Bensi Italian Ristorante - Hamilton, NJ Review

My foodie friends and I are always on the lookout for new places to try. A new place opened up at the Shoppes of Hamilton on Route 130, called Bensi Italian Ristorante, so upon a recommendation from someone that worked there, we decided to check it out. It is a local chain Italian restaurant found only in the local tri-state area.

The decor is more Asian-inspried, something you might find at Kenji Fusion or PF Chang than you would in an italian restaurant. It was all dark heavy colors with dark wood. There are two doors to enter - one leads to the restaurant and the other to a little take out counter.

We were seated in a booth in the bar area, we were not given a choice, but the place was relatively empty for 8 p.m. on a Thursday night, so I guess they were trying to conserve where messes might be made.

Our server was the bartender, a very nice young man who poured very large, but slightly weak drinks (I had a vodka tonic because it had been a rough day, and another foodie had a gin and tonic, He asked for Sapphire and tonic, apparently the bartender was pretty green because he informed my friend they only had Bombay Sapphire. As far as we know that is the only brand with sapphire). We all had water, which had a bit of a funny taste.

The menu was HUGE!! There was quite a lot to choose from so selections were not easy. We asked our server for some ideas, but he did not have much of an input.

While waiting for the appetizer, we got a tour of the kitchen. It was brand new, very bright, clean and shiny. The line held six cooks, with a sixteen top stove. The pizza prep area was larger than most kitchens in some fine dining restaurants. The walk in refrigerator was very large and the freezer was small because, as it was explained to us, Bensi prides itself on serving the freshest food possible. We saw that some of the meats were not covered, but that was the only sanitation violation that we could see.

Dennis ordered the jalapeno ravioli for an appetizer, which we all shared. It was a fried ravioli with a cheese and jalapeno filling. The cheese was completely tasteless, but all in all it was reminiscent of jalapeno poppers.

For dinner, Dennis ordered a personal pan pizza, when asked what toppings to put on it, Dennis asked that the pizza cook just be creative and make the best pizza he can dream of. Cliff ordered the grilled chicken sandwich with roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese. I ordered the chicken pomodoro (chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese, spinach and roasted red peppers in a tomato sauce). My dinner came with a choice of a pasta side or a house salad, but instead of the house salad I substituted the cranberry walnut salad, usually $6.95, they charged me $3.95 extra taking off $3.00. Kat and Hope both ordered the apple walnut salad.

Dennis' "gourmet" pizza was basically a burnt on the top, soggy on the bottom mushroom and sausage pizza. The sauce was very acidic.

Cliff liked his sandwich, but also found that to be a bit too soggy and the chicken too dry. He said it needed seasoning.

My salad was good, except the raspberry dressing was completely tasteless. The chicken was three pieces of chicken rolled up, there was nothing in the center. The chicken was overcooked and dry, the sauce the chicken was drown in was flavorless, there were no herbs or garlic to season it up. There were no sides, just the chicken and the sauce.

Kat and Hope also found the house dressing to lack flavor, though the salads were ample.

Kat decided to dare dessert, a frozen key lime pie ice cream thing. It was actually pretty good, we found out they do not make their desserts, I guess that explained it. I had a cappucinno, which was a little weak, but nice.

The total bill before tip was $97 and change. None of us felt it was worth the money, we felt we could get better food at a better value pretty much anywhere else. We all agreed it is not somewhere we would visit again nor would we recommend it to anyone.