Benihana - Orlando (International Drive)

Here is another 1-star review that should be a 0-star review. We decided to try Benihana again, but were let down again—same restaurant but different location. Let's start with the parking lot size. It is nowhere near big enough for the restaurant's occupancy. Secondly, we made a reservation and got a text 20 minutes before our reservation saying our table was ready. We showed up 10 minutes before our reservation, and they told us that they would seat us when they were ready, and our table was given away to a party with no reservation. Thirty minutes went by, and we went back up to the hostess and checked in, and we were turned away. It was not until we went to the hostess stand and waited until we were given a table. After we are seated, they ask us if we have any allergies, and we say that a member of our party has a severe gluten allergy. The waitress writes that down and says they will let the chef know. First thing they bring out is the miso soup, which has deep-fried onions. The member in our party starts eating the soup and feels something that feels like it was deep-fried and spits it out, sees that it’s a deep-fried onion. They begin mixing the soup and see more deep-fried onions. They immediately go to the bathroom and start throwing up. Our waitress comes over and asks if everything is okay. We tell her what happened, and she takes the soup away. The chef comes out, gets ready to start cooking, and sees that something is wrong. He asks us what is wrong, we tell him what happened, and he gets the manager. The manager comes over and asks us if there is anything they can do or if they can make some food in the back for us. We replied no because anything they try to eat will get thrown up shortly after. They continued to ask us if they could cook us something else. They comp our members' meal for the food they never ate. The manager was also very rude, did not listen to us or our concerns, and just continued to yell over us and never let us talk. Needless to say, we will never be eating at this restaurant ever again.

Food was great. Tisha was very helpful with my Gluten-free needs, as was our cook, Joseph. I would recommend.

Super combination of a great experience and good food. Recommend the upgraded rice. They did a great job serving gluten free options. You need to book a table.