Benson's By The Beach — Restaurant in Long Beach

We have been Long beach so many times over the years. We have eaten at this place a few times. I absolutely disagree with a forced 20% tipping fee on top of your meal with 6 or more people. And this restaurant proved exactly why. About 3 weeks prior to this visit we were there for our anniversary. This restaurant was very busy. We returned to celebrate mine and my daughters birthdays the first week of august. Our last day we went in with three 14 yr. old's and 3 adults. We were sat very quickly by the host. We sat at our table nearly 10 minutes before we were even acknowledged by the waitress. Mind you this time the place was not busy. Several tables were empty @ 1030 a.m. By the time she finally got to us we were of course ready to order. She took our order then another 10 minutes goes by and she brought us our drinks. When our food was ready a different waitress brought that to us. She quickly dropped and ran. Once we were done we waited to get boxes to go, which never came. She quickly swooped by slapped the bill on the table and off she went. By this time my husband and I were furious. Sure enough 20% was added to my bill. As we still sat there waiting to see if she would come back and offer us some boxes and she never did. So, here we are rolling up pancakes, toast and bacon into a napkins. As we got up she passed us and didn't even say "have a nice day" or "thanks for coming in." So when I got to the host herself I politely expressed to her that forcing a tip is B.S. I even explained to her what happened from beginning to end. She didn't really seem to care. I pointed to the kids who had food wrapped up in napkins. You would think she would have said, " oh let me go get you some to go boxes." Nope not even close. The host just looked at the girls standing there with this in their hands. The only thing the host had to say was I will let the owner know. I thought for sure this host would have tried to make things better like oh let me take that 20% off or get some boxes for food. She was just as unprofessional as the waitress. Now I can see if we were demanding a lot of attention or even being pesty for that 20% even though i still disagree with it. This really isn't the first time we have delt with rudeness with this place but i believe in giving second or more chances. And I can see if things may get over looked while its extremely busy. But this was not the case. $ 103.00 later We will never go back to this place again. The waitress by no means earned the $ 17.00 of my bill. I tip well always have but I also believe the waitress earns these tips and not just given. I also don't believe the host when she says I will pass this onto the owner. Which is what prompted...

We came here for a late breakfast, and the restaurant was slow. No one was waiting in the lobby, the place was adequately staffed, and the staff was working at a relaxed pace. I mention all this, because it’s relevant to the review.

I ordered two things - egg whites cooked without grease (dietary issues) and biscuits with gravy. I was informed that they couldn’t make egg whites for me because they were “too busy.” Egg whites! Seriously, it’s not that hard. Crack the egg and throw away the yolk. They wouldn’t accommodate at all. I ordered two eggs over hard without grease and thinking I would just throw away the yolks myself. The eggs came - greasy as can be and with the yolks broken throughout the egg.

Regarding the biscuits and gravy, the waitress said the gravy was homemade. If hat was homemade, it was awful! It seemed like your general, run of the mill, canned gravy. Nothing special.

My family said there food was fine, but go elsewhere. McDonalds is just down the street and serves a better breakfast - no, I’m not...

Our server very visibly was having a bad day and it reflected on her demeanor and service. Instead of the scrambled eggs we ordered, she served us fried egg. When we asked for it to be corrected, she didn’t address it at all. When time came to pay, she didn’t tell us we had to pay at the front. So we basically were sitting and waiting for her to get our credit card for an extra half hour. When we handed her the card, she said, “oh I’m actually not allowed to do that. You need to pay the front.” She could have told us that right when she gave us our bill. Her attitude was the first factor in our bad experience at this place. The second is that the Krav Cake eggs Benedict was not even real crab. It was quite obviously made of fake crabmeat you can buy from the store. Definitely not worth the $19. And the half the plate was covered in poorly-seasoned hollandaise sauce.

I do NOT recommend this place at all. It was a waste of our time and money. Sad we didn’t go back to Arnie’s Cafe where the food was great and service...