Benjy's Restaurant   

I have eaten at Benjy's on several occasions and have had truly great experiences. I personally was the one who organized the reservation discussed in the review below this one, and feel that an explanation is definitely required. I called up and tried to make a reservation for 16 guests at 7:30 on a Saturday night for a friend's birthday. My call was transferred to a manager who told me that for a group our size, we would either need to book our reservation at 5:30 or at 9:30 in the main dining room (becase the restaurant is fairly small), or we could do 7:30 in the private room, but would need to commit to a food and beverage minimum to book the room. Knowing that my friends are pretty flaky and may not want to actually spend much money, I opted for the 5:30 reservation time because we had plans to go drinking after dinner. The manager let me know to tell everyone in the group that they would not seat us if we were not all there, and the table could only be held for 15 minutes past the reservation time in the event that we were not complete. I asked if we could decorate the table and was told that only flowers and balloons were allowed. On the night of the reservation, four of our party were on time. The manager would not seat them, but did show them the table, and allow them to decorate the table. My friends placed scented candles on the tables. We forgot to bring candle holders, but figured that wax would be fairly easy to clean. By 5:45, still only 7 of the 16 were at the restaurant. I was having a bad hair day and hadn't left my house yet when my friends called hysterically saying they would not hold our table. They would not allow us to use the candles because they were scented and not in candle holders. They offered a smaller table to the seven who were on time, but we chose to go somewhere else because we wanted to eat together. In hindsight, I can't really fault them. We ended up having 11 for dinner and were not complete until 7:30!

The food might be good, but if you try to schedule a business dinner there, be prepared to go somewhere else, and look foolish, because they make no effort to accomodate your group in a timely manner. The manager was rude and incompetitent, at best. As much as I like the food, I will never go back and I am advising everyone to do the same. Going out of business would be fine. Maybe someone who knows how to run a restaurant would do better, but these people are stupid beyond belief.

Nice, relaxed atmosphere, good service, not rushed, excellent menu, nice presentations, adequate wine list, comfortable ambience, nice place to go for informal relaxed evening.

AMAZING lunch menu -- There are soooo many choices and the food is wonderful. Service is great, and the atmosphere is fun and relaxed.