CM C.
Yelp
I will start by saying I think this is my first Yelp review ever. I always give restaurants 2nd, 3rd, 4th chances. I am in the food business and understand the world today and what it takes to be successful, and this isn't written looking for something for free. The hope here is that Beni's will learn and the next customer will have a great experience. Beni's Trattoria of Garnerville is inconsistent at best and more times than not, marginal. My family usually orders from there at least 3 times a month, and most times the order is wrong or something is missing. Their fried calamari is different every time we order it. The breading is different, the texture is different, the taste is different. Their chicken wings are a frozen product, not that it is a bad thing, but some of the wings still have pin feathers on them, they are cut inconsistent with some jumbo pieces and some tiny pieces. Many times a salad entree is missing dressing. The pizza is always very soft in the middle no matter how well done they make it and that is because they make dough and use the old ones that have over fermented instead of discarding. It costs roughly $.50 for a pizza crust. The take out containers they use, the flimsy aluminum containers are always smashed in, food is always leaking out making a mess in the car when we pick it up. They use a lot of frozen fish products as well, their salmon has a thick bloodline (brown stuff on the bottom), that they never clean off. It is bitter and bad tasting. Last night was the end for me. I ordered Sole Francaise. My wife placed the order and was sure to tell them I wanted Sole and not Tilapia which they said was not a problem. When we picked up the food and brought it home, the fish was Tilapia. I probably could have gotten passed that, but the fish was bad. It had a very strong taste (both Tilapia and Sole and very mild) and smelled like ammonia. Anyone familiar would know the smell, know the fish is bad and discard it. Instead it was cooked and served to me. Another dish in the garbage. I called Beni's and spoke to the person who took the order and she remembered my wife calling. I explained that it was the wrong fish, and more importantly, it was bad. Her response was that they 'ran out of sole'. Good customer service is someone calls you back and tells you they don't have what you ordered and doesn't sub in something. To her credit, she did tell me they would prepare me another dish and give me a credit for the bad dinner. At that point, my family was half way done eating and I wasn't waiting and driving back. This is just another shining example of Beni's trying to cut corners. Beni's did VERY WELL well during the pandemic, he could have retired. There is no reason to buy and use bad products. It's so much easier to retain a loyal customer than to attract a new one. Good luck replacing my revenue and your profit. Ps. I never even mentioned my friend who will not eat there any longer after seeing the pizza person wiping his nose on his arm and continuing to make a pie, or the time we ordered for delivery and the order didn't show up, and after 2.5 hours they told us they didn't make it, after telling us many times it was on the way. Cheap food is not good and good food is not cheap and customer service is job #1.