Off the Menu: Benihana

To a Celiac, a place where all of the food is cooked on one big griddle, with soy sauce and multiple courses sounds like a disaster...BUT Benihana was even more accommodating than I thought they could be. It was Mike's birthday and that is his ideal birthday spot - how could it not be? Entertainment AND great food all in one place. I wanted to make sure that we could go there and I could order something so I called ahead of time.

Without even needing to consult the kitchen staff, the hostess had all of the answers. She said that even if we had a big group they would be able to cook all of my food first after the hibachi had been cleaned so that there was no mixing of ingredients. On top of that she mentioned that if I brought my own soy sauce (they have g-free tamari at Whole Foods) that they could use it to cook with and everything would hardly need any substitutions. WHOO.

I learned that they could make almost all dishes on their menu (http://www.benihana.com/menu/teppanyaki) g-free and that all of the chefs were familiar with the special diet. What a relief, I ended up ordering:

No soup - although I could have without the crunchies in the onion soup
Salad - brought my own little dressing packet
All veggies included were fine (olive oil was used to cook)
Fried rice using the G-free soy sauce
Hibachi Chicken (no substitutions needed!)
Strawberry ice cream (for the birthday boy!)

It sounds like a lot but it was wonderful to have such variety in one meal. If you need or want to eat gluten-free this is probably not your first instinct for Asian food but it was great and I would definitely suggest it.