Company behind The Wolseley ‘headquarters’ plotting Benihana expansion

Benihana is launching a new £2million 206-seat restaurant in Covent Garden. It is the Japanese steakhouse chain’s first new opening in Britain since 2019 and will be its biggest outlet in the UK.

London-based Benihana Holdings is majority-owned by Thai hotel operator Minor International, which is currently taking on Corbin & King, the London-based group behind destinations such as The Wolseley and Brasserie Zedel.

Corbin & King founders Jeremy King and Chris Corbin sold a 74% stake to Minor four years ago, but the two sides have since fallen out and are currently locked in a dispute over control of the company.

Minor forced Corbin & King into administration this week, saying it had “no viable option but to appoint directors”. King said in a YouTube video posted Thursday that the company was “besieged” by its investor but “in poor financial health.” He undertook to buy the company from the administration and to repay all debts.

Minor invested in Benihana around the same time as Corbin & King. He paid $12 million for 75% of London-based Benihana Holdings in 2018.

At the chain’s new site, Benihana will pay £475,000 a year in rent, a rate that would be competitive with those seen before Covid. The new 7,717 square foot premises on Maiden Lane once housed the Fire & Stone pizzeria. The opening of the site is scheduled for Easter.

Benihana was first launched in 1964 by the late wrestler Hiroaki Aioki and is credited with popularizing teppanyaki, a style of Japanese cooking where each table has its own chef who prepares meals such as wagyu beef steak on a hot plate in front of the guests.

Stars from Brad Pitt to Taylor Swift have been spotted at its branches and it has been referenced in Leonardo di Caprio’s hit film Wolf of Wall Street.

The new venue will host local performance artists for the first time and offer a dedicated, Instagram-enabled “feature Teppan” table.

Benihana has seen sales at its Chelsea site and former Piccadilly site exceed pre-pandemic revenue since reopening from lockdown, despite closing the Piccadilly site in October. Sales were boosted by a sustained increase in UK domestic diners, rather than tourists.

The chain’s chief executive, Jason Wischhoff, told The Standard: “This shift in demographics played a big part in our decision to invest in Covent Garden.”

Wischhoff said Benihana Holdings, which operates 19 of the grill locations globally, has signed deals to open four more locations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia this year, including another UK restaurant outside the UK. capital city. (76 other Benihana restaurants are operated in America by a separate company).

Jonathan Moradoff, of real estate agent Davis Coffer Lyons, advised the sale of the lease. He said the move is “another fine example of operators seeking prime opportunities in central London” to “take advantage of current market conditions”.