Benny's Big Time Pizzeria — Restaurant in Wilmington

Are you looking for an amazing dining experience in Wilmington, NC? Well lemme tell you about Benny's Big Time Pizzeria. We were in line to get in at 5pm this past Friday. The line was about a dozen tables long, but we were seated immediately. As soon as we walked in we knew the place was special. The vibe was killer - the energy of the staff was so fun. In fact, Toto's song Africa was playing... my wife has a condition, where every time this song plays she has to sing it. So she was singing it and dancing as we walked to our table; and the hostess and some other servers were singing right along too! It was so fun.

Danielle was our server. Is she the perfect server? Yes. She was amazing. Perfect, actually. Super friendly and genuinely seemed to care about us and our experience. Honestly, Big Benny's could have horrible food and we would still go back just to see Danielle again. Thank you, Danielle, you made our night!

But the food isn't horrible. It's fantastic! We only got three items: Garlic knots, The margherita pizza and a cheese pizza. These are wood fired pizzas. The garlic knots were out of this world good; I've never had anything quite like them... they were so unique in their texture and the flavor was absolutely perfect (photo below). The accompanying sauce was incredible too. The pizzas were outstanding. The pizza is perfectly thin and supple, and the crust is nice and soft, but with that nice, crispy crunch you get in a wood fired pizza; so in other words, it's not an overly bready pizza. The cheeses and sauce and herbs were really great.

Good wine and beer selection. We both had different red wines and they were really good and went well with our pies.

We didn't get dessert, but the table next to us did and DANG, did it look good. We'll get dessert next time.

Also, they have a really fun and wide range of pizzas; we're excited to try them all. I'm also excited to try their pasta dishes, too.

A couple things that we experienced at Benny's that we've never experienced at any other restaurant that I just have to tell you about. First, somehow someone overheard us say that it was our first visit and so the manager came by and thanked us for coming and gave us a coupon for a free margherita pizza (photo below. It was such a sweet and simple gesture, but we appreciated it so much! It was so nice to feel appreciated and even kind of special for having chosen to dine at this restaurant.

Another thing I noticed was the to-go box. Our server, the aforementioned and amazing Danielle, took our pizzas and put them in a box. The box came back, labeled and the top of the box was taped! It's a small thing, but that's so nice to have the box taped so it doesn't come open while we're carrying it or in transit around town. The other detail about the to-go box was how the pizza was placed in the box... check out the photo below: the pizzas are separated by wax paper! Even between the slices, the wax paper is folded up to prevent the pizzas from sticking together and to keep the flavors from melding together. What??? Amazing!

Again, these are small details, but to me it shows that this is a place that cares about the details; both in their food and the customer experience. Everything about the atmosphere of the place, the staff and the food was perfect. I've been to some amazing restaurants all over the place like Asheville, Charlotte, NYC, Dallas, Orlando, Mexico City and other places and honestly, this is one of two (maybe three) restaurants I've been to in my 48 years on this planet that was perfect in every way.

Well done, Benny's Big Time Pizzeria! To the owners and the entire staff: you should be proud of what you've all created. Thank you for sharing it with us! We'll...

We had the chicken parm bites, the brussels sprouts, and the mushroom crostini to start - all divine. The server was super friendly and made those recommendations, which we appreciated. For pizza, we had “The Baller”. We expected that to be sliced pieces of meatball because of the name. It was ground beef. Maybe change the name to “The Burger”! It wasn’t the meatball pizza we were expecting, but it was fine. What truly struck us as bizarre and made it hard to relax and/or enjoy ourselves is the abundance of every interior design theme known to man in one restaurant. On the walls: modern art, old folk art, a pop art-style mural, PLUS old black and white photography. Some shelves are antique style, some are modern, and some are traditional style iron shelves. We counted 7 different colors and types of wood on the walls, ceiling, floor, chairs, and tables. Some walls are brick, some are wood, some are subway tile. The kitchen is modern stainless steel and there is some marble in places, but the booths are old style red leather booths. There is old style stained glass on the door and light fixtures, but the ceiling fan is modern. Random house plants are scattered about - one was smushed behind a booth randomly looking like it was being tortured. It’s late February and there are still colored Christmas lights up around the bar. The more we unpacked each detail the harder it was for us to believe, and we couldn’t focus on anything else. I’ve never been in a restaurant of this caliber, owned by a TV personality, that seems to lack one style or theme, instead seeming to display EVERY style and theme. I wouldn’t come back because by the end of the meal, we just felt too uncomfortable in the chaotic design environment. We started our morning after the dinner at Casa Blanca coffee shop and it felt like such a relief to be in a place with a gorgeous and consistent professional design after that experience. Part of a good dinner, in my opinion, is enjoying the feeling of existing in someone else’s design than your own home, being inspired by someone else’s ecosystem, and this was the...

If your looking for a great pizza spot off the beaten path in a tucked away up and coming neighborhood located in South Front this is it. The character and visual as we approached the pizzeria was quite pleasing especially during the sunset on a warm October night. The open bar and kitchen was inviting and the buzz of conversation lit up the dining room even more. Unfortunately this is where all the fanfare ended. We came for a Tuesday night dinner and chose to order their special 2 pizzas with a side salad. The side salad was upgraded to their version of a Caesar salad. We enjoyed a Peroni and French 75, the baby had a Pepsi. The French 75 came out a little warm, considering there was only one patron seated at the bar. For starters we ordered a child version of buttered pasta. It came with Rigatoni piping hot buttered and assumingly edible. But after one bite the pasta was not Al Dente, but hard. We were then provided their Caesar Salad which came in a large portion. It included roasted and raw Brussels sprouts with pesto. The best way to describe the salad was dense. It was hard to eat. The Caesar dressing was not liberally tossed and while the pesto was okay, it was lost in the maze of unsalted roasted Brussels sprouts and raw Brussels sprouts loaded in this dense hard to eat salad. The two pizzas were the “Takin in Shitake” and “Pizza Alla Carbonara”. Both were underwhelming, lacked any distinguishing pop of flavor. Both pizzas were burnt considerably on one side and doughy on the other. Which lends to lack of experience for whomever is preparing the pizza in their wood fire oven. Overall was expecting a little more flavor and flare from a pizzeria that clearly had an eye for design in their overall presentation of their space. If your are looking for good pizza for half the price, while it may not be the most quaint scenery Slice of Life would be a safer and more...