Ben Yehuda Cafe & Pizzeria

The ordering process for carryout over the phone had already made me want to dive head first into an Olympic size swimming pool… with no water. But the real «magic» began when we got to the restaurant… «The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend» :
Carryout Order:
Me: «Hey there, can I get one tuna wrap, one side of fries, a spinach Knish-​«
Restaurant «We’re out of knish»
Me: «All four types of them? Potato, mushroom, spina-​«
Restaurant: «Yeah»
Me: Ok. quick question– what is the difference between a Calzone and a Stromboli?»
Restaurant: «Yeah, wait one sec»
Restaurant: «pauses for a minute»
Restaurant: «Yeah, so I got a tuna wrap– you want anything else?»
Me: *Sighs… *Deep Breath «Yes, can I have one stromboli, an order of– «
Restaurant: «The stromboli just has cheese in it, you want something else?»
Me: «Yes… can I add Spinach»
Restaurant: *Yells back to kitchen «We got spinach?! Ok, spinach.»
Me: «And meatballs»
Restaurant: *Yells back to kitchen «We got meatballs?! Ok, meatballs»
Me: «And one order of mozzarella sticks»
Restaurant: «Ok, so I got one tuna wrap, one side of fries, one calzone with meatballs and spinach, one stromboli-​«
Me: «no no no no no no no»
Restaurant:
So we get to the restaurant, and a lady is putting together our order from the hot case and the fridge and what not. Checks the fridge and says, «Sorry, we’re out of Tuna Wraps»
Give me another swimming pool…
So, my friend who ordered the tuna wrap grabs a slice of pizza from their rotating oven box thing (as we don’t have time for them to put something else together) and we go back to his place.
Thinking to myself, there could be a saving grace to this awful experience. Maybe the food is like REALLY good, like fresh, and hot, and spectacular.
The stromboli was made of thin gummy dough, full of a blend of flavorless cheese, and the meatballs that were crushed inside were dry shavings of what almost appeared to be fake meat product. Dry meat accompanied by flavorless spinach in a dough pocket of little depth was an orchestra of a hundred tubas; bland.
Mozzarella sticks, though seemingly made in house, were a gritty flavorless somewhat burnt texture. Some had leaked a fair amount of cheese out to somewhere not here.
And my friend, who was sad faced by the tuna sandwich debacle, let me try a bit of his piece which I felt was mediocre at best.
Needless to say, I won’t be back. I don’t keep Kosher, and it’s a shame that since this restaurant, that seems to have cornered the market in the area, is doing such a poor job in both customer service and execution of product.

Love coming to this place. Fast service, and the food is good. My kids love the pizza and we eat the cheese fries and salads. People behind the counter are always happy and smiling which adds to the happy family outing. I recommend friends and family and anyone else passing through to stop by.
Meet you at Beh Yehuda!

I love this pizza store because it’s a great family resteraunt. My children love going there and it had a great homey atmosphere.
They have great tasting pizza and quite large slices!!! They have delicious French fries and a slurped machine! They also serve ice cream for the kiddies! What really rocks about this place is the friendly service!!!

If I could give this place zero stars I would. DISGUSTING!!! We were in the area and couldn’t find anything to eat so we stopped here. The pizza was a slimy mess, the onion rings tasted like the oil they were cooked had been salvaged for a over a year. We didn’t even bother to eat the salad bc of how awful everything else was. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND NEVER EAT AT THIS DUMP!

It’s okay. I’m not Jewish but I did want to try out a local business for pizza. Crust is very bland and the cheese is less than flavorful. I suppose that it’s good for people who regularly eat kosher food.

Wow what a great little pizza joint. The staff are friendly and create a very welcoming and positive vibe. They offer classic stone oven pizzas focusing primarily on vegetarian. This dairy restaurant is also adherent to the highest standards of kashrut which gives customers confidence in the quality of their pies.

Great pizza and the hours are great and most accommodating in the area. Open Saturday nights and quick service! Always busy…

I had the falafel pizza from here. It’s not too bad. I like that they are open Saturday nights, but they are closed for Jewish holidays and closed Friday evenings to Saturday nights.

Went here for the first time yesterday. Enjoyed a few slices of pizza with my kids. They were quite good but a bit undercooked — the crust was a bit too chewy. We’ll be back.

The cheese pizza here is among the best NY style pizza in the area. I am from NYC and very picky about this. However their other dishes leave a bit to be desired.
To be clear, this is kosher pizza and it is vegetarian. If there is reference to any meat on the menu it is made of vegetable protein. There’s no such thing as kosher meatball pizza. The cheese pizza keeps me coming back, and though it seems odd, falafel pizza is another favorite of mine from Ben Yehuda.
That said, I recently had a Greek salad that was pretty bad. Way too many black olives and pickled banana peppers. The flavors were way off. Also I ordered 2 wraps — eggplant parmesan and falafel. The eggplant parm itself was tasty, but the wrap was pizza dough and was too thick. I guess I expected more of a pita consistency. I left most of the dough on the plate. The falafel inside the other wrap was very bland. Calzones are VERY thin. Not authentic and not a knockout.
Bottom line, it’s my go-​to place for cheese or falafel pizza but that’s about it. Keep in mind they are closed for Jewish holidays and closed Friday evening for Shabbat, opening back up at sundown Saturday.

This pizza is AMAZING! we called ahead and our order was available just when we showed up. The place was pretty packed though, but we did get seats.

Last night I stopped in to get a slice on my way home…7:50 PM to be exact. I walked in and there about 25 guys sitting around listening to a speaker. I asked the young lady behind the counter for a slice… She said «we don’t have any… we close at 8» It wasn’t 8:00 as yet. Imagine going into a legitimate food establishment, say Nut House Pizza (which I haven’t been at in 17 years), I doubt that would have been their reply. My Buddies have always told me Nut House had much better pizza than Ben Yehuda… I liked Ben Yehuda better, until last night!
I’m in retail and understand providing exemplary service, which is something I continuously do my best to provide… however Ben Yehuda’s management is unaware of just how to do this.
Nut House… I’m a new customer.

OMG who would have thought kosher pizza would be the bomb dot com while visiting my fiancée at the fire house (he’s a firefighter) where the constantly have people delivering food especially during the holidays they delivered this little gem I was going to be good and not have any but one of the girls there handed me a plate and how could I say no it’s pizza Ahh my weakness smh but boy am I glad she did I found my new favorite place for pizza so delicious I think might be just as good as NY pizza except not as greasy which in my book is a good thing. The prices are a bit steep 18 bucks for a large cheese but still worth it I loved every bite of the slice of pizza and would totally come back for more they have my word of mouth for sure

What kind of monster doesn’t let a baby have a sippy cup after spending $ 12 on three slices of pizza, because «outside food and beverage is not allowed»? She’s 20 months old! Won’t be returning.

If you’re looking for a tasty slice of pizza with a side of fries… come here! The crust is thin yet thick enough to support toppings. The cheese is INCREDIBLE and the tangy fries are extra crisp. Just remember that this isn’t a fancy pizzeria and you’ll be fine.
If you’re on a health kick they have tasty salads to choose from. Nothing fancy, but the ingredients are very fresh and portion sizes are generous.
Side Note: The falafel isn’t all that great. Yes, I know it’s a Jewish place but it really could’ve used something extra. I’m used to Amsterdam falafel and their array of toppings.
This also seems to be a popular spot for small children. Not sure how everyone feels about that.
Would I go again? Absolutely. Would I take a chance on buying their pasta dishes? Probably not.

Looks like a nice place, the cashier was helpful, but 10.50 plus tax for a calzone with three toppings seems over priced. I just left. The pizza looked like it had been sitting there for awhile and 2.75 for plain cheese or 3.50 for veggie seems ridiculous. Call me cheap, but it just didn’t work for me.

3 stars = A-​OK, just what Ben Yehuda is. Pizza was good, but not as spectacular as I had hoped given reviews I read prior to going. The staff was mainly high school aged girls who did not know what to do, and even commented on a tip I left in front of me (giggling, «omg another customer left us a tip, how cool.»)… which then made me sad somehow and want to tip them more? Anyways. The food is good, and it does have a hook being kosher and all. I still might stick with my greasey Dominoes though :)

I liked their cheese a lot actually. I am not Jewish and so not being able to get pepperoni on my pizza is always a shame. Although I can get beef pepperoni at Halal places…
My calzone was good but they really skimped on the meatballs!!! Like another reviewer I was annoyed that my tiny cup of marinara sauce was cold cold cold!!!
The staff was friendly and I did not have to wait for long. The stuff is a little pricy, but I would rather support local business any day.

Great pizza, amazing french fries and salads! Very reasonable prices for kosher food!
Also as a side note, I noticed that many of the reviewers don’t keep kosher and a lot of their complaints center around disussions of the food being too expensive or the cheese being bad quality… I personally think that for kosher food it’s pretty cheap but comparing it to non-​kosher places (i.e. Pizza Hut/​Dominoes) it’s definitely more expensive as for the cheese being bad quality and too greasy, I think that seems to be a common issue with kosher cheese in general… I wouldn’t blame Ben Yehuda on this one but I think they can improve the quality of veggies they use on their vegetarian pizza.
They do have to improve their service and speed in some regards but my experience has been going to them after Shabbat so I don’t know what they’re like on normal days of the week when they’re not busy and still trying to make everything.
But all in all 5 stars because they’re one of the only fairly priced kosher places in the area, they’re clean and hospitable and they have great food!

I’m sorry Ben’s…I really am! I hate to do this to you, but you messed up one too many times now.
We are pretty frequent visitors to this place, since it’s close and a cheap dinner. Recently though, the service has just been terrible. We called a placed a carryout order about 2 weeks ago and were told the normal 20 minute wait. My hubby waited the 20 minutes and jotted down the street (mind you, it’s about a 2 minute car ride from our house to the shopping center). It took him an additional 45 minutes to come home! He said that the place was complete chaos and that no one knew what they were doing and couldn’t get ahold of a manager.
Fast forward to this week, we ordered again, our usual order. The medium pizza now seems to be cut into 6 slices instead of the usual 8. The cheese on the cheese fries is ridiculously skimpy AND they messed up my french onion soup. How does one mess up soup you ask? Well, when I placed the order on the phone I asked for french onion soup with cheese and croutons. The guy even confirmed what I said. My husband picks up the order and notices that there is a soup cup, but no cup for cheese and croutons in the bag, so they «fix» this. I open up the soup at home and discover it’s vegetable soup with cheese and croutons! Who in the world eats vegetable soup with cheese and croutons? Eww!
I’m not sure where the lack of communication is with this place, but they need to get their act together! We are giving them some time off and will take our pizza cravings elsewhere for now. I hope this isn’t good bye, rather see you later!