My husband took me to Benihana’s for my 23rd birthday and I got to enjoy an enormous amount of sushi for a reasonable cost. For those of you that aren’t familiar with or haven’t been to a Benihana’s, they are a Japanese style restaurant known for having a chef who uses a teppanyakiI grill to cook your food in front of you. It’s also important to know they have a happy hour Monday-Thursday’s 5pm to 8 pm where their sushi is half price. Anyway my husband and I preferred a more intimate setting so we sat in their bar/sushi bar area. I was a bit hesitant about spending a lot of money for just one dinner since I am cheap so I opted for the sushi menu because it was happy hour. My husband and I looked it over and decided to get 6 different rolls to share. Each roll contains 5-6 bite size rolls.
To get specific we ordered a California roll which contains avocado, crabstick meat, cucumber and roasted sesame seeds. Then we ordered a Philadelphia roll which is marinated salmon, cream cheese, avocado and cucumber. We also ordered a dragon roll, which is one of my favorites, and contains eel, avocado, crabstick meat, cucumber. A tuna roll and a yellowtail roll, where a tuna roll has real tuna fish and rice wrapped with seaweed around it. The yellowtail roll is yellowtail fish with rice wrapped in seaweed. Lastly we got a shrimp tempura roll which is shrimp battered and deep fried with crabstick meet, cucumber, rice and instead of being seaweed or rice wrapped its rice paper wrapped. We also ordered two bowls of their Benihana’s rice which is pretty much chicken fried rice but it’s delicious. We got all this plus our drinks, hot tea and an ice tea, for $55 dollars and that was including our tip to the waitress.
I ended up being one satisfied customer because not only was the price reasonable but the taste of the sushi and rice was delicious. I compared this experience to another place where we have gone to eat sushi called Got Sushi. I thought that they had decent food and sushi as well as friendly staff but they were really expensive. We ordered a large plate of their chicken fried rice to share between my husband, myself and our two year old daughter and it was a suffice amount of rice for us three but I don’t think I would order it again because it didn’t taste all that great. We also only ordered two rolls of their sushi, again a dragon roll and then a California roll. They were fresh and great tasting but since it wasn’t happy hour at this place they were semi expensive, at least in my book. I don’t like spending $7-15 dollars for each roll of sushi. I guess I would say I just wasn’t satisfied with this place when I know what I can get taste,
quantity and price wise from Benihana’s happy hour.
In conclusion I of course would go to Benihana’s again because of the amount of sushi you can get for a great price during their happy hour times. I can’t really say much for them on their regular priced sushi since I haven’t been. The atmosphere isn’t bad either especially in the bar area it quiet compared to what one would think when they thing bar. So whether you are looking for a “cool” place to eat or just looking to have a nice experience I recommend Benihana’s.
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