Benjamin's — Restaurant in Newport

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Two of the four of us were returning customers, from 3 years ago, and the service and quality of food is drastically different now. What you need to know…  Food: Lobster in 3 of the 3 lobster rolls ordered were overcooked (rubbery) and the seasoning overpowered the lobster. The sandwich ordered at our table was mediocre. The fries were incredible.  Service: Waitperson was rude and unwelcoming. (see below if you want the rest of the story.  Charge: We were automatically charged a 18% tip on a 4 person check and charged 2% more for asking for two separate checks. The good news is that we usually tip 30% because we are nondrinkers and feel for the wait staff when they depend on tips, so the automatic tip did not feel like we were rewarding poor service and attitude since it was far less than we normally tip.

On our 10-day New England trip, we had amazing wait persons and food. This was our first and only substandard experience.

Late hostess…rude waitperson…cramped seating…overcooked food…poor service…disappointing lobster fare in Newport…

The rest of the story: We were excited to return to a place that our friends loved on a past visit. Upon entering at the second-floor level, the bartender told us to go ahead and be seated. We did. The room only had one other table occupied. A waiter, who ended up being ours, came over and brusquely told us we had to move because there were reservations for the table we were at. He led us to a table crammed next to the door going out the back to a employee area. We were literally sitting on top of one another.

The waiter then came back and took our drink orders. His condescending reaction and comment to two of us who were not ordering drinks was a first. The water glasses he brought were comically small. I was a bit taken back but no comment. He was far from friendly and a bit cocky to boot, almost like we were lucky he was waiting on us. I can’t remember having a wait person like this ever. The lobster was so disappointing. Our three orders were overcooked (chewy and tough), over seasoned and in big chucks that were tough to break apart.

During the meal, the door, to the outside, next to our cramped table, kept being opened and closed by employee’s who were pleasant. After the initial couple who was seated when we arrived left, there were no other diners the whole time we were there and none waiting when we left. It felt like we were on a Saturday Night Live skit! Seated in a corner, cramped, with sub-standard fare and punishing service when all the other tables were empty! Can’t you just picture it!

After depositing the food, the server never returned. Maybe we were on Punk’d!! At the end of the meal, we asked for separate checks, he said there would be a 2% add on to do that. There was an automatic tip on the check for 2 and a 2% upcharge for 2 separate checks for the 4 of us. Both were firsts on our 10-day New England trip. A first for at home as well. Maybe this is the argument made about putting on mandatory tips, substandard service? Our children have all been waitpersons. We are all for generous tips so that is not an argument we have with mandatory tipping. In fact, we always add on to a mandatory tip, except this one time at Benjamin’s.

I will not include our wait person’s name but will say he had worked there for 3 years, according to what he said when we told him 2 of us were returning customers after we were seated. I give these details about the server in case the management would like to address the condescending behavior and sub-standard service. Perhaps, in the 3 years since our friends were there, there is new management. The waitperson said the hostess was late in getting to work when we apologized for sitting at a reserved table (which was not marked or seated our...

Benjamin’s review

A great local spot right across from the wharf, painted red with a lobster Jolly Roger. Three levels of fun, the freshest oysters and clams on the island.

This bar sells more Grand Marnier than any establishment in the country, and locals that are invited to, purchase a bottle that’s kept there and usually offered to locals sitting at the bar asking about it.

Their staff is headed by a Pearl Jam loving bartender named Mike wheeler, Steve is 6 foot something inches and one of the fastest shuckers in New England, also a classic rock aficionado. On Tuesday’s a local Legend named Mike Cheney comes in to play musical trivia with Steve. Hours go by like minutes, oysters and clams are shucked and sucked and grammas are poured.

There is another shucker, Andrew. While he plies his trade with a smile and fats hands, he listens to everything, then gossips with other regulars and twists these sometimes very personal stories to cover that he will charge regulars twice for the same prime rib dinner, then accuse them of walking on a bill. He will also chase a regular out of the bar when he gets in, accuse them of being a con man and scumbag while having zero clue why someone else paid a check as he had just walked in. When called out in his large mouth filled with lies, he will go to the owner with zero of the integrity he likes to make everyone think he has, and have that regular 86’d from a place that was considered home, the first bar he ever came to on this island ten years ago and was always greeted with a smile until Andrew started lying.

Go in when it’s Zack, Wheeler, Steve, anyone but Andrew, who looks like Bruce Lee and thinks he has his values, every other person on that staff is a gem of a human, but as we know, it only takes one bad oyster to ruin a night, a staff or a restaurant.

And the Portuguese stuffed clams are my favorite, great...

Went here for dinner after the boat parade the day after thanksgiving. The area was understandably busy with everyone walking around so it took about 1 hour to be seated. As a party of 5 we spent nearly $300 on our meals and it was overall very disappointing. The service was slow and we didn’t get any water for at least a half hour because they ran out of cups. The tap ran out of several beers and when our drinks finally came out we had to go up to the bar because there were lipstick stains on 2 of the glasses.

The food itself was very dry. I had a swordfish special which didn’t seem to have much for seasoning. The risotto was slightly hard and I could tell it was rushed. They did not trim the asparagus or season it with anything but maybe oil or butter. My other friends were also unimpressed with their meals especially since we were paying over $30 per plate.

There was also a service charge on our bill for $10 because we used a card? I have never seen this in my life for a party of 5. Nobody finished their plates and over the next couple of hours several of us started to get intense stomach aches which I am not sure is from the food. I am only assuming this because we all had fish and started cramping around the same time. Overall, I will not be returning to this business. Highly overpriced and too greedy to turn people away so they would rather provide poor service and food quality. The only positives from the night was the cheap wine we bought and my partner said her steak was pretty good (at least until she reached the middle of the filet which was rare instead of...