Benihana Teppanyaki in Covent Garden: £120 Menus for Two

Benihana Covent Garden is a direct answer to a London teppanyaki search: the restaurant is at 31 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7JS. Lunch runs Monday to Friday from 12:00 to 15:00, dinner from 17:00 to 22:00, Saturday from 12:00 to 22:30, and Sunday from 12:00 to 22:00. Last table reservations are 14:30, 21:30, 22:00 on Saturday, and 21:30 on Sunday respectively. Those times make an early weekday lunch or a late weekend table the two easiest slots to plan.

The first few minutes are part of the meal. Benihana says a host leads guests to a lounge where a high-definition video installation tells the brand story. That gives you a calm landing spot before the grill starts, especially if your group arrives at slightly different times. Order a handcrafted cocktail, wine, or a non-alcoholic drink there, then move when the host calls the table. The lounge is useful for a birthday group because the experience begins before anyone is handed chopsticks.

The restaurant has two distinct dining levels. The ground floor holds 11 teppanyaki tables, while the lower ground floor has eight; every table seats eight guests. That layout explains the communal rhythm: a couple may share a grill with strangers, while a full party can fill the surface and keep the conversation together. Benihana also lists two private dining rooms. If privacy matters more than the lively room, mention the private option while booking rather than hoping to move after arrival.

The show has a clear lineage. Benihana's history page says Yunosuke Aoki and his wife Katsu began with a small coffee shop in Tokyo, and a red safflower inspired the name, which means red flower in Japanese. Their son Hiroaki ‘Rocky’ Aoki later worked seven days a week selling ice cream in New York while studying restaurant management at night. He opened a four-table restaurant near West 56th Street in 1964, then built the chef-led, table-side style around timing, knife work, and theatrical presentation.

That history matters because teppanyaki here is more than food placed on a hot plate. The restaurant describes beef, chicken, and shrimp as the stars, cooked while guests watch ingredients sliced, diced, and flipped. A chef has to finish several components together so food reaches each plate at the same moment. Sit where you can see the full steel surface, keep your camera out of the chef's working space, and treat the performance as part of dinner rather than a pause between courses.

For lunch, the October 2026 main menu gives a helpful entry point. Hibachi chicken is £25, hibachi prawn £29, hibachi salmon £28, and filet mignon £37. Traditional lunches include salad with ginger dressing, hibachi vegetables, a prawn appetiser, and hibachi rice, so the plate feels complete without adding many sides. There are also kitchen dishes such as chicken gyoza at £6.80, prawn tempura at £9.80, and spicy edamame at £4.70 if you want a smaller start before the grill course.

Dinner is where the room's sharing logic becomes obvious. The traditional menu lists hibachi chicken at £29.95, hibachi salmon at £35.95, hibachi prawn at £37.95, filet mignon at £45.95, and miso black cod at £49.95. A table can split a Benihana Delight of hibachi chicken and prawns for £45.95, or choose Land & Sea, filet mignon with miso black cod, for £58.95. The menu also includes Japanese Wagyu at £95 for 150 grams or £122 for 200 grams.

The current Chef's Choice autumn sheet is the simplest way to budget for two people. Every menu begins with onion or miso soup, seasonal kitchen appetisers, salad with ginger dressing, a prawn appetiser, a vegetable appetiser, hibachi vegetables, and hibachi rice. Aki is £120 for two and adds prawns, teriyaki chicken, salmon, and hibachi sirloin with miso sauce. Takumi is £160 for two with prawns, black cod, lobster tail, and Japanese A5 chateaubriand. Fujiyama is £190 for two with scallops, black cod, lobster tail, and Wagyu beef with miso sauce.

A practical order is to choose one main direction before you sit: steak-forward, seafood-forward, or a fixed Chef's Choice menu. That keeps the grill timing coherent and stops a group from ordering five unrelated extras. The menu flags a discretionary 12.5% service charge, and it asks guests with allergies or intolerances to speak to a member of staff. Say that at the start, before the appetiser arrives, so the chef and service team can plan the cooking surface rather than improvise halfway through the performance.

Reservation timing changes the feel of the visit. The location page links directly to a SevenRooms booking widget, and the restaurant says parties up to 10 can book there. A birthday table should arrive with its order plan and seating expectation already agreed; an eight-seat grill is generous, but it is still a shared worktop with a fixed cooking sequence.

For a first visit, weekday lunch is the least demanding choice: the 12:00–15:00 window gives you the theatrical cooking without committing to a long evening. Friday dinner and Saturday are better for a celebration, but reserve rather than treating the door as a walk-in gamble. Sunday from noon is a useful compromise for families or visitors with a West End show later. If a full dinner feels too heavy, order one lunch-style hibachi main and add a single small dish instead of stacking multiple combination plates.

The honest skip is dessert unless the table specifically wants a playful finish. The menu offers mochi ice cream at £7.95, ice-cream tempura at £7.45, banana tempura at £7.45, and green-tea ice cream at £4.55, but the grill is the reason to come. Put the budget into the Aki or Takumi sequence, or into the prawn and steak combination, then finish with a short Covent Garden walk. Dessert is available; it simply does not carry the same sense of occasion as the chef's hot surface.

The surrounding neighborhood is unusually easy to pair with dinner. Walk through Covent Garden Piazza before an early table, use the covered market for a short browse, or take the lanes toward the Royal Opera House after lunch. A late booking works well after a West End matinee because the restaurant is already inside the theatre district rather than requiring a second journey across London. Keep the walk compact: the point is to arrive with appetite and leave enough time for the chef's sequence, not to turn dinner into a city-wide itinerary.

Practical notes are straightforward. Benihana Covent Garden publishes the full daily schedule above, including last reservation times. The menu's service-charge line is 12.5%, and the restaurant offers two private dining rooms as well as its 19 communal tables. Ask for the seating style you want when making the SevenRooms booking, especially if your party includes a child, a guest with an allergy, or someone who prefers not to share a grill with another group.

Use the Karpo APP to turn this into a timed Covent Garden plan: ask for a teppanyaki table around the lunch or dinner window, add the Royal Opera House or Piazza as a nearby stop, and keep the route short enough to preserve the reservation. The useful choice is clear once you know the table format: Aki for a measured two-person tasting, Takumi for a richer seafood-and-beef spread, and the à la carte hibachi chicken or salmon when you want the show without a fixed menu.