we spent the easter long weekend up on the gold coast with some friends and decided to give benihana (marriott surfers paradise resort & spa, 158 ferny ave surfers paradise 4217, 07 5592 9770) a go. benihana is a chain of japanese teppanyaki restaurants originating from america that specialises in ‘theatrically prepared’ meals. and theatrically prepared they were.
since there was 10 of us, we were able to have a teppan and chef to ourselves. after being served with some miso soup, ginger and mustard dipping sauces and salad, he started off with some zucchini and onion rings.
theatrically, of course, creating a little onion volcano that spouted steam.
veggies served, Jeffrey then proceeded to a pop a little egg tower in front of us while little prawns and some chicken were being grilled.
turns out that the little prawns were for flicking at us. while the boys attempted to catch the prawns in their mouths, Jeffrey kindly took pity on the girls and popped our prawns on our plates. happy to say only two prawns landed on the floor!
Jeffrey then added some chopped vegetables to the teppan, before popping the mix and chicken on top of some cooked rice.
the three eggs were cracked – theatrically – and prepped for a whole lotta flicking.
personally i think a bit more egg landed on the floor than was necessary.
but we had fun anyway 
after adding a bucketload of garlic butter (hey, the more the better!) and some seasoning, the fried rice was ready. one of our friends was celebrating her birthday on easter sunday and when we said as much Jeffrey made a little fried rice heart and wrote a greeting backwards in salt. cue applause.
and man, this was the BEST DAMN FRIED RICE I’D EVER TASTED. oh what i wouldn’t give for more garlic butter fried rice right now. and i’ve just finished a plateful of steak and veggies. sigh.
a serve of king prawns and squid was up next. nothing fancy with these ingredients, just some garlic butter, lemon juice and seasoning. no flicking either, thank god. this was followed by some salmon steaks, cooked the same way.
the picture above shows the salmon steaks medium rare, which is perhaps the way i would have liked it served. i found the well done portion a bit too dry, but that was just me. pn the other hand, the scallops were oh so juicy… and huge!
Jeffrey finished off soon after…
and we were left to work our way through the mound of seafood. toward the end of it i was absolutely stuffed, but it was definitely worth the money. benihana isn’t a place you would frequent regularly, but it is definitely worth a try.
i do wonder though if benihana cover the cost of drycleaning an item of clothing soiled by a flicked prawn? or do they put it back on you for not being able to catch it in your mouth in the first place. :p
