Benjamin’s

My fiancé and I stopped by for a few drinks. We sat at the bar area which was a complete mess. The bartender was nice but kind of all over the place. I hadn’t heard of half the beers they have on tap. The entire place needs to be cleaned. It was pretty gross.

Great Bloody Mary’s & comfort food like Grilled Ham & Cheese, stop by for lunch & a cocktail while taking a break from shopping on Main Street!

The service here was very good but the good was terrible, and that is being polite. The unlimited salad bar is unlimited because the section is so minimal 1 trip is enough. The good came out on burning hot plates, but the garlic potatoes and the vegetables themselves were ice cold. When I mentioned something to the wait staff she said she doesn’t believe in microwave food herself. SERIOUSLY!!! $ 30 for microwave food? The chicken florentine tasted so bad we ate 3 bites between the 2 of us and left the rest. I would have felt ripped off paying $ 10 for this meal. On the plus side, their water was good.

I was part of a group and our meals needed to be pre-​ordered. We ordered so-​called Chicken Milano described as chicken breast baked with grilled onions, crimini mushrooms and sweet peppers for $ 16. It sounded safe but the execution was flawed and the predominant flavor was a sour earthiness, think dried mushrooms reconstituted in vinegar that rendered the plate almost inedible.
The accompanying potato chunks were grossly under-​cooked and topped with a rubbery yellow cheese that didn’t bind at all to the potatoes and the green beans were apparently boiled with vinegar and raw bacon. Nothing on this plate went together.
I scraped the stuff off the chicken, sampled a potato and some green beans and left the rest on my plate.
The salad bar was OK but both soups, a creamy chicken and a bean with ham, were bland and desperately cried out for the most basic of seasonings, salt and pepper.
Benjamin’s: You need a new cook.

Looked like a good food place from the outside but disappointed. The hostess seated us and told us Denise would be with us. When she finally showed up she was very short and seemed put out that we needed more time to decide. She brought our drinks and took our order. I wanted a burger with cheese but was told they only have American cheese. Went with the pulled pork sandwich. It was good but only got one small dish of BBQ sauce. And because the waitress never came back to check on us, it took forever to get more (finally got some from a bus boy). We were ready to leave and actually had to go find the waitress for the check, which by the way was a little pricey. Really, skip Benjamin’s. Not worth the money, time or effort with all those great restaurants in the area.

I’ve gone to Benjamin’s every time I’ve come to Galena, and it has always been good. Today they served me my burger on a moldy bun. I believe that speaks for itself.

Oh dear! They’ve completely changed their extensive menu and reduced it to one page. So disappointed as this was one of our faves! Bring back the old menu!!!

We hit Benjamin’s for lunch while trekking the Galena main drag because my mom had read it was voted one of the top restaurants in IL by Gourmet magazine. I don’t know that I would go that far, but we did have a pleasant meal which accommodated some allergies and kids with ease.
We were there for an early lunch with a group of seven, including two kids (7 and 6).
There was a lot to pick from with a substantial menu of pitas, sandwiches, burgers and salads, but I (and my mom) ended up choosing the Yummy Yammy Hammy: two mini sandwiches on sweet potato biscuits with ham, pineapple and swiss cheese. It was really unique and ended up being really tasty (though the bottom of the rolls were just a bit soggy).
Everyone else enjoyed their meals, and the kids were delighted that their food came served in inverted plastic fireman’s hats.
There were crayons and butcher paper on the table for coloring, which kept them quiet.
Our waiter was very laid-​back, double-​checked with the kitchen for allergen issues and handled the crowd with ease.
Overall, a nice lunch in downtown Galena.

We went there for lunch last Saturday to total disappointment. We decided to split a Reuben sandwich and pay the extra $ 2.00 to do so. It came and was cold. The bread was toasted but everything else was cold. Cheese wasn’t even melted. Fries were soggy and cole slaw had nothing on it. Just shredded cabbage. I had taken a few bites, my husband ate a bit more and we decided to complain to the manager. He said he would take it back to the kitchen and warm it up. I wanted to pay for our drinks and just get out if there. The manager just kept arguing with me and said he refused to let us leave because we had a few bites of the sandwich. He finally agreed to make a new sandwich and when it arrived it was warm but just ok and the fries were again soggy. We will never go back there. Bad service, bad management and bad food in my opinion.

Service is slow. Waited 45 minutes for the nacho platter. Aftter all that time received the food cold. The manager could have cared less if the food and service was poor. They offered to remake the food and came back 5 minutes later with the same platter with charred chips and reheated cheese. Plenty of other good eats to go to in town. leave this one behind

Decent burger and cheap booze. a nice place to relax while out browsing the Main St.

The food here is a disappointment, especially so when considering how long we had to wait to get it.
Only 2 of the meals out of 9 at our table got a thumbs up: their burger and their BLT.
The other meals tasted like they were made with low-​quality ingredients and put together with little care.
So basically, Benjamin’s can only execute sandwiches, albeit not the best of sandwiches. This wouldn’t be a problem at all, that is unless the menu lists a plethora of random dishes and genres of food other than sandwiches that people (I) fall for ordering… Benjamin’s needs to condense their menu so that it consists of things that they can actually cook; only then does this restaurant have potential.
The service on the other hand was honorable. The waiter was attentive and hard-​working and the guy who appeared to be the manager was routinely checking on us.
Despite the good service, unfortunately the poor food will keep me from ever coming back to this place again.

We went here this past Saturday, February 18, 2012 along with my GF, my sister, brother in law and their two daughters. We had high hopes since my bro in law and sister talked this place up as a great place they had frequented a few years back before kids and saying they had a great staff and great food.
I was very taken back by the service, 10 minutes to get water for the kids, an additional 10 minutes to get our first round of drinks and 30 minutes later we were able to order what I thought would be our dinner for the evening. With two younger kids, getting close to their bedtime, the waitress couldn’t be more apologetic for the time it was taking, but also that we decided to go to the bar to get drinks since our waitress was nowhere to be seen. After waiting an hour and a half for our food, the kids finally got their meals, one was incorrect and the waitress took the easy road to give them two terribly done kids grilled cheese sandwiches.
We got our meals in pieces, but never was it done correctly. I know they had a busy weekend of Mardi Gras, but when we had arrived the dining room was empty, they were out of most of their beers, the service was terrible and we left very unhappy with the service and the food that did arrive. How can a place that is in the middle of town, the heart of the town, have a large space like this and survive for so long? I highly recommending going to any other place. We had fantastic experiences around the rest of the town during this busy weekend like Fritz’s and Frite’s, One Eleven, Cornerstone, etc. and we saw a number of other places that offered better service and a better dining experience.
The one good note of the place was they did comp our meal and drinks besides the ones we ordered at the bar. I would recommend this place to shut its doors and let some new restaurateur come in the get place the accolades it deserves!

I gave Benjamin’s one more chance this weekend with some friends and they failed again. This time instead of sitting at the bar we decided to get a table. The hostess sat us and said our server would be with us shortly. I had to us the facilities and upon my return the waitress hadn’t stopped by yet. We waited an additional 5 – 10 minutes before she showed up to even ask if we wanted drinks. Needless to say this visit didn’t start with a good impression. We only wanted to grab some drinks and a couple of appetizers before heading out. So when she came to order our drinks we quickly threw in that we wanted an order of their chili cheese fries. The response we received was, «Sorry, we’re out of cheese.» It’s like 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday… you are out of cheese? Okay, so we tell her that we’ll need a couple of minutes. Those couple of minutes took forever.
We look over the menu and decide on a combo platter. When she comes back we place our order… NOPE! Can’t have that, they’re out of two items on platter! My friend, annoyed, asked her what on the menu they do have and she lists various items… including Nachos… Wait a second; I thought you were out of cheese? Apparently they use a different cheese for the Nachos than the fries and they can’t put the nacho cheese on the fries. Yes, we were confused too. We end up ordering chili fries, fried pickles and fried green beans.
The service continues to fail. At one point the waitress comes back around while we were waiting for our food. All of our drinks were empty, completely empty. She asks me if I want another and my friend, but she completely ignored our wives. I mean completely ignored, she didn’t even look at them. Before they could even say anything she had disappeared. We all sat there staring at each other in disbelief when my friend’s wife says to my wife, «You didn’t want anything to drink did you?» When the waitress returns, before she can disappear again my friend’s wife asks mine if she would like a drink and then I asked my friend’s wife if she wanted another. We were extremely frustrated at this point.
The food comes out and the green beans were fantastic. Great flavor, cooked yet still crispy, just awesome. The fried pickles were okay. I thought they tasted funny, but everyone else liked them. I think they used something other than dill pickles and I only like dill pickles. The chili fries were gross. When we first tried them the chili had a funny flavor. At first I thought it was canned chili that someone added barbeque sauce. On another bite I had a big chunk of meat that definitely wasn’t from a can. It was like rib meat. Then it dawned on me. I think they use ribs to make their chili… maybe left over from the day before, I’m not sure if that’s right but I can’t think of any reason to make ribs just to turn into chili. It would explain the barbeque sauce taste. Either way it wasn’t pleasant, we ended up leaving most of those.
Then we had to wait for our check. Finally when she came back we paid in cash so we wouldn’t have to spend any more time in there. The final straw was when she collected the check books as we were walking out; she stood there and counted the tips. No we didn’t leave the best tips, but we didn’t exactly receive good service. Still, who counts tips before she even checks out? Heck, she didn’t even ask if we wanted change.

I stop here every time I go to galena. There shakes and burgers are great and I also love the bloody Mary’s this place serves… They are huge! A real meal in a glass so try one if that’s your thing. There wait staff could be a little more knowledgeable of there menu but I must say I will continue to stop in here when I roll thru galena.

This was my second time to Galena, but my first time to Benjamin’s. I will have to go again and give another review. I arrived an hour before they closed. All I got was an Oreo shake and a drink. Apparently they are known for their shakes… and let me tell you it was DELICIOUS! One of the best shakes I have ever had.
Like I have previously read for Benjamins, the service was okay. They were really nice and friendly but they didn’t seem to know a lot about their menu which was very interesting since Galena isn’t that big AND its a touristy town. I find it so frustrating when I eat somewhere and the servers don’t know the menu. I wasn’t from Galena and I needed some suggestions! Because of this I didn’t even order food. I just stuck with my shake. Which definitely was a good decision.
So i will say the shake was delicious, service okay, and I don’t know about their food yet so 3 stars it is!

This was my second time to Galena, my first to Benjamin’s. Galena was packed as this happened to be the same day as their Halloween parade. We waited maybe 5 minutes and we given a seat in the front window area.
Our server dropped by and took our drink order. I didn’t order booze but went with a soft drink. Benjamin’s carries Pepsi and I went with that. The drinks came in big glasses which didn’t require a refill. Their menu said they had the best burgers in town so I decided to give a bacon cheeseburger a shot.
The burger definitely worth the wait. It was perfectly cooked, juicy and was the best ‘bar burger’ I’ve ever had. The bacon was crispy, the cheese was fantastic, and it bun was like eating a cloud! I could not have asked for a better burger.
And the fries? Let me tell you, I am a big fan of fries. Good fries can make an average meal great, and bad fries can make a good meal forgettable. I loved these fries, they were crispy, fresh, not too salty. They really complimented the burger.
Overall I enjoyed my time at Benjamin’s. I read through some of the reviews and I can see how larger groups may have had slower service. But I have no complaints. I look forward to heading back to Benjamin’s in the future.

Friendly service. The burger was Ok. But what really upset me was the beer. They advertise their own beer «Benjamins Blonde» it was flat, had no flavor and it tasted as if it came out of a dirty tap. They brought another pitcher of Stella Artois and it had the same dirty taste. Oh well.

This place used to be great. I’m not sure what happened to it. We used to love the staff, the food, and the drinks. Last time we were there we had to try a few times before we picked a beer they weren’t out of. The chili is still good but the rest of the food has decreased in portions (big time) and they nickel and dime you on extras that used to be part of your meal (and I would expect).
Our waitress was horrible. I am overly generous with wait staff because I was a waitress for many years and I get it; sometimes the job really sucks. But our waitress couldn’t even muster half a smile. She screwed up my order three times (hamburger, medium, cheddar and that’s it). I didn’t think we were ordering anything difficult. I kept sending it back (because for the prices I was paying I wanted it right) she rolled her eyes and asked me what my problem was. We complained to the manager and he was very kind (and I hated to get her in trouble) but we really weren’t asking for anything outrageous; just what we ordered. When I say medium I mean medium, not rare and certainly not well-​done.
And, the bartender didn’t know what a black and blue was (Guinness and Blue Moon) which shocked me only because it was Benjamin’s that originally introduced me to it.
Disappointing. Really. My husband and I used to love this place.

Looking at the reviews of this place, my initial reaction was to only come here if there was no other choice. Well– as it happens, the place we wanted to go had a wait of one hour and our second choice was 30 minutes. We decided to walk around and look for another place and I suggested we just walk in and look at the menu.
We told the hostess that we just wanted to look at our options since we needed food that was gluten free. She made small conversation then walked away! We thought she was blowing us off, but she actually came back with the owner (and chef?) who was more than happy to help us determine what our choices were. Not only was he able to help us, he went back to look at the ingredients to check if the food was a possibility. He was so very accommodating, helpful, had an easy manner and was able to offer us what we were looking for, so we decided to eat here.
The burger was great and so was the service. We liked the place so much that we came back again for lunch the day we left and had another conversation with the owner. The staff is friendly here and they were happy to talk about the town and its history. This place gets an A+++ from me and I applaud the owner for his help. He mentioned to us that the restaurant boards are trying to educate chefs to the food allergies that are out there and the fact that he was aware of this and able to help us couldn’t have impressed me more.
One last, final thought– the mojito was awesome! Apparently they have some #1 rating for the area or something, but talk about a refreshing beverage! If you need a quick fix or are looking for a gluten-​free option in the area, stop in and mention it– I assure you they will help.