Benihana, the Japanese restaurant chain known for its teppanyaki dining style, is plotting an expansion in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The brand’s parent, publicly traded Denver-based One Group Hospitality Inc., signed a seven-year deal with an “experienced operator” to open 10 Benihana locations around the region, including three Benihana franchises, two Benihana joint-venture locations and five Benihana Express outlets.
The growth plans in the region follow the opening last March of a Benihana outlet south of San Francisco, in the Bridgepointe Shopping Center in San Mateo, that’s delivered the most successful performance in the chain’s 60-year history, One Group Chief Executive Emanual Hilario told investors during an earnings call in November.
The new Benihana has a redesigned format that features lighter, more contemporary decor and a new takeout delivery station and got rid of the sushi bar to make room for more of its signature sizzling teppanyaki grills, where chefs cook in front of patrons with tableside antics.
“We are now implementing this learning systemwide, adding two to three teppanyaki tables per restaurant," Hilario told analysts. "This success gives us confidence that future locations can achieve $8 million in annual sales with a restaurant-level profit margin in the mid-20% range.”
In recent years, the Bay Area has become a hub of rising Asian and Asian-inspired brands that are enjoying growing popularity nationwide, with megamarket chains such as Jagalchi and H Mart filling big-box retail spaces.
One Group, which operates such brands as the STK Steakhouse, Kona Grill and RA Sushi chains, acquired Benihana in 2024 for $365 million. It owns or franchises 81 outlets around the country.
New outposts
A company spokesperson disclosed where two new Benihana restaurants are expected to open in 2026: in a spot formerly occupied by a Red Lobster at 5343 Almaden Expressway in San Jose and on a prime bayfront locale at 1890 Powell St. in the East Bay enclave of Emeryville that for two and a half decades housed Chevy’s, a Bay Area-born Tex-Mex chain.
The Emeryville spot, tucked between an office complex and a freeway, was a favorite among locals for its frozen margaritas and panoramic bay views. The 13,500-square-foot building sits above its own little beach and wooden pier. Chevy’s operated at the Emeryville location from 1999 through 2024, doing business through two bankruptcy reorganizations.
The chain declined to offer specifics on the locations of the other eight outlets, which are expected to open over the course of the seven-year deal. Benihana already operates five outlets around the region, in San Francisco, Burlingame, Concord and Cupertino as well as San Mateo. Four are in shopping centers.
The first Benihana opened in 1964 on West 56th Street in New York City. The chain’s founder, Japanese-born amateur wrestler Rocky Aoki, is credited with introducing then-exotic-seeming foods like hibachi shrimp to Americans by adding knife-flipping and other food-as-live-performance elements to the dining experience.
The chain oversees Benihanas in the Caribbean, Central America and South America as well as the U.S. Benihana Express locations offer “a small footprint casual concept” without a bar or teppanyaki tables, in line with the larger One Group’s current emphasis on “asset-light” growth as opposed to building big, sit-down restaurants.
One Group stressed in a press release that it was prioritizing “capital-efficient growth in 2026, significantly reducing discretionary capital expenditures” by focusing on new locations that cost $1.5 million or less to open and making use of existing leases rather than signing new ones.
The company added that it also aims to boost the brand’s visibility via Benihana concessions at professional sports and entertainment stadiums such as the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix and the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.