A few weeks ago Chris and I were going to take advantage of Time Out’s deal at Benihana’s Piccadilly which offered their 7 course main meal for £19.00 which comes in considerably cheaper than a standard meal off the menu, only to arrive and find out that online booking isn’t quite as reliable as you’d hope and that our booking hadn’t been confirmed.

After trying again by booking over the phone, we secured a booking on the last day of the offer, hurrah.

If you don’t know about Teppanyaki, it’s origins are from Japan, where food is cooked in front of you by a talented chef over a Hibachi grill, usually accompanied by flaming mountains of onion rings, tricks performed with the utensils, flicking food into peoples mouths, and lots of crazy barely coherant singing.

It’s apparently a bit of a tourist thing over in Japan, and having been for Teppenyaki three times so far I can kind of see why you’d get bored of it if you went too often, it’s good for parties and the like.

Anyhoo, in terms of quality of food, the menu at Benihana didn’t disappoint, whilst sipping on some hot sake we were presented with the following seven courses:

• Benihani’s Japanese onion soup
• Salad with ginger dressing
• California roll (I had to ask for wasabi, the shame)
• Hibachi vegetables (onion, shitake mushroom, courgette)
• Egg fried rice with vegetables
• Fried salmon with ginger dressing
• Rare steak with mustard dressing
• Side vegetables (bamboo shoots mostly)

All in all the menu was pretty filling and everything was cooked beautifully, but it was a bit disappointing that we were offered forks, and we had to ask for wasabi, there’s nothing I dislike more than being treated like an idiot when you’re in a place that serves Japanese food.

Our chef was pretty boring, failing to really engage with us or perform any tricks other than the onion ring volcano, but chefs at other tables were getting cheers and causing mayhem with fire, so like most Teppenyaki places I guess it was just luck of the draw.

Overall, if you’ve got the cash or there is a special deal on then you’ll probably enjoy Benihana, otherwise you’ll probably be better off going to the smaller and generally more fun Sen Nin Teppanyaki in Islington (formally known as Ah-So).