[5] Benihana was acquired by One Group, parent company of the STK and Kona Grill chains, in February 2024 for $365 million.

[6] Benihana introduced the teppanyaki restaurant concept which originated in Japan in the late 1940s to the United States, and later to other countries.

[8] Aoki, a wrestler who had qualified for but did not attend the 1960 Summer Olympics,[9] started the restaurant with US$10,000 (equivalent to $98,240 in 2023) earned from driving an ice cream truck in Harlem.

[10] Aoki's concept was for the meals to be theatrically prepared by a knife-wielding, joke-telling chef at a teppanyaki table surrounded by a wooden eating surface in front of the guests (teppan meaning "steel grill" or "griddle" and yaki meaning "grilled" or "broiled").

[13] The company had some missteps including the opening of the upscale Big Splash restaurant and a frozen food division, Benihana National Classics.

Its stock dove and shareholders sued over management including the fact that Aoki still had his privately held restaurants of the same name.

[16] In 2004, the company issued a class of preferred stock to BFC Financial corporation to renovate its restaurants and expand.

[18] In 2009, Richard C. Stockinger became chief executive to replace Joel A. Schwartz,[19] and in 2010 became president as Juan C. Garcia resigned.

[15] On February 5, 2014, the Board of Directors of Benihana Inc. named Steve Shlemon the company's new president and chief executive officer.

[27][28][29] Las Palmas, the company that owns Benihana in Kuwait, took legal action against the reviewer for his "negative" attitudes towards the restaurant and for recording the videos without permission.