Benihana
$$$ • Japanese Restaurant
Most Recent Reviews
Super accommodating! They made all of my food first and with gluten free soy sauce. The soup isn’t gluten free so they got me double salad. I got chicken, steak, shrimp, and fried rice and it was all pretty dang delicious. The ice cream was also great. The only issue is that the service for the rest of the party will be slow since your food will be cooked first.
Most of the food grilled table side at Benihana’s is naturally gluten-free. Avoid the teriyaki. They offer tamari in place of soy sauce. The soup appetizer was not GF, so I got double salad with vinegar and oil. For my entrée, I had grilled shrimp and chicken, zucchini and onions, and steamed rice. Delicious, and I was able to eat most of the same things as my gluten eating friends. I made an advance reservation and noted that I was celiac, and they were careful for my entire experience.
Absolutely amazing!!! Gluten free menu and well educated servers
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I ate at the Chinese restaurant which is part of Benehana. The menu is chinese foods and shushi. The hostess was very helpful and knowledgeable. She said it’s probably not celiac safe because theres not a separate prep/cook area but they can clean the cooking surface and prepare it gluten free. My waiter did not seem to understand english well but did well taking my order. I had a vegetable and chicken stir fry (made without sauce) and the waiter brought out a bottle of gluten free soy sauce. It was very good and very reasonably priced compared to Benihana.
the kitchen was very accommodating and cooked all my food seperate
I had a surprisingly good experience here. They immediately knew that I could not have salad dressing and they had gluten-free tamari that the hibachi chef used for everybody's meal, so as to not cross contaminate my food.
Reviews of this Chain
Was nervous to try hibachi since being dx’d CD. Benihana did not disappoint. I know everyone’s level of comfort is different, so I’ll share the good, bad and questionable so you can decide for yourself. For me, this is a place I’ll come back, felt safe and did not get sick.
(1) made my meal with GF soy sauce—clearly labeled. In fact entire table got GF soy sauce and didn’t know. Ha. But maybe that was just our experience.
(2) can’t have the standard salad or the soup. The ginger dressing is my FAVE pre-CD. So I was sad. But the one they brought me was bare and I simply dressed it with olive oil and rice vinegar. It was very yum. Burned prob bring my own GF ginger dressing next time.
(3) sauces (other than GF soy) prob not GF. But didn’t ask. Certainly no teriyaki sauce. But the mustard and ginger dip sauces. They still gave them to me. But I didn’t use them because I didn’t know and didn’t ask.
(4) cooktop. It is what it is. If you’re concerned about prior cooks with gluten and no way to “sanitize”—then this place prob not for you. I thought about it and took the risk. Did not get sick. But know that’s not the only way to tell.
(5) other customer ordered noodles. It was cooked to the side and sis not touch my food. My chicken was prepared first. But the veggies were prepared later. So I saw the cook utensil toss the noodles then move to the veg. Again, calculated risk I took. You may not want to do that.
(6) cooked with everyone else’s. Did not give me an option to “cook in the back” but did not press for it.
(7) no garlic butter in the hibachi rice. 😭 I’m sure they mixed it with non-GF soy before it was prepared. But my rice was YUM.
I would definitely return. But you have to decide if you’re ok with it for yourself.
I have eaten here before but this was the 1st time since being GF. There is a Gluten Sensitive/Vegan/Vegetarian/Keto menu you can view online. I called the day before and told them I need to eat GF. The person noted it on my reservation and said to let the server know when you arrive. The server was aware I needed to eat GF and answered my questions. The chef cooks your food in front of you and I was happy to see how careful he was. My pre-cooked food was on a separate platter and he cooked my food 1st on one side of the grill then everyone else. He used GF soy sauce. The food was delicious and I had a great experience!
Food is ok; the free pre-meal salads were still icy. Chef came out to ask if we actually had celiac or were folks who just said that but actually don’t like gluten or something. Promised to be dutiful about cleaning beforehand and keeping things separate but didn’t seem confident that everything would be celiac safe.
I’ve only recently been diagnosed, so I’m no expert yet, but they seemed very good at making sure everything I was having was gluten-free. I let them know I couldn’t have gluten when I initially ordered.
Since I ordered a main (which includes several different dishes), the server made my soup without the fried onion (as the fryer wouldn’t be gluten-free) and made my salad without the usual dressing and instead gave me a lemon to drizzle on it. She explained each of these things as she gave them to me.
The chef then used gluten-free soya sauce in order to cook for the whole table, so there wouldn’t be a chance of cross-contamination. The people I was eating with were given sauces that he made sure I was aware I couldn’t try, and instead he gave me some more gluten-free soya sauce I could use to dip food in.
The food was very good, and I’m glad they managed to accommodate my needs so easily.
Gluten free soy sauce can be subbed for regular or other sauces for fried rice, chicken, scallops, steak, etc. They will cook the gf first to keep grill clean. Soup and dressing is not gf. Yum yum sauce is gf. Fun experience.
