JEDDAH, 1 January — Benihana is as Japanese a place as any. It’s actually a chain of restaurants that has opened around the world. You can find it in New York, London and even in Japan. It’s named after a flower called "Benibana" (Benihana), which is the restaurant’s logo.
The famous Japanese poet Basho Matsuo (1655-1694) from the seventeenth century wrote a romantic poem about passing by flowers in a field and imagining how they would complement beautiful ladies. He wondered who in the future would wear a beautiful red kimono with rouge on her lips made from the flowers.
Apparently the flowers have been used since ancient times to make rouge and red dye. Cooking oil is also made from the seeds. Although it is a yellow flower, it turns red as time passes. Thus, it is called "red flower" — benihana.
The restaurant’s decor is quite simple. It is designed to look like separate rooms each with separate sliding Japanese style doors.
There is a special table in the middle where the chef can demonstrate his cooking while customers are seated all around. It’s pleasant and clean looking with certain freshness.
They serve Nigiri Sushi, which comes in three pieces, an order. It offers crab, yellow tail tuna (hamachi), octopus (tako), seabream (tai), mackerel (saba), tuna belly (toro) and smelt roe (masago) plus others.
There’s also sashimi, which comes in five pieces. Salmon roe (ikura) is SR40 while yellow fin tuna is SR30. Sea urchin (uni) is the most expensive at SR85.
Not surprisingly, they have rolls as well. They also have what is called a rolling sushi counter, which has three different combinations.
Green plate, for example, is a combination of sushi and sashimi Rolls. Then there are white and pink plates, which are a combination of sushi & rolls. They also offer such specialties as shrimp tempura roll, rainbow roll and Mexican toll.
They have of course the famous miso soup and clear Japanese soup, as well as Japanese pickles and grilled vegetables.
I tried the shrimp tempura and honestly, I’ve had much better ones in other restaurant. I found it both raw and tasteless. I strongly recommend teriyaki chicken and hibachi shrimp as they were excellent.
As for dessert, they have banana tempura, ice cream tempura, fresh fruit and regular ice cream. In my opinion nothing to die for. They also have some delicious cocktails; my own favorite was the strawberry with lemon and kiwi.
(Benihana is next to Sands Hotel of Tahlia Street and the telephone is 6650785.)
