Pauline decided it would be a nice idea to have a girl’s night out so she got on the case to see who would be interested. Pretty quickly we had a pretty good size group of 11 of us. Somehow, in all this organization, Pauline convinced me to find a venue for dinner! Catering for everyone’s taste (read pickiness – ha ha), finding an interesting

The meal

Benihana is a Japanese teppanyaki experience where they cook the food on grill tops live in front of you. There are few venues scattered across London but the venue we selected was near Piccadilly Circus for is central location. Upon arriving at Benihana they guided us to the bar which is a good idea for when you are meeting a large group of people but also quick way of spending your money! The (non-alcoholic) pina colada was very tasty though so I didn’t mind 🙂 We’d booked for the offer of “7 courses for £16.50” off top table – the booking stating that it was imperative that you arrive on time otherwise they would cancel it. A bit harsh but I think in most cases, especially when there’s a large group of you, the restaurant won’t mind if you’re a little bit late. As it was they kept us waiting anyway for our table.

Because there were 11 of us we couldn’t all fit around one cook top so we were split into two groups and taken care of by two chefs. Our chef was very cute, and very Spanish, whilst the other girls got the head chef. I think we were better off because our chef was quite flashy including setting fire to the food (deliberate of course) on numerous occasions, creating a little flaming volcano of onion rings and generally tossing food all over the place. At one stage he even did the throw-the-food-into-your-mouth trick with Jenny. Thankfully it was her and not me! The head chef did try some tricks but I get the impression it wasn’t impressive as the display we received. Our chef was very flirtatious and friendly too and somehow I ended up with his chef’s hat (which I promptly returned as it was extremely warm to wear!) Fair to say there was a lot of interaction with our chef.

As for the food, the “7 courses” got us two “meats” (choice of beef, chicken, salmon, prawns, and another fish), fried rice, salad, vegetables, soup, and California rolls (the rolls were delish!) I didn’t think it would be enough food but actually I was fairly filled up by the end of the meal. The only negative to the concept was that the meats were cooked at different rates so we were all eating at different times and sometimes the food was overcooked. I couldn’t complain about the service which was at all times friendly and impeccable.

Overall I think Benihana is a good fun place to go with a group of people to experience something a little distinctive from the usual dining experience even if the food is not the highest quality or best tasting you’ve had. Its definitely a place to be entertained if you get the right chef. Be warned, however, that it can get quite pricey if you add bottles of wine to your meal.

The after

Only Pauline, Jenny, Agatka and I made it to Jewel for a drink after dinner. Jewel is actually a lot bigger than it seems when you first walk in and, what I really liked about it, was that there are plenty of places to sit and be comfortable. It seemed quite good for small groups of people. Unfortunately table service was quite slow which was surprising because you’d think in a place like Jewel they’d try to push as many drinks on you as possible.