We made a reservation for 6:15pm, it was a very important graduation dinner that we had booked weeks in advance. Tell me why when we got there at 6, they said it was almost ready, then we checked in at 6:15 and they told us it was going to be a 10-15min wait. First of all, maybe i just don't understand this, but why in tarnation is there a wait time for a reservation? So we waited and came back in 10 mins and they said "Still not ready!". no "i'm sorry" nothing. they clearly didn't care that they were just waisting our time. We just left! The food could be the most delicious thing you've ever tasted but i guess we'll never know huh? since they don't even want to uphold the decency of a reservation. read more

Chris, a chef with skills so incredible, Our taste buds rejoiced with each bite delectable, From appetizers to desserts, every dish delicious, A culinary experience truly auspicious. read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

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My family and I had a reservation at Benihanas at 2:30pm, we were seated and didn't have a chef come serve our meals until 3:45! Over an hour wait. What was strange about it was that they weren't even busy!!! The manager David, was really kind and apologetical. He said that he was really sorry that this happened to us and made sure a chef came and kept checking on us. We were later served by Chef Mike. He's presence was great and he did a great job with tricks, presentation and service. He changed our experience moving forward. read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Chicken HIBACHI CHICKEN - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

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Hi Lee, Since there no other way to contact you as no one has replied to us. We did leave a complaint form after we called someone and they wrote it with us and its ridiculous, its been over a week and were still waiting to hear back due to the food we were missing. I hope service gets a lot better here. read more

Celebrated our anniversary tonight and enjoyed having a teppan table to ourselves. Our server Casee was very attentive and provided wonderful service. Our chef was Marvin who cooked a delicious meal The sherbet with the candle was a tasty dessert read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Rainbow sherbet - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

I've always been a fan of Benihana for the plentiful food, tasty flavors, and entertaining experience. Unfortunately, this particular location was very disappointing. We waited close to two hours before a chef even came to prepare the food. When he finally arrived, he was sweating profusely--to the point where I had to ask if he could use a towel to prevent droplets from landing near the food. On top of that, the bathroom was in very poor condition. Service, food quality control, and cleanliness are basic necessities for any restaurant. Sadly, this experience was enough for me to decide that I will no longer patronize this location--or any others in the chain. --------------------------------------------- "Because dining is more than food - it's flavor, style and elegance that should be savored one bite at a time." - AMC read more

staff was great and food was delicious. we had a 12pm sunday reservation and couldn't be seated until the whole party arrived. wasn't too busy at the time of our reservation. restaurant easily accommodated our party of 14 (2 tables of 7 people each). staff was super attentive (thank you nate & christen) and our chef was awesome (lester). food was tasty -- we loved our steaks and shrimp fried rice. read more

Always great service and attentive, even with a party of 11! We love to celebrate birthdays here and have a great meal together!

I am always between 3 to 4 stars with Benihana. Tonight should be 2 stars but it was an off night.. for the price you pay $120 for 2 people, I am disappointed. Last night they didn't see we ordered one extra fried rice and gave it to another customer at our table because they wanted spicy rice (they saved theirs for last and had a lot of extra). They made me another rice at another station but added the chicken on top of it and didn't add any seasoning or butter. They barely use any seasonings anymore. Coming here to be "healthy" isn't it. We want soy sauce, butter and salt n pepper! Summary; My steak was fatty, over cooked (I wanted medium and got well done), it was not cut. Our shrimp had no flavor (no lemon, seasoning) and the poop shoot intact, gave my extra rice to someone else for free, our ice cream was sloppy with ice cream all down the sides, real mess and they used the same spoon to scoop all our different flavors. Not a fan of sherbet with my chocolate ice cream... Really was an "off night".. read more

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Much like everyone else's negative experiences here, we had to wait an additional hour after checking in to our 6:30 reservation. Once we were finally seated, we had to wait yet another 30 minutes for the chef to arrive at our table to begin service. All in all, we didn't have our first bite of food until roughly 8:30, a full 2 hours after we arrived at the restaurant. read more

Mariano has been the worst chef ever. Humiliated me in front of a table of strangers by telling me if I wanted something to ask for myself after i had asked my gf to ask for more garlic butter. you would think he was joking but was completely serious. completely unnecessary behavior. Be prepared to be glared at read more

My daughter picked up food for three of us. Worst Benihana experience ever. Three salads, dressing only for two. Entrees ice cold although they were supposedly being cooked while she sat and waited. Soups were consommé only, not so much as a sliver of anything like a mushroom to be found. Of course everyone enjoys sushi without any soy sauce. Needless to say, the prices now are completely outrageous. Cannot believe how far downhill this location has slid. The manager should be embarrassed and ashamed. read more

I would say good service from our chef the only thing is do not leave your leftovers for a second because I spent $70 on my dish with a good amount of leftovers and I left the table for a minute and came back and the team threw it away. Which is unfortunate since that's where most of the moneys worth is. read more

We were sat with a wonderful family, so all the kids befriended each other. Our first server was working two tables and went between the two, lagging on drink delivery. I ordered an espresso martini at the bar and another one at the table. The drink at the table was delivered in 1/2 a glass while the bar cocktail was to the top. After my husband complained, I was provided a new espresso martini to the top (at no charge). So they made it right! My husband was pleased. We had not had such a disappointing dining experience at Benihana. The skill of the chef is part of the allure and emersion as an audience. He dropped the utensils during the flipping multiple times, at every attempt to restart. His egg spinning technique was infantile, each attempt to have the spinning egg on the spatula resulted in the egg dropping on the hot skillet cracking and he attempted two more times, never getting the desired outcome. He overcooked the shrimp. Failed to flick a single tail in his hat, they ended up all over the skillet and floor. It was quite funny and we felt sad for his wish to succeed. The rice was all over the skillet and not controlled. The reliable Benihana chicken fried rice was subpar. Missed the mark. My husband sitting next to me text his opinion to me which was the same as mine. Possibly not enough seasoning, garlic butter, or soy sauce. The kids asked for the onion volcano because he had already cooked and dished everyone their onion serving. He replied he will do it. The mushrooms were significantly undercooked. After serving the meals, the chef layered up the onion, set it ablaze and when finished, scooped it up into a trash tray on his cart. Thank goodness the steak was exceptional fillet, onions, zucchini, and salad were cooked consistent with the brand. The soup was sparce on onions. No one was served hot tea at the end. Lastly, we thought kids meal usually comes with corn but no corn. Not sure if that was just for chicken and not steak dinner but either way, my grandson enjoyed his meal. My son loved his steak and food. My husband the same. Overall this dining was below my expectations from the traditional Benihana experience and quality. We were celebrating our son's 8th grade graduation. The other family was celebrating their son's 5th grade graduation. Left underwhelmed. read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Chef - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

Ugh I love teppanyaki and I love Benihana but sometimes the service can just ruin the vibe :/ I went to this Benihana location to celebrate my birthday with my friends and made a reservation at 7:30 on a Saturday night. We waited AN HOUR even with a reservation. I think this Benihana is not organized, and their reservation system is really bad. Other than that , the food was really good and our chef Mario was super nice. He didn't really put on a show for us though... Not sure if I'd come back to this location unfortunately. read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

The food was okay. More like 5/10. The service was bad. The Chef was not very welcoming. The Chef mistakenly thought we two persons only ordered one steak which explained his attitude. Nevertheless, we didn't feel treated well. We used to visit often when my kid was little. Won't come again. read more

This is a long overdue review since we came here for Mother's Day! I knew it was going to be busy so I made a reservation way in advance...I even picked a later time (1pm) so make sure we don't have to deal with the "main lunch rush"...little did we know, by the time we arrived (EARLY) for our reservation, the wait time was still OVER AN HOUR because they were under-staffed. Of course we had no choice but to wait since all the other restaurants (that were fitting for Mother's Day celebration) were booked out! By the time we sat down, it was closer to 3pm, which is an awkward time because it's neither lunch nor dinner...but what can you do... Chef David was great - did lots of cool tricks while preparing for our food. Our kids had a lot of fun watching him while eating so at least that made up for all the grumpy waiting we had to endure. Would we ever come back to celebrate Mother's Day again? Definitely NOT! But the next time we come back (whenever it may be), I will definitely make sure we have Plan B reservation made! read more

I call for made a reservation at 6:45 at 6:31 they sent an text saying my table was ready, till 7:30 they give us a table at 8:03 no food yet; they took toooo long what's the point to make a reservation and give it a table almost one hour after..... read more

Benihana - Cupertino - Steakhouses Near Me - Cupertino, California

We made a reservation for 5:45pm on Father's Day. We arrived on time but were then told it's an hour and a half wait. What's the point of making reservations then? We have small children with us so there is no way we could wait 1.5 hours to be seated so we're then stressing about finding another place who could seat us on such short notice. It would be great if they would level set expectations, either by fixing their reservation system or notifying folks with reservations that there is going to be a delay earlier on during the day so that we can make other plans if needed read more

Adding on to the already existent reviews about delay - my wife had a reservation made for our family. From the time of being seated, upto a little more than an hour we waited. Finally left after we realized this is too much of a wait. I went in without reading the yelp reviews, my bad. So just a warning for whoever tries to book here. Be ready to wait, reservations don't seem to matter. Too bad, we went in expecting a great time. But oh well I saved some money. The per plate rates are anyways high. read more

TLDR - I would only recommend coming to Benihana to entertain toddlers. And if you do, don't come to this location because you might leave feeling like you got cancer from the nonexistent ventilation. Cons: - Terrible ventilation. The entire place smelled like heavy grease and smoke. I've been to other Benihanas before and have never felt like I was breathing in carcinogens the entire time like I did at the Cupertino location. - Mediocre food. Everything tastes overly salted. Of course, you don't come here for the food; you come here for the show, which is mostly entertaining for young kids. - super crowded. There was not a single second I spent in the restaurant that felt relaxing. Pros: - really nice and toddler-friendly chefs. Ours went out of his way to entertain our 2-year-old. read more

We were looking for a late-night spot and found Benihana. What I really appreciated was that even though they were about 10 minutes from closing, they still welcomed us in. We started with the onion soup, which was excellent--simple but flavorful. The salad, on the other hand, felt a bit dry and the dressing didn't quite hit the mark for me. The fried rice was solid, especially with the chicken mixed in, though I wish it had just a touch more flavor. For entrées, I ordered the lobster tail and it was amazing--perfectly cooked and buttery. We also tried the trio (beef, shrimp, and chicken) served with noodles, which was a unique and tasty experience. I'd never had noodles at a teppanyaki restaurant before, and it was definitely a highlight. The veggies were fresh and delicious--especially the zucchini, which was cut and cooked just right. Customer service was excellent all around. Our chef, Victor, was fantastic--great energy, skilled, and really made the experience memorable. read more

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I really enjoy going to the restaurant but if you get food to go the quality is longer there. It would be great if you could select no pepper or less garlic because they add a ton of it to their food making it tough on younger kids to want to eat it. Definitely recommend this place for celebrations with large groups for the table experience but to go orders need more work/options for the price. read more

Plan on an hour wait even with a reservation and plan on them not caring at ALL. The manager is basically telling people to walk out, she doesn't care. read more

I've been to Benihana 3 times now, and each time has been a complete disaster. I kept giving them the benefit of the doubt, hoping maybe the next visit would be better--but nope. If anything, it's gotten worse. The most frustrating part? They never honor your reservation time. You can show up on time, early even, and still find yourself sitting at the table for 1.5 - 2 hours before a chef even shows up. No updates. No apologies. Just endless waiting while you watch other tables get served around you. It's exhausting and honestly disrespectful of customers' time. When the chef finally arrives, sure--the show is entertaining, and the chefs are friendly. I'll give them that. But the food? Mediocre at best. Definitely not worth the price or the wait. I always joke that if I had my own personal hell, it would be dinning at Benihana. But at this point, it doesn't even feel like a joke anymore. If you value your time, your money, and your sanity, skip this place. read more

*PSA: DO NOT GO JUST FOR HAPPY HOUR* My review is based solely on my Happy Hour experience during a Thursday late afternoon (5:30PM). The Happy Hour gal behind the bar did NOT look enthused to be there. She doesn't smile whatsoever or act with urgency. I was waiting for a good 5 minutes by the bar before being able to order items for my family, but I wish the female employee had a more customer service-oriented personality. She pretty much just ignored me until she was available, whereas other employees could easily say "be with you in just a few minutes". The common courtesy was definitely lacking here and left me with a poor impression of the Happy Hour experience already - and this was before the food was served. Also, there was no way to get water, as there's no self-serve water station & the female employee was much too busy to do anything else, but take new people's orders. They are definitely understaffed in this area. There was a curly-haired guy who appeared several minutes after and he was definitely more attentive and helpful with checking in on my table. He was busy, but great throughout our entire dining experience. As for the food quality, the Happy Hour menu options are definitely cheap and passable, but they are definitely not mindblowing. I personally wouldn't come again JUST for Happy Hour but if I were already dining at Benihana, then I wouldn't mind ordering a few as sides. Also, when we finished all 5 of our items, the Wagyu Burger FINALLY came out. The wait time on the food is extremely slow and the food quality is just mediocre tbh. As I type this, there are literally 10 entrees sitting on the countertop, waiting to be delivered by an understaffed team (see photo attached). I actually had to fetch another female employee (she was nice) and I told her our burger was just sitting on the countertop for 5 minutes and she said something along the lines like "oh okay". The burger wasn't bad though - aesthetically not presentable (the wilted lettuce and tomato placed outside of the burger was kind of odd), but the burger and fries tasted decent. All in all, I would NEVER come for Happy Hour ever again and I would only come here occasion for special occasions (if invited here). I would not go out of my way to go to Benihana and personally think you should look elsewhere. read more

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Needs a thorough cleaning of walls and seats. Walls in particular had layers old oil residue caked on it. Oven hood had multiple drops of what I assume is water and oil hanging over the dining area. Hibachi chef was not happy with his employment there but he took extra care to look out for allergens of the diners. Waitress forgot our appetizers. Food was standard for a chain hibachi restaurant. read more

Honestly ridiculous to be writing this review. The experience and management were awful. We had a 7:00 PM reservation to celebrate my parents' birthday and were told upon arrival that our table wouldn't be ready until 8:00 PM. I have never experienced a restaurant delaying a confirmed reservation by an entire hour. There was no real solution offered, no accountability, and no consideration for the fact that this was a special occasion. We will not be returning. read more

So this review is going to be painful to leave, as I love the idea of teppanyaki-style cooking, and have ever since I was a kid. So, to start, I had a reservation at this location yesterday for 4:15 pm. My party arrived a little early, signed in, and within a few minutes, roughly about 10ish or so, we were called to our table. We were sat down, ordered our drinks and apps, and within a couple of minutes our drinks arrived. That is where the good ends, unfortunately. After this point, it took the serving staff nearly 45 minutes to bring us the apps that we ordered, one of them having to be re-asked for as it was forgotten. Not only that, but three different parties were seated at the table directly in front of us, and another full table was seated behind us. Both of these tables got their drinks, apps, and starter salad and soup almost right away. About an hour after our reservation start time, our server came back over, and we explained to him that we still hadn't gotten our soup or salad, and now, at this point, the table in front of us had already gotten their chef. It was at this point that our server told us that they were short-staffed and short-chefed, which is fine, but would have been better had this been explained to my party much earlier. At roughly 5:30, our chef was finally able to make it to our table, and he was great. Super friendly, super nice, had a lot of fun cooking for my group and me, so I have 0 complaints about him. However, I do have some complaints regarding the food itself. Firstly, one of my friends had ordered a dish that came with steak and chicken. He had received his steak, but by the time the chef was starting to clean up, he had not received his chicken. The chef was told, and this was quickly corrected by him going back and grabbing an extra chicken breast. The second complaint about the food is that I remember the portions being a lot bigger, especially for the price we are paying just for individual meals. Most of us left relatively hungry still after we had finished eating. Lastly, this complaint is rather important. My fiancé ordered a salmon dish last night from the menu. She ate about half of it, and then boxed it up to save for the next day (today) to eat for lunch. She woke up before me, and when I came out to our living room, she told me she felt nauseous. After some time, she decided to go and lie down, and upon doing so, proceeded to start throwing up into her trashcan by her side of the bed. This meal was the last thing she ate last night. I'm not sure if the fish was bad or something else, but it's hard to say it was anything else. Now then, to talk about the prices. Our party was comped due to the extremely long wait, so our apps and drinks were taken off our bill. However, partway through our dinner, our server had changed, and he was not informed of anything when he was told to take over our table. All he was told was that we weren't going to be paying for our drinks or apps. Keeping that in mind, I also attended with a total of 9 people (myself included), in which they automatically applied a 20% gratuity, which brought our total to 830$ with just the meals, and after they took off about 138$ due to how long we had been there. At the end of the night, our secondary server was awesome; he tried his hardest to make the rest of our time at the restaurant amazing, and our chef was also great. Past that, everything else about the experience was abysmal. Our reservation started at 4:15. At least four other parties were seated, cooked for, and paid before we had done the same and left at about 7 pm. When we left, the entire lobby area was packed with people, and members of my group heard people exclaiming, "people are leaving, look, people are leaving!" which does not show promise, as the restaurant also closes at 10 pm. All in all, a rather unfortunate experience to have, especially when it was meant to be a fun time with friends celebrating my 30th birthday. read more

Grew up coming here, its gone down hill. We always get a reservation, and when we arrive, it takes an hour before we are seated. This has happened the past 4 times. They always say "we are running behind" Also the hygiene of this restaurant has really dropped off, its pretty gross with wet floors, used cups everywhere, and a stench. Feels like a fraternity house. Pick it up Benihana! read more

That girl Sky was the best server you ever had, I hope I get her next time, it really makes a good night when you have an excellent server.

Back in late August, we waited 35 mins with reservation. Then we were seated to a table. Our server took our orders and gave us our drinks. Then it was dead silence for the longest time. I think we waited for an hour and someone from our table went to flag down a server before a chef came. It was nuts. Luckily, we got a very fun and personable chef who made the experience better. But it was still not okay that we waited for that long. We saw that another table was just seated, and they were informed that it's going to be a long wait and got offered free apps. We didn't get that. It's very unfair. I'm not sure what happened that caused this. Did our server go on break? I don't know. It was a very unpleasant experience because of that. That was the last time I went to Benihana. I usually go for my birthday every year, but I didn't even go again this year because I was still annoyed byit was that experience. read more

PLEASE READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE YOU JUDGE THE REVIEW IN ITS ENTIRETY. We had a reservation at 6:00pm for 8 people on a Tuesday night in February to celebrate my 28th birthday. We arrived and were greeted kindly. We sat for about 10 minutes in the lounge area as we arrived early and were seated on time in the teppan area. Here is where the rollercoaster began. We had a drink runner come over to the table to deliver menus, take our orders, and hurry to place the drink order. He was friendly and delivered our drinks in an acceptably timely manner. Shortly after he was followed by our hibachi chef. I wish so much I could remember his name because I would warn anyone to stay far far away from him. I believe it started with an H, sounded like Horacio, or Hosorio. Our experience started off with him approaching our table and introducing himself, standard procedure. "Do we have any special events today?" Of course the whole table cheerfully indicates I am the birthday girl. He looks me dead in the eye and in full seriousness goes: 32 years? Now I'm not delusional. I know the difference between 28 years and 32 years is conceivably comparable aesthetically, but if you're going to play the guessing game with age maybe play it really safe and say something like oh 20! Or, oh 25! I felt very sad after that and it started the experience off very poorly for the whole table. Right away the hibachi chef started trying to do the classic egg yolk flip on the spatula trick. We all watched eagerly as we needed an emotional pick me up desperately. He broke all three within two flips. At this point I am going to summarize the rest of the terrible haze that was the experience with the hibachi chef, but it included seafood being cooked before steak, and then vegetables last, meaning no one was able to enjoy a complete hot entree together. Seafood sat and grew cold and stale before the steak ever hit the grill. The shrimp and steak were incredibly undercooked, and we even had to borrow the soy sauce from the hibachi chef and pass it around to everyone at the table to try to give our very bland chicken fried rice some seasoning. IMPORTANT NOTE AT THIS POINT: I grew up in Mexico City and am fluent in Spanish. At one point after the insensitive comment from our chef about my age and the complete failure of the first egg spatula trick a different hibachi chef approached our table and tried to urge our chef to let him take his place in Spanish, though the rest of my table did not understand. I can't speak to what this means contextually, but I thought it was strange a colleague of our chef said it was best he take over the table, and then our chef refusing to move. My uncle in law was very disappointed by the lack of fun and interactive tricks associated with hibachi, as that is one of the principal draws for birthday events like mine. Our hibachi chef remained despondent and sullen the rest of the time, except for one futile attempt to create a "onion train" that he for some reason stopped halfway through and after clearing his onion off the table almost dumped onto my sister's rice before pulling back and throwing into the trash. We were laughing at this point so we wouldn't cry. Let's move on to merrier thoughts, why I still give 4 stars. The shining star in this Benihana location is a manager named Daniel. He was on staff 2/10/26 for the dinner shift. By the end of our experience we were all miserable, having received inedible food, developed bad energy, and had the displeasure to witness the most inexcusably unskilled and rude hibachi chef any of us had ever thought to have the misfortune to experience. We of course asked to see a manager to report our experience. I myself was a server for 5 years in a variety of restaurants, from fine dining to a revolving sushi bar. I didn't want to be rude but these were all reportable issues (I won't repeat what I have detailed above). Daniel was incredibly patient, kind, understanding, and took notes on all of our comments. I think he could see how disappointed and unhappy we were with the experience, especially for a birthday celebration. He communicated extremely well, offering to remake our dishes, or at least offer us some drinks to apologize for the experience. He ended up being extremely professional and understanding, and although at that point we were past the point of wanting our dishes remade, he was kind enough to offer us complimentary professionally printed group pictures at the table, and offered other forms of restitution as well. Although our experience with the hibachi chef was dismal, as soon as Daniel stepped in we felt heard and taken care of. I leave four stars because if anyone can ensure this Benihana lives up to them, it will be Daniel! One of the best restaurant managers I've ever encountered, an absolute pleasure to meet him, and he completely saved my birthday night while restoring my faith in the service industry! Thanks Daniel!! read more

Came here to celebrate Mother's Day with my mother, the food was great I ordered the Steak and Shrimp it was cooked nicely and was delicious, our chef Roberto was so nice and made us laugh he was very engaged in conversations and didn't make it awkward he was very friendly made our experience there great, we loved the food the atmosphere and the service would come again. read more

I ordered pick up sushi at 11AM to pick up 5:30PM, but order still not ready on 6:17PM and waiting for 20mins more, so they are starting making now. One of employee yells me that "I don't care your order since machine are broken", I am not sure what kind of response like this. I called manager, and someone came out say "I am sorry, your order is next"... I really don't understand all these guys attitude and way of business.... read more

this review is not for the food. It's always amazing but it's for the service. We had a reservation at 7:15 didn't get seated until 815 with no apology. They used to see eight to a table now they sit nine to a table. You feel squished in like sardines. Our server was at our table. Every 10 years. It was awful. read more

We had a booking for 5:45, and by 6:10 we were still not seated and the front desk told us there were two tables in front of us. Seems they don't understand the concept of reservation. read more

If you could stay away from this location, you should! We made a reservation at 8pm. There were so many people wait in the lobby, stand around because they don't have enough chairs. The receptionist told us we'd have to wait for 15 mins. At 8:25 pm I showed up again and asked to be seated and was told that there were 2 parties before us and the wait was supposed to be least 15 mins! Hey, so what is the reservation for???? They overbooked the tables and the restaurant was like a zoo!!! read more

Don't come during December! Can't help it we have birthdays so we came for a reserved dinner. The wait time to be seated was fine but waiting an hour and a half for a chef to come was insane! It was my parent's first experience and we just kept apologizing to them that it's not normally this bad. We've been to other places like Kyoto Palace and house of Genji and understand the wait times can vary but this was ridiculous! We didn't come at a crazy time either it was early at 4:30! Sorry to say we won't be coming back to this place. The prices are higher here too than the other places mentioned above. Food was good but again the experience was poor. read more

Our group went on a Saturday night so we had reservations for 6 pm. We waited over an hour to be seated. The lobby waiting area was chaos. It was obvious that people who had reservations were not being seated first. Once we were seated, the process went smooth. I would really have management solve this problem. I don't think if you have a reservation, you should have to wait more than 15 minutes. What is the use of a reservation if you have to wait for hours! read more