Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant & Caterers

The food was excellent as always, however I was disgusted by the cleanliness of the restrooms. I walked into the restroom as a waiter was walking out of the stall. I went into the stall and saw that someone had urinated all over the seat, quite possibly a member of their wait staff. I left and asked a member of the wait staff for the restroom to be cleaned. Nearly 10 minutes went by and nothing happened. I approached the hostess and asked for the restroom to be cleaned again. But again nothing was done. It was very disturbing that urine covered toilet seats are acceptable standards there and that customer requests for clean restroom are ignored. I can only imagine the cleanliness of the kitchen if they clearly ignore the quality of the restrooms.

I still love this place. I will always give Ben’s 5 stars. This is my kosher place. I love the matzo ball soup, corned beef sandwich, pickles and cold slaw. I grew up with this kind of cooking and this kind of food. If you want to try some Jewish food, you must try Ben’s. If you are visiting from another country or state you must try Ben’s. They do have a location in Manhattan. Try the Matzo ball soup and corned beef. I am a Ben’s fan. This is my 2^nd review of Ben’s. My last review was 8÷22÷15. The last time I went to Ben’s was 2÷7÷16 with my husband and father in law. We had a great lunch. My husband had the turkey bowl. He loved it. My father in law had the brisket. We always go to the Bayside, NY location.

The food here is generally good, as is the service. This rating is based on one recent incident. I went into Ben’s to get some Pastrami and Corned beef to take out. The gentleman behind the counter looked busy, so I positioned myself across from him to wait. A man walked in, and the counterman walked over to him and said «Can I help you?» Then another man came in and another employee made his way from the back of the counter to help that customer. My reaction was to say, «Well, I guess I’m invisible,» and leave. Before anyone assumes they didn’t see me, I need to say I am a 5’10″ redhead. Hard to miss.
Also, I will take this opportunity to dispel the mistaken idea that this «Ben’s» has any connection to Ben’s Best in Rego Park. That establishment is head, shoulders and torso above any other place calling itself «Ben’s.»

Positive — friendly service at the takeout counter, wide variety of menu items, not particularly expensive, solid hot dogs and knishes.
Not Positive — driest and least flavorful pastrami i’ve ever had. If I was running Ben’s, I’d be too embarrassed to serve it. These guys need to retool their recipe badly.

Meh.
First off, service was awful. Four of us ordered pastrami and corned beef combo sandwiches and specifically asked for mixed meat on each. None came with mixed meat and most were either pastrami or corned beef … Not both. And the waiter’s attitude not apologetic. Instead we split our own sandwiches up.
We ordered coffee with some desert at the end, and asked for one with half decaf and half regular. The waiter gave us a look. About 3 mins later, the bus boy arrived with coffees and had no ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ coffees. We had to wait for him to come back again.
Sandwiches are good. I’ve had better.

I like the food. The prices are what they are. But the ladies/​girls at the cash register consistently make this a bad dining experience. Attitude, no smiles, just generally b – chy. For no reason. It’s weird.

Here is some unsolicited advice for the management, based on a disappointing visit.
One. Don’t charge what the market will bear just because someone told you to.
Two. Don’t serve fatty pastrami. It’s disgusting.
Three. Don’t nuke the rye bread, just the meat.
Four. Don’t cut back on the size of your sandwiches just because you can.
Five. Don’t serve stuffed cabbage that has no flavor. And do something about the watery flavorless gravy on it.
Six. Put someone at the cash register who cares about whether the customers enjoyed what they ate.
Thank you.

Ben’s is a good deli restaurant. It is fairly large and very noisy. We were seated pretty quickly, as there was a small line and it was VERY crowded. We sat at a half table half booth. The tables here are very small, and there is not enough room for all the plates, especially if you are ordering a meal as opposed to a sandwich or burger. Booths are large with plenty of room for soup plates, slaw and bread and main dish plates.
Our waiter stopped by to say he would be with us in a minute. He arrived with cole slaw and pickles and glasses of water. Ben’s has the BEST cole slaw, and you can fill up on that and sour pickles, We put in our order, and bowls of soup arrived promptly. The soup bowls are HUGE and filled to the brim, with soup spilling out onto the plate. I LOVE Ben’s soup– I had chicken and rice and my husband had vegetable. You get a main course and 2 sides and a drink. My husband had the salmon with sweet potato and vegetable, There was a nice piece of fish (it used to be bgger) and a good portion of vegetables. I don’t care for fish and avoid steaks, as they tend to be overcooked here, I wasn’t in the mood for chicken so ordered a chef’s salad. A big bowl of salad arrived, but I was stunned! I ordered it with roast beef and turkey, and what arrived looked like they had taken the meat from a roast beef and turkey sandwich and dumped it on the salad! I expected slices of meat. I had to use a knife to cut my salad.
Service was okay and water glasses were filled.
The bad thing about Ben’s is you don’t pay the waiter. There is always a crowd at the cashier. which is right by the entry door and take out place, and there are only 2 cashiers.
If you like kosher style food and are not looking for ambiance and quiet, this is the place for you. Expect to pay a little more for kosher food, but portions are good.

I go here about once/​month for the last 2 or 3 years. My family and I love the pastrami and can’t find it anywhere else around here. We like the chicken salad a lot, as well, but DAMN it’s expensive. The cole slaw is something they give you as a free appetizer when you first sit down, and it happens to be possibly the best cole slaw I’ve ever had. Usually. And that’s one of the problems I have with this location.
Restaurants tend to shoot for consistency. This way, if you tried a dish and liked it, you can return tomorrow to get the same thing and have an almost identical experience. But Bens makes me feel like my fate is up to the whim of whoever is at the helm that day behind the counter. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes you feel like the cook was fired and replaced by goyim.
Another thing I don’t like about Ben’s is the way they’ll draw you in with a coupon, promising something for 50% off, and you get there for take-​out and they show you the fine print: DINE-​IN-​ONLY. my fault for slipping the fine print, but screw you, Ben.
The take-​out system itself is pretty bizarre. You order at the deli counter, get a ticket, bring the ticket to the cashier, pay, and return to the counter for your food. Feels like the DMV. And waiting in line to pay your bill is often an experience as well. The line tends to blur, and pushy folks seem keenly bent on getting ahead of you. It’s no wonder why the cashiers often seem bent out of shape. Can hardly blame them.
The servers sometimes seem to have their heads up their asses, too. Recently I went though and had a terrific new waitress. Reminds me a little of what you would generally see if you went to a Jewish deli about 50 years ago, but she was nicer.
The hot dogs are good here, and we’re generally satisfied customers. I just feel they’ve got some issues to deal with.

At first glance this place looks like a tiny hole in the wall joint but when I walked in, I was so impressed with how big and how far the place extends to the back. Definitely far from a fancy joint but the waiters/​waitresses here are really nice.
Haven’t tried anything else but whenever I’m craving corned beef and/​or pastrami, this place hits the spot. The sandwiches are small but delicious. Good thing we didn’t come with big appetites!
I still think it’s a worthwhile visit if you live in the neighborhood. Much better than trekking all the way to the city to somewhere like Katz’ where it’s crowded and portion sizes are beyond what normal people should consume. Sandwiches don’t make good leftovers anyway :)

The food here is awesome! For an excellent waitress ask for Tara. We love her.

You kiddin’ me? Been the best for years… Still is. Love this place. I need to expand my horizons but just can’t stop ordering the hot dogs & knish. Ugh.

Corned beef or pastrami piled a mile high on rye!!! Fries and a cup of joe and you’re all set! Daily specials!

Food is ok but service needs improvement. The food years ago was much better. Ambiance is ok.

Interesting experience here.
the prices are up the wall crazy for what it is. Im from Long Island… and the smallest local Long Island jewish deli beats this place by a mile. The ordering conversation was relatively awkward and we felt like we were asking for the wrong things.
It took about 20 minutes to get our food… no one was in there… and we ordered a tuna sandwich and an omelet. Not sure what the hold up was
When we got our food…$ 23 later… we were given partially the wrong order.
eh.

Got a chicken pot pie that was so undercooked it made me wonder what kind of quality control this place has. Totally raw dough. Terrible. I’ve eaten here before with no problem but this killed it for me. No more Ben’s for me.

Just left Ben’s in the Bay Terrace shopping center. There was a line at the register and the cashier talks about customers when they leave. Shame on you.

Something changed…
There has been a breakdown of some sort, resulting in unhappy, resentful staff trying to put the place out of business — especially the cashiers. The only friendly faces are behind the deli counter. Had same experience as another Unilocaler when paying my check; my card was aggressively swiped and then tossed at me — receipt and pen tossed as well. When I met the angry chubby blonde cashier’s eyes she was seething hard. Not sure I even want to give it one more try after 15 years of patronage.

From the lunch special I want to place the picture of the soup and trimmings that come even before the special itself (stuffed cabbage).
You can get some real hearty inexpensive lunches here. Other recommendations, the chef’s special when it has salmon. Ronnie’s difficult decision (they are a bit weak on the lox) gives you food for two. Hungarian goulash. Note that they will do things like kasha and noodles instead of just noodles. Or sweet potato pudding or baked sweet potato instead of various regular potato dishes. They try to be hearty, they are not ruled by portion-​control geek-​o-​crats.
Generally, the ladies who do the waitressing are AAA+++.

I stepped back into the US via JFK and my parents brought me here to get a reintroduction to NY eating on our way up to CT. Had a moist pastrami half sandwich on a fresh rye (before leaving the US five
months earlier, one of my last meals was a Katz reuben… with disappointing bread that brought the whole experience down). The Bens half sandwich came with a bowl of matzo ball chicken soup and terrific coleslaw and pickles. Welcome home.