Best Japanese Restaurants in Irvine

Benihana offers a great dining experience with delicious food and a chill, relaxed ambiance. The dishes are flavorful, well-prepared, and served in generous portions, making it a fantastic spot for enjoying Japanese cuisine. The lively teppanyaki cooking adds a fun, interactive element to the meal, further enhancing the overall experience. However, the service could use improvement. While the food and atmosphere shine, the waitress seemed rushed, offering only brief interactions that felt impersonal. A little more friendliness and attentiveness would go a long way in complementing the otherwise enjoyable dining experience. Overall, Benihana is worth visiting for its excellent food and ambiance, but a focus on improving customer service would make it truly exceptional.

Definitely one of the better quality AYCE around!!! Service was great. They were very attentive. They have a system - there is a sign on the table that you turn if you need service. Sushi was fresh and delicious. Rolls were great and not too overloaded with heavy sauce. They are pretty strict with their eating time (1 1/2) but we were full at 1 hour and 15 and didn’t even order a 3rd round. Recommend going with at least four people to make sure you experience a greater variety of rolls as they don’t do half rolls. Make a reservation to limit your wait. Would definitely go back!!! Yummy!!!

We love it here we come every year on Christmas and they never disappoint

The food is always fantastic at this restaurant and the service is usually great as well, but on this visit the service was a little slow. It was not much of an issue as it was Christmas Eve and I believe the restaurant was a little short staffed. We felt our waiter did as well as he could as it appeared that he was only one of two waiters/waitresses we saw working the entire restaurant and both of them were doing hosting as well.

The sampler sashimi was outstanding. The sushi rolls were also very good.