Do you know which ideas for dinner I like the most? It's not really complicated: I don't figure things out, don't prepare, don't cook, don't clear the table and everybody is full up and happy. If like me you are sometimes loath to cook dinner, you don't have any idea for a meeting with friends and maybe you are looking for a place for dinner or a power lunch, I recommend a Japanese restaurant called Benihana on Twarda Street 4 in Warsaw. Here excellent food is combined with imaginative preparation of the dishes, and the extraordinary atmosphere is accompanied by creative, open people in one consistent succulent whole. In my opinion, it was joyful, loud and very tasty.

The restaurant was created by amazing people whose ideas still exist in many Benihana restaurants all over the world. Just after the war, Yunosuke Aoki, a descendant of a samurai, decided to start a coffee shop with his wife, Katsu. Wanting to offer something different from other coffee shops in the area, Yunosuke Aoki rode his bike over 20 miles to purchase real sugar for coffee. His son Hiroaki (or Rocky, as he would become known) used the idea to create something unique. Rocky moved to the U.S. to pursue his dream of opening his own restaurant. He started by selling ice cream on the streets of Harlem. At night he studied restaurant management. He went over well and was known on the streets of the areas where work wasn't the most popular activity. The people could rely on his friendliness, smile, energy and the colorful Japanese cocktail umbrellas he added to the treats. These are small details, but isn't it always the little things that stick in our mind? It is hard to believe he managed to save up the money to open his first teppanyaki restaurant in New York in 1964. Like his father's coffee shop, it was named Benihana. He opened more restaurants within the next few years. Now there are 130 restaurants Benihana all over the world.

In Warsaw we have a lot of restaurants and a few Japanese ones. Most of them we connect with sushi. In Benihana you may order sushi, but if you are open for a new experience I recommend the teppanyaki menu. The Benihana conception consists in the combination of Japanese food with interaction between the customers and cooks. In the restaurant you may take a seat at one of eight big tables where the main place is a hotplate-grill. On it a cook will prepare your dishes. Maybe it sounds ordinary but believe me it isn't. The cooks will prepare for you a show, playing with the open fire and juggling with knives. Even chopping the ingredients and spicing them up is a far cry from what you are used to at home. My children alternately shrieked with surprise and laughed at the jokes when the cook prepared a volcano with onion or threw a salt cellar into the chef's hat.

Classical Japanese food: miso soup, vegetables, fish, seafood and meat were prepared with the best quality ingredients and carefully chosen seasonings, and so the dishes were yummy. If you aren't full after dinner, you may finish your regale with some energizing jasmine tea or one of the excellent desserts or colourful cocktails. The barometer of the restaurant's quality is the customers: foreigners who would like to get to know Japanese food as well as Japanese people.

For dinner you will get chopsticks. If you can't use them, or your children have a problem with this, you can ask for ordinary cutlery. I think it is worth having a go with the chopsticks. It is good fun and with chopsticks you will eat more calmly, carefully and ... slowly.

Even though at first sight the restaurant is a typical place, you can comfortably go there with even very energetic children. On Sunday afternoon a nice animator works in the restaurant, and the cook's show will be an attraction for both adults and young customers.

The prices in Benihana seem to be quite high. But the dinner consists of a bowl of soup, a starter, a main course, some salad, a bowl of rice and a small cup of green tea, so the bill won't hurt too much. What's more, the smile, delighted guests and experience are invaluable.

I recommend it!

The pictures come from http://benihanapoland.com