Years ago, we had a large group of friends who decided to go to Benihanas for New Year’s Eve. Three couples from Jackson, TN were meeting three more couples from Memphis at the Benihana in Memphis. We had enough people to fill a Hibachi table to capacity. They had a special New Year’s Eve meal deal going and everyone in our party decided we would get it. I don’t remember exactly what all was included with the special, but it did say it included fried rice. We arrived late enough that we would be seeing in the new year at our table.
I don’t know what the traditional way of celebrating New Years is in Japan but this Benihana did it like no other celebration I’ve ever seen. As midnight approached, the staff started bringing out party hats and decorations. The odd thing was that none of the decorations were right for celebrating the new year. It was like they went back to a closet and got out anything they could to celebrate. I remember 4th of July and St. Patrick’s Day hats. They also turned out most of the lights and cheered for about 5 minutes. We didn’t know what to think about this celebration. It was more than what we had expected and at the same time less that what we expected. If they were going to do anything, we thought it should have been different from what we had experienced.
We had eaten our meal and were waiting for our check. I noticed that one of the ladies in our group was not happy. She was speaking to her husband in a low voice, complaining that we hadn’t gotten our fried rice. This was one of the first times I had ever been to a hibachi restaurant and didn’t realize that they do fried rice with most of them. And it did say something about it on the table tent advertising their special. But everyone else in our party was happy with what we had gotten. It was also late enough that we were all ready to go. That didn’t stop our friend.
A lady came out with a stack of bills for our meals. She unstacked them one by one on the table between us. She picked up each one to make sure it was ok. Then she looked up and asked if everything was ok. Our friend said, “We didn’t get our rice.” The lady with the bills, stacked them up one by one and left. She came back with the manager who asked what the problem was. She repeated that we didn’t get our rice. She showed them where it said rice on the table tent. Her husband was getting embarrassed and the rest of us were ready to go. Several of us said we were ok and didn’t need rice. The manager left and returned about 10 minutes later with a bowl of white rice for each of us. Some of us picked around at it in embarrassment. Our friend that complained said, “That’s not what I wanted” in the whiniest voice I think I’ve ever heard. The lady with the bills came out about 10 minutes later and went through the same routine with the trays and checks. It was closing in on 1 AM before we were able to leave. Those of us from Jackson still had over an hour before we would get home.