elmer Dills always urged people who got terrible service to not just walk out without leaving any tip because that way it usually gets interpreted that you simply forgot. What he always did after receiving bad service was to leave a very LOW tip (one time he said he left 5 cents!)because that gives the message that you were unsatisfied. If he was still chased down or asked about it he would then say that he usually leaves 15-20% but his low tip reflected the poor service that he just got.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good tip!
Thanks, Rich! Next time I will do the same!!
I think Derek is upset because this isn't the first time that something has been written on this blog expressing negative attitudes towards mainland Chinese people. I remember one article way back on here that was all about some rumor you heard about how Chinese waitresses in restaurants will eat the food on your plates before sending it out. The fact that you had to point out that it was Chinese waitresses who did these things you heard of, just like you felt the need to point out that the reason why the service at Benihana sucked was because most of the staff were mainland Chinese, is I think what Derek is talking about.
ReplyDeleteCase in point: "For some reason, Chinese waitress always treat Caucasian customers better." That's not a fact. That's an opinion, and a judgment about one group of people, namely Chinese waitresses.
I love reading your blog, Eileen, and I know I'll let this go, but I'm just saying, Derek has a point.
It wasn't a story about a "rumor" I heard.
It was my ex-coworker's true story... and she WAS that waitress.
She told me the days when she used to work at a Chinese restaurant in the Bay area.
How she and her coworkers used to eat customers food before they bring it to the table.
How she and her coworkers cheat on the bill by using messy handwriting so they can charge customers more.
How they especially do that to big party or customers who were drinking.
She happened to be from Mainland China.
I don't think she did those things because she's from Mainland China.
I do know a lot of honest and nice people from China.
But she IS Chinese, which is a fact.
I don't understand why is it every time I say "that Chinese person did this and that",
then some Chinese people will jump at the chance to say I'm prejudice against China people.
I use "Chinese" as a description to describe who that person is.
Also it's a fact that those people are Chinese.
I also describe people as Hispanic, black, white, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc... all the time.
So if I say something like "I went to a restaurant and the Caucasian waitress was rude",
then all the white people's going to say "hey you are a racist! You have something against Caucasian?"
Gosh! Why are you guys totally focusing on the wrong thing?
Sorry for your bad experience at Benihana. I haven't visited Beni for years because I think they are overpriced. I am glad to hear that they followed up with you on your bad experience. There is one time that we were having bad experience with Buca De Beppo. We waited a full hour and we only had appertizer. We decided not to continue our dinner and walk out from the restaurant. We did not pay a penny. The Chief admitted the mistake and followed us out to parking lot, then sincerely apologized. He also presented a gift and hoped us will visit them again. From that point on, we are loyal to Buca because the service we receive and the way they handle their customers. If I were you, I probably won't ever go to that Beni again. I will follow what you do - check out other branch!
ReplyDeleteSorry for ur bad experience with Beni. I stop going to Beni for years because their food is overpriced.
ReplyDeleteit's good you complained. they need to know. but it also reflects on management when employees are like that.
ReplyDeleteYup, you're right.
The first "manager" who called me was also horrible.
I was thinking no wonder his employees are like that.