First and foremost I very frequently see people saying the service at Benu is terrible. However I experienced literally perfect service that worked like clockwork while also being extraordinarily friendly. This is just my experience, and perhaps they thought I was a blogger or something and treated me extra nice, or perhaps they listened to peoples feedback and improved their service. Anyways all I can say is that from my personal experience the service was without flaw and just as good as in Single Thread or other restaurants where I see people say they love the service, so if you had bad service here in the past you should probably consider giving them a second chance
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Food:
Bread/butter with honey orange blossom sauce (pic1):
Thin but crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Technically really great but nothing above and beyond to make it mind blowing. 8/10
1kyr old egg (pic2):
Delicate and delicious and perfect 10/10
Poached muscles filled with noodles (pic3):
perfect and delicious with interesting textures 10/10
Cod milt with mustard sauces pic4):
Looks beutiful but too soft and one tone of texture and too fishy. 5/10
Caviar and tartare tartlet (pic 5):
Terrible, way way too salty and the texture of the crispy tartlet makes it the only texture you can really feel. This just tastes like eating a tartlet filled with salt, worst dish of the night and my least favorite caviar dish ive ever had 1/10
Monkfish liver with persimmon on brioche (pic 6)- perfect and interesting flavors. I usually hate monkfish liver but i loved this one 10/10
Acorn taco filled with black truffle, iberco ham, and I think some acorn sauce sauce (pic 7):
flavors were good and umami but this was basically stuffing some expensive ingredients into a (tasty) taco shell. But regardless it still tasted great 8/10
Potstickers ( pic 8):
Tasted mostly just like totally regular potstickers. You can go to din tai fung or many other dumplings places in the city and get 8 of these just as good for $15. Side dishes were well made but nothing spectacular in terms of flavor or anything. 6/10
Sable fish with persimmon (pic 9):
Fish was nice and soft and broth was nice and flavorful and very beautiful work on the persimmon, but all soft textures. 8/10
Quail and bread (pic 10,11): quail was very soft but the skin was soft too and the leaves were soft too. So again everything is totally soft with 0 other textures, at this point its definitely getting to be a negative pattern. The sauces were very flavorful but nothing ground breaking, and the bun was a good soft but a little crunchy on the bottom and really great to dip in the sauce. 7/10
Beef rib soup, etc (pic 12):
I liked the kimchi, and it was very tender beef in a light broth. Good cooking, boring to me, and besides the small kimchi which i did like everything else was super soft again and kinda boring 6/10
Yuja sorbet with chocolate (pic 13):
Very light and refreshing and interesting flavor contrasts and great taste. I usually dont like pallet cleansers especially with sorbets/granitas/juices and stuff, but i quite liked this one, for a pallet cleanser i rate it 8/10
Yakgwa and cheese tart with chestnut (pic 14):
Though the light cheese got overpowered by the sauce and pie shell thing, this was still an interesting and tasty dish with lots of different textures and things going on that went well together. 8/10
Grape pallet cleanser (pic 15):
Its grapes in a sweet liquid with peels. Grapes with the sauce was light and refreshing but otherwise not worthy of mention, but peels were … peels and not nice to eat at all. 4/10
Green pallet cleanser with mint tuile (pic 16/17):
I didnt like the green thing as i expected i wouldnt, though the table next to me was enamored with it. Tastes like some kind of weird fruit tea ive had but dont remember the fruit, and i didnt like it there either and still dont like it as a half melted granita. The mint tuile thing looked great and had a very fun texture, but in terms of flavor it was basically a more refined listerine mint strip, i rather it have been literally any other flavor. 4/10
by Pure_Shallot_1901
Dining and Cooking