If your dinner plans have been feeling a bit too… static lately, allow me to introduce an evening that comes with a side of pyrotechnics and knife juggling. Enter Benihana Covent Garden: the home of teppanyaki theatrics, where dinner is less a quiet affair and more an interactive spectacle with shrimp tosses, onion volcanoes, and more “oooh”s and “ahhh”s than a fireworks finale.
Curtain Up: The Benihana Experience
Tucked a few steps away from the West End’s theatre district, Benihana fits right in with the showbiz crowd – except here, the stage is a sizzling teppan grill, and the stars of the show are your chefs, armed with razor-sharp knives and the wrist flick of a magician. From the moment you sit at the communal table (a Benihana hallmark), you’re roped into an experience that straddles the line between dinner party and Cirque du Soleil.
Your chef arrives like a rockstar with spatulas instead of guitars and promptly begins tossing ingredients into the air like they’re competing for Britain’s Got Talent. Eggs are cracked mid-air, rice is flipped with a flourish, and prawns are catapulted toward open mouths (yours included, if you’re brave enough). It’s dinner and a show, and yes, it’s glorious chaos.
What’s on the (Fiery) Menu?
Despite all the flash, the food isn’t just theatre fodder – it’s genuinely good. The hibachi chicken is juicy and slicked with garlic butter, while the filet mignon arrives seared to perfection and tender enough to slice with a spoon. The Benihana fried rice deserves its own fan club – egg-flecked, buttery, and oddly addictive. And if you’re looking to level up, there’s lobster tail, scallops, and even wagyu that gets the same dramatic treatment.
Vegetarians aren’t forgotten either, with tofu steaks and mixed vegetable hibachi, though they’ll have to sit through a few sizzling prawns doing backflips first.
Drinks That Deserve a Bow
The drinks list leans into the theme: sake cocktails, lychee martinis, and a showstopper of a drink served on fire. Yes, really. There’s even a Benihana punch bowl that serves two but could quite possibly take down four, depending on your tolerance and your plans the next morning.
For Kids and Big Kids Alike
While it’s easy to assume Benihana is one for the tourists or kids’ birthday parties (which, to be fair, it does very well), don’t be fooled. There’s a nostalgic joy to the place that appeals to fully grown adults with deadlines and spreadsheets too. It’s the kind of escapist fun that feels rare in London – a break from the earnest small plates and hushed fine dining rooms. Here, people laugh. Out loud. Together.
Final Act: Why You’ll Come Back
Benihana Covent Garden doesn’t take itself too seriously, which might just be its greatest strength. It’s dinner with flair, food with a flourish, and a reminder that eating out should be fun – spectacularly, dramatically fun.
Bring a group. Bring your sense of humour. And perhaps don’t wear anything too flammable.
31 Maiden Ln, London WC2E 7JS
