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Thanks to all of you who helped!  We called the restaurant before we went
and asked them if it was ok to take our own soy sauce.  They cooked my
husbands food first and cleaned the grill in between.  We had a great time!

Here is a summary of all the responses:

* The soy sauce they use has wheat in it so you have to be careful. However,
they were very helpful in showing me what I could eat and provided me with
plain white rice
instead of fried rice. My choice was steak and it was very good. While this
is not a place I would pick to have a GF dinner, it was manageable.

* The only thing I ever eat at Benihana is sushi. If that particular
restaurant has a sushi bar, you can order from the sushi menu (avoid the
fake crabmeat and anything marinated in soy sauce) and use your own gf soy
sauce for dipping. If they don't have a sushi bar, there's probably nothing
you can eat since it's all cooked together on the grill top, and sprinkled
with soy sauce, etc. in the process.

* I have eaten at several, just order carefully and talk to your chef.  I
have a seafood allergy, so my chef was kind enough to cook all my food
before he put any shrimp on to cook for others we forgot to bring our own
soy sauce and so they  alternated cooking food without soy sauce on the same
surface as the food with wheat containing soy sauce.  I think your best bet
is to bring your own GF soy sauce and have everyone at the table use it!
Make sure they clean the cooking surface REALLY well before they start.
 * It was not Benihana but it was the type of restaurant that
cooks your food in front of you as I believe Benihana does.  The manager and
chef couldn't have been nicer in trying to accomodate my needs.  We
discussed what foods I could eat safely and my meal was prepared on the
cooking surface before everyone elses.  We thought that all was well until I
became ill within 1 hour after leaving the restaurant.  The only thing that
we could figure out that happened was that the soy sauce that is used to
cook most of the food does not burn off of the grill completely after each
meal is prepared. So even though the grill is "cleaned" between each meal,
gluten must remain on the cooking surface.  I usually do not react readily
to ingesting small amounts of gluten so the fact that I had problems so
quickly meant that I had ingested more than a trace amount.  I hope this
helps you.

* We have eaten at Benihana with my celiac daughter.  If you are eating
teppanyaki style (around the grill) you can request that your husbands meat
and veggies be cooked first on the clean grill with no soy sauce.  They were
more than happy to do this and the other people at our table did not seem to
mind at all.  It was very fun.

*I went to Benihana's last year for my birthday. I
hadn't been GF too long at that time, and was still
learning. When I arrived there I remembered that
EVERYTHING is cooked with soy sauce.
I had to make very clear to the waitress and table
chef that I needed my food separate from the soy
sauce. He served me first each time and then added the
soy sauce.
It was a good experience overall, but I'm not the type
that likes everyone to make a fuss over me, but if
you're going there, you'll need everyone to do just
that.

*We have eaten at Benihana here in Austin several times.  My celiac daughter
loves it.They use soy sauce in all of their sauces & salad dressings so you
need to
be careful and talk to them about this an maybe bring your own.  My daughter
does not do condiments or sauces or salad dressings of any type so  this has
not been an issue for us.

*The food is cooked in front of you.  So, you can be sure that they are
careful.  We have eaten at a table with my celiac daughter and a woman with
a shellfish allergy and both diets were accommodated and no cross
contamination issues.

*We did a dinner there for out Celiac group and the one issue we had was
that not a lot of people spoke English.  Or at least had as great a command
of the language to deal with the details of the diet.  So, you should call
first to make sure that your requests will be honored.
There are many things you can order because they cook them right in front of
you.  Avoid the dipping sauces, salad dressing, and soup as they all have
soy sauce containing wheat in them.  If you bring your own sauce, you should
be able to eat the meat and vegetables.

*You had better call the restuarant yourself and talk to them.  They may put
soy sauce on everything.  Ask if you can bring your own and what your
options are.  I get the best results calling ahead of time and talk to the
chef or to the owner/manager.


Thanks again to everyone for all your help!
Maria

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