No flying shrimp, no onion volcano: Benihana Express is coming to Denver

If your best Benihana memory is a chef flipping a shrimp tail into his hat and stacking onion rings into a flaming volcano, keep your expectations in check for this one. Benihana is opening its first Benihana Express in Colorado at 1380 16th St. in downtown Denver, at the corner of 16th and Market streets. The Express version is fast-casual. There are no teppanyaki grills, no tableside show, and nobody aiming zucchini at your face.

You order at the counter, and the food is built for takeout. The menu has hibachi bowls, burritos, sides and other grab-and-go items. Benihana’s pitch is “Same chefs. Same recipes. Same commitment to quality. Benihana Express doesn’t cut corners…just prep time.” Translation: you get the fried rice without the 90-minute dinner. It’s handy for a lunch break, less handy if you were hoping to impress a date.

The restaurant will take about 3,000 square feet on the ground floor of the 16M Building, in part of the old Panera Bread space between Dragonfly Noodle and Mendocino Farms. It’s one of the new tenants moving onto the 16th Street Mall after the city’s long, expensive rebuild of downtown’s main drag. There’s a local angle too: Benihana’s parent company, The ONE Group Hospitality, is based in Denver.

Want the whole birthday-song, knife-juggling experience? It isn’t going anywhere. Benihana’s full-service restaurants at Tamarac Square in southeast Denver and in Broomfield still have the tableside grills. There’s no opening date yet for the Express location, but you can sign up on Benihana Express’ website to hear when it opens. The company says it will share “exclusive offers + everything happening before we fire up the grills.”