This year my best friend turned 22 (wooooo happy birthday
again Boo Boo). She is my rock, my comedian, my therapist, my confidant, my
cod.e, my homie, my sister! So this year we celebrated in style at Benihana in
St Pauls, London.
This stylish Japanese teepanyaki restaurant offered a
great atmosphere for our crowd of 19. The chefs were really interactive and entertaining
offering great banter throughout their cooking performance. It was a truly Tokyo meets London experience. We all got the “9
course” set menu which was £29 per person. I say “9 course” because it wasn’t
really 9 courses - Each ingredient was cooked and served separately. For
example the vegetables were one course, then the meat was cooked and served as
another, and then the rice, so on and so on. Never the less the food was tasty
and the set price meant it was much easier when dividing the bill at the end of
the evening.
We were also able to order custom made Red Velvet cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery... DELICIOUS!
So! The cocktails! Typically they ranged from £10 to £12
and there is a fair amount of choice. My ‘must recommend’ was the Lychee Colada.
Literally rocked my world! It consisted of Smirnoff Red Vodka, strawberries, lychee juice, pineapple juice,
coconut cream and lime juice. I am a big fan of the Pina Colada but this Lychee
Colada was refreshing yet sweet. The strawberries complimented the Lychee juice
very well!
I also decided to try
something a little different. Osmo, which I had never heard of before,
stood out the most because it included Sakè
which I thought would be interesting to try in a cocktail. Sakè is of Japanese origin
and made from fermented rice. The sakè was mixed with Triple sec, lime juice
and cranberry juice. Although a simple cocktail it was delightful and reminded
me of a cosmopolitan in its presentation and taste.
All in all I think Beninhana
was a great choice for birthday celebrations! I probably would not recommend
the set menu but you definitely need that Lychee Colada in your life! They
do have a separate bar area if you ever wanted to go just for the cocktails!
