Benihana - Broomfield

My brother had decided to spend his birthday night at Benihana off of Havana here in Colorado the event was anything I had expected. We first spent some time at the bar waiting for other guests to arrive, during which time the bartender had no reservation to charge us an arm and a leg for drinks containing little or no alcohol. As I sat at the bar contemplating the type of sushi I would order I just happened to look over to the sushi bar where I spotted the main sushi chef with two-knuckles deep in his nose. He apparently had an itch that could not be attended off the sushi line after which time he went straight back to work with no contemplation at washing his hands. I approached the manager and discretely requested for her to inform the gentleman to wash his hands as I was eager to order seafood, she agreed. But after almost an hour of not hearing anything back from the manager, we had all decided that ordering sushi was not the best idea. It was not until later that night, when I was about half-way done with my meal (snack), when the manager approached me and asked if we would still be considering the sushi, I said hell no! By the way, in reference to the size of the meal, by no means are we considered overweight. The meal was very small. While sitting at the bar a friend of ours continued to tell us this story about the Hispanic chef they got last time they visited Benihanas. They enjoyed his cooking, his goofy jokes and simply loved the fact that he was the only Hispanic in the restaurant. As we got to the table, I started pointing out different chefs throughout the restaurant to my buddy, asking whether not that person was the chef he encountered on his last visit only to realize that there was not one single Asian, Japanese or Chinese cook in the joint. My buddy and I were shocked to realize that every cook was now Hispanic! What happened to authenticity? Our cook was very new, nervous and dropped a lot of stuff. Personally I really don’t care, the food sucked anyways, I just felt bad for the poor guy. The food was awful, the experience was stupid and I lost a lot of money on food that barely filled my plate. Seriously, they were charging over $25.00 on meals!! The new cook had food on our plate that sat waiting for the items until cold. For example, my wife received her rice, but wanted to wait for the expected chicken to be added before she dug in. My wife sat there for 10 minutes until the new cook realized that he forgot to put it on the grill, along with some other stuff, we ate scraps of food, side dishes and servings all night. Nothing was a full meal, just this and thats, here and theres, whenever it was done cooking. Our cook looked more interested in going home rather than cooking our food. Just a little insider for all you Benihana fools, Daruma in Jacksonville, Florida for the win!!! Definitely half the price and double the pleasure in food trust me. Daruma is the best Japanese steak house in the U.S. Benihanas is a “Chuck E Cheese” compared to this place. Great authentic food, great atmosphere and the manage and staff really care about their product.