Restaurant Review - Benny's Seafood Restaurant

Last weekend six of us went to Benny’s Seafood Restaurant - on SW 107 avenue and 25 street - a popular Puerto Rican (PR) eatery. Three in the group were Puerto Rican, so we had “natives” to guide us on our culinary adventure. As it turns out it’s a good thing they were there, because a lot of the food we ordered was not prepared correctly according to our PR experts.

One of the girls and I arrived early because the restaurant doesn’t take reservations for parties smaller than 10. While I hate it when restaurants don’t take reservations, they were definitely not needed for early Sunday night. My friend ordered a traditional Puerto Rican drink called Mabi, which is described as a “root tea”. Neither of us liked it, but when two of the three PR girls arrived one of them promptly took it and liked it.

Once everyone arrived we ordered Sangria, while the new arrivals looked through the menu. And then the server seemingly got sucked into the Bermuda Triangle because he wasn’t seen for what seemed like an eternity. Clearly we were working on Caribbean time. Eventually he came back with a functional sangria - nothing great but it was cold and wet, so it met basic requirements.

Since we had him there we ordered our appetizers and entrees in case he disappeared into some great Caribbean vortex again. For appetizers – we shared a huge assorted appetizer platter (even though it was the Small order) which consisted of one meat and one crab alcapurria (long thin fritters), a huge pionono (breaded mashed plantain stuffed with ground beef and then deep fried), bacalaitos (very thin cod fritters) and sorullos de maiz (sweet corn fritters shaped like little sticks) and Guineitos (green bananas) en Escabeche (marinated in vinegar, onion and spices). Others got individual orders of alcapurrias or sorullos. That’s when the trouble started.

A unanimous and angry outcry among the three Puerto Rican ladies arose – according to them the alcapurrias were unequivocally terrible. To be honest, I thought they were OK if uneventful, but the ladies were adamant that they were awful, not crispy enough, and seemed like they had been…microwaved (GASP!). The pionono was deemed to be OK but not great and while I liked the bacalaitos – everyone else thought they were too salty. Then it turns out that while authentic Puerto Rican sorullos have cheese – either stuffed into them or mixed into the dough, Benny’s sorullos were cheeseless.

Next, the green banana escabeche caused great debate. My friend and I really liked it, but me not knowing what I was supposed to be eating announced that mixed in with the bananas and the onions there was some sort of organ meat (which is fine with me, I like organ meats). “Impossible!” “That can’t be!” the PR ladies cried. They looked at the mysterious substance, they tasted it and decided it must have been mushrooms which also don’t belong in the escabeche. So, I asked a roving employee – not our server as he had disappeared again – what the grayish, meaty looking thing was, and sure enough he responded it was sweetbreads. I thought one of the PR ladies was going to pass out, as one of the others literally dropped her head in her hands – what can I say, we’re a dramatic bunch!

By the time the entrees arrived everyone was a bit wary. We all ordered the house specialty – mofongo – a mash of green plantains with lots of garlic and topped by whatever you like. We got several toppings: fried pork chunks, fried chicken pieces, shrimp and two people had it served with a side of steak and onions. The mofongo is served in a wooden mortar with a cup of chicken consommé to keep it moist. Everyone was fairly happy with their mofongo, but a couple of people said they knew of several places that served better.

We also ordered a platter with roast pork, pastel de masa (boiled green banana dough stuffed with pork) and arroz con gandules – the traditional Puerto Rican rice dish with pigeon peas. The pork was OK, but only the PR girls said the stuffed banana dough was OK, the rest of us didn’t “get it”. However, I took issue with the rice and pigeon peas – because that’s a Puerto Rican dish with which I am familiar and love – and I didn’t find this one good at all. First of all I had always seen the dish where the color of the rice was brownish-gray not bright yellow the way this one was, but most importantly the rice didn’t taste like pigeon peas – it seemed like they had generic yellow rice already made and then mixed in some pigeon peas.

Disheartened we ordered dessert because, well, we have to order dessert! Of the five desserts (excluding chocolate and vanilla ice cream – couldn’t they have offered some tropical flavors?) they only had three. So we ordered all of them: Tembleque - coconut custard, Majarete de Maiz y Coco – corn meal and coconut custard, and Arroz con Dulce-Coco – rice pudding with, you guessed it, coconut. So pretty much, if you didn’t like coconut you were out of luck. They were all OK, but nothing to get excited about and certainly not enough to make up for the rest of the meal.

So, Benny’s Seafood Restaurant was a bust. I’m fairly certain they won’t be seeing any of us again.