I did an acacia one (sealed with epoxy) for the island at my last house, and did the back counters on the current house with teak (sealed with waterlox). The acacia was nice. And cheap. And took a good finish and looked great. The teak was a bit more. Took a good finish. And looks great.
I did hickory (tongue oil seal) at a previous abode years ago and I was very pleased with the look of it. But that was a maintenance headache. The finish required some pretty heavy maintenance (like yearly reseal for the first 5 years) and when it did get some marring, finishing that out was a real bear. It was beautiful, but a real pain in the butt to actually live with when the young'ens where still at home. May be better now that they are beating up their own countertops.
Birch may hide dents better but it will get many more of them simply because of how soft it is. I, personally, would not use it for a countertop in my house (I know how hard my family can be on the kitchen counters). Maple is useful when you need the lighter color and want more hardness. Teak will be dark. No way around that. Not as soft as birch but still pretty soft but really forgiving in working it.
Waterlox is worth the effort to do right. Looks great when done well. Epoxy gives the shiny lustrous deep looking glass finish but can take years to fully set to hardness but also in the meantime protects the wood from denting. Tongue oil (traditional, that's why I did that) was not nearly as nice looking as a finish as the others.
My 2 cents.
