Bensi of Whitehouse — Restaurant in Readington Township

My experience with Bensi last evening was fantastic, no thanks to unreliable delivery services but with all credit going straight to the owner and their establishment.

I ordered 5 items (an appetizer, a salad, 2 entrees, and a dessert) at around 20:25 or so, but despite being ready 10 minutes earlier I get a call around 2105 from the owner suggesting maybe we just manage getting me the food ourselves (the delivery service had yet to even assign a driver). It turned out to be wise; I was there and out again within the next 10 minutes, still no driver selected. Back at work with noms and another 15-20 minutes passed: still no driver, and not even a notification. I would have been SOL on food for the night under current NJ operating restrictions for COVID 19, but Bensi's great service/attentiveness had me covered.

As far as food quality? I'm shocked I'd ordered from them months ago and this is only the second time I've reordered...the food was delicious! The highlight items were the Chicken Neopolitan special and the tiramisu. I was really impressed with the flavor/tenderness of the breaded cutlet as well as the rich flavor of the marsala sauce, both well paired with yummy broccoli and topped with prosciutto and mozz for the extra oomph. I've ordered various items like this from tons of equivalent Italian joints over the years in NJ, but this one really surprised me with just how much better-than-average it tasted.

Likewise on the tiramisu! A common item for sure but common done right is an art. It was light and fluffy but deliciously creamy, and they even gave me a small cup of whipped cream to go with which i don't think I've ever seen from a place delivering me tiramisu. It was certainly welcome for a little extra indulgence.

The lobster ravioli was also quite good, and rather well-portioned (I tend to deem similar dishes elsewhere frequently skimpy in size, on top of being merely passable in taste). Another shocker was the chicken tenders...they're something so trite that it'd be super easy to phone in, but no, those were really good as well and more-than-worth adding to the tab!

The last item is a Beet/Fried Goat Cheese salad that I saved for home, but I've ordered it before and actually remembered that one being good last time. I'm a sucker for goat cheese as it is and fried goat cheese balls paired with tangy beets and fresh greens is an especially great choice.

To top it all off, I also thought the cost reasonably even with the nearby competition, despite the quality being a few notches above!

...lol, long review but yeah, I think this is now my immediate go-to for Italian while working. Bensi really made my night; I hope they manage to do the same for many others despite the economic blight that is late 2020. Good luck,...

At first glance, was a very nice establishment. Clean, and we got seated quickly. We ordered after waiting around 15 minutes for the server to arrive—still understandable. However, after ordering, we ended up waiting for over an hour for any update on our food and without any actual food. We had plans, and had set aside around an hour and a half for dinner. At this point, we were running out of time. I then called over the waiter and explained we had been waiting for over an hour and had to get going soon, so we asked for to go boxes, where they then explained they’d just pack the food themselves. I said okay, and then we waited another half hour before I told my friends to get in the car while I waited, as we were already late to our engagement. Another fifteen minutes pass, and they finally come with a bag of food. I quickly thank them and jump into our car and, upon arrival, realized they were MISSING ONE OF THE ENTREES. We WAITED for TWO HOURS for our food and they neglected to give us one of our only THREE entrees. This was absolutely ridiculous, I understand a restaurant being busy, but having to wait TWO HOURS for food and them MISSING AN ENTREE is unacceptable. I will NOT be returning. Food wasn’t even that good and was overpriced for...

We live in the area and keep trying new places to find our favorite spot for our family of 5. We walked in at 6pm on a Friday and even though the place was half empty, we were told it would be 5-10 minutes wait unless we wanted a bar high top. Fine.

It was another 10 minutes after we were seated to when we placed our drink order. They brought hot bread with the drinks and that was about the best part of the meal.

Chicken noodle soup was decent. I was finished with my soup and my wife's salad hadn't arrived yet. I had to remind them but hey, we all make mistakes. Salad came with about 1/4 teaspoon of dressing on it.

Spaghetti and meatballs: Pasta overcooked, meatballs very heavy on the filler breadcrumbs. Pizza. One of them came completely overdone and the crust was very hard to bite through. Seafood over Capellini: Very small portion of seafood for the price. Calamari was like rubberbands, shrimp overcooked, and half the mussels tasted rotten.

We waited at least 20 minutes for our waiter to check on us again.

Overall the food and service was 2 out of 5. We won't be going back or recommending. The fact that no one got sick is worth at...