What Is the Benihana Concept?

1. What is the Benihana concept?

Benihana’s restaurants are Japanese style hibachi steakhouses. There are many things that distinguish Benihana from other restaurants. First, the company maintains their Japanese authenticity by bringing all the building material for its restaurants from Japan. Second, it hires only Japanese staff that is highly trained. Third, the way the food is cooked and served is very different from a traditional restaurant.

Benihana’s concept is based on batch production, where meals can be produced for up to eight people sitting at the same hibachi table. At Benihana, when diners enter the door, if they are not in a group of 8 people, they are asked to wait at the bar. Once a group of eight people is formed, the diners are sited in a communal table. The waitress then comes and takes the diners order and brings diners their beverages, soups, and/or salad. The table’s personal chef then appears rolling his cart with the pre-staged ingredients to start the show (prepare the food) for the diners. The chef then serves the entire table their meal simultaneously.

Benihana’s batch concept, allows the restaurant to increase productiveness, lower costs, and increase revenues. All cooking at the restaurant is done at the hibachi tables; this means that the restaurant does not have a traditional kitchen. This allows the company to provide a good service and maintain labor costs between 10% and 12% of gross sales. Additionally, the company is able to have a fast table turnover by providing only three choices of entrees: chicken, meat, and shrimp. This also enables the company to have almost no wastage.