Bensi

Average, average, average and if you want average at higher than typical chain prices, this is the place for you.
I find after several years of Unilocaling I’m a lil less tolerant of poor service and the subpar food options especially here in CNJ. My review motivation is either due to a positive or negative experience, rendering either a 4 or 2 rating and less 3’s. Alas most joints inevitably fall under the 3 category and perhaps Bensi is more of a 2.5, but I’ll tell you why I give them a 2 after several visits.
I’m not a big fan of chain food restaurant’s. Yes, some offer a specialty of sorts to make up for the typical ok dining experience that we’ve all grown too accustomed and accept. By the way, you don’t have to accept or patronize a lackluster product. No forks with dinner on more than one course serving, under cooked pasta, wrong plates delivered and uneducated staff with a clueless manager adds up to less than acceptable dining experience to say the least.
Dinner entre consisted of Shrimp Fra diavalo which was requested with extra heat. A thick tomato base with lil to no heat whatsoever was provided. Gluten free Penne was grossly under cooked. They placed someone else’s plate down in front of us for a minute or 2 until we realized it was incorrect. The best part was when the waiter relized his mistake just as we did and picked the plate up and delivered it to another party. OMG, that plate should’ve been thrown out!
We politely pointed these indiscretions to the waitress to no avail. So, time to speak to the manager who offered us an extra soup. Really?
Pasta plates approaching $ 19 without a side salad seems to be a bit high for a chain, missing the value mark. Definitely a misfire.
So, not a horrible experience, but we expected a little better product all around.

I have eaten at this location a few times and it never disappoints. The groupon I found only made the experience even better!
The food is always on point. The atmosphere is very cozy. Servers are attentive and polite. Everything I have eaten here is delicious.
The front party room appears small but you would be surprised how many people you can fit in there! Restaurant always seems adequately staffed so there’s no delay.

Let me preface my review with the usual «well, we had a groupon»…we’ve been here twice (both times with a groupon), the service and atmosphere are both spectacular. I have no complaints whatsoever. The food isn’t bad. Isn’t like «holy crap, this is the best food ever!» But more of a «meh. Had better, had worse, but its covered in cheese. I’ll take it». They seem to have a somewhat limited menu, and the prices seem high for what it is, (our bill was close to $ 40 for 2 lunches and a kids meal).
Worth checking out, but not really going back without a coupon.

For a chain restaurant the food is good. My review is for dinner which has been hit and miss at this location. I normally stick to traditional dishes such as chicken Marsala or eggplant parm. The dishes are terrific one day and mediocre at best on other days. I must say that the brunch is very good and would give Baruch an extra star.

I just ate here for the first time and the experience was great. The food, the service and ambiance was awesome. Definitely will recommend this place to anyone

I have been here a few times, there is a restaurant section & a bar section. The restaurant section good to great service, the bar section is not so good, tried 3 times and the service was very bad, I think the staff (1 person) is over whelmed… the bar tender had to go back and forth taking orders too and from the bar, I don’t blame them there was a lot of people. What I do blame is the management, one bar tender & two hostesses???
The other problem was I was there for «Happy Hour» on the regular menu Yuengling beer was $ 4.00 and on the so called «Happy Hour» it was $ 4.00, what a bargain… NOT, I did point this out to the staff and I got a «wow»… we never noticed that??? really?
So when I got the bill no change in the price, still $ 4.00
Thanks for a not so great happy hour.

Went here for dinner New Year’s Eve. Food was good. But credit card fraud took place. Charged twice two different amounts and a tip was even put on the fraudulent charge. Won’t be back. Disputing the second charge of 189.00 sad to start off the year with theft !! Just got off the phone with Ed. He seen the problem and solved it. Refunded 2 nd charge.

I came here for lunch with friends for a mini reunion over the holiday break. In terms of Italian restaurants, I’d probably rank this as a lower scale Olive Garden. Nice Italian food options, but not amazing quality. I ordered the gnocchi with meat sauce and it was just ok. The sauce was very unimpressive and almost tasted like it came out of a can. Not necessarily a bad thing if it did, but they could’ve doctored it up better. The restaurant itself is very nice and they have a large room available for parties towards the back. I’d consider giving them another shot, though it’s not a place I’d go out of my way for.