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Fulton St-Broadway-Nassau (2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, M, Z)
Chambers-Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall (4, 5, 6, J, M, Z)
City Hall-Broadway (R, W)
Mon-Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
"#39, Rad Na and the mixed drink Singapore Sling is all I need from here to be happy. After eating in the restaurant the first time one…" read more »
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It was brutally cold out, and we were looking for a cheap lunch. I had a friend visiting from out of town, and she hadn't tried Thai before, so after a trip to South Street Seaport, we stopped here. Again, it was cold. It was so cold that if you didn't have to be outside, or if you weren't showing your out-of-town guests around the city, you wouldn't be out. So I found Bennie's to be quiet, half-empty, and very hospitable.
Their food is good. It's not the greatest Thai in the world, but for the price, it was great. And we were lucky enough to be seated right near the heater! My guest got the calamari appetizer, and it was a great size portion. I got a spicy tofu dish with rice noodles, and the sauce had just the right amount of kick without making me run to my water glass after every bite.
It's a little out of my way, as I don't gallavant around the Seaport every weekend, but I'd definitely go back. Good prices for good portions, absolutely. If you're looking for the best Thai experience of your life, don't go to Bennie's, but for your regular Thai fix, it's a great place to be.
I came here about a month ago with a friend inbetween classes. We got there right in the middle of the lunch rush and boy was it hectic. If you ever wondered what the term "herded like cattle" meant then I suggest you stop by here around noon. People were practically sitting on top of each other. And to top things off the waiter decided to place portable folding tables into the aisles so the neverending flow of customers had seats. Can you say fire hazard?
Well now that I experienced what my bovine friends feel like at the ranch, I decide to commemorate this occasion by inviting one to the table, in the form of lunch of course! My honorary guest came in the form of beef with red curry over rice. Yum.
My friend ordered the chicken with yellow curry over rice. We expected a long wait with all the people but it seemed like as soon as the waitress disappeared behind the counter she reappeared with two plates of rice with curry. How the hell? There must be some kind if genie in there reading my mind and then presto here's your order.
The food was piping hot and delicious. I even underestimated the red curry. I figured that no restaurant in nyc would ever sell a curry that will actually be that hot and spicy. They sure proved me wrong. Two glasses of water and a friend laughing hysterically later my mouth was still on fire.
This is definitely a place to check out for a quick and satisfying meal. The lunch special prices are pretty good for the area. I do suggest going at lunch time at least once just to get that feeling of being packed tighter than a can of sardines (yes I know I changed the analogy. I couldn't think of a clever way to include both so sue me.)
i popped in the other night for a quick dinner. my friend who lives in the area always orders out from here so i thought i'd give it a shot.
much to my disappointment, everything i had was probably 3 star status. not bad, but i've definitely had better elsewhere.
calamari - solidly yummy, and you get a good portion of it.
yellow curry - good, not enough milk, and a little heavy on the spices (but not spicy),
pad thai - too much nut, and a little sweetness to balance it out would have been very much appreciated.
service was quick and attentive which was fantastic. all in all, you get hearty portions, and it's definitely worth what you'll pay. i won't complain if i end up here again for a meal, but i'm not itching to stop by again either.
ps! american express credit cards or cash only. stop by the b of a down the street first if you're not rockin' an amex
Decent, inexpensive place. Legitimate home style Thai cooking- for example the curries aren't thick with coconut milk- more like a gravy.
Only downside- they need to get raw green and red chilies for cooking- eating ultra hot and spicy with curry power is gag city!!
One of my favorites. Love. love. love. their soups. Only downside is that it's too busy at lunch time!
Good place for cheap, hearty, Thai food in the financial district. We came here on a Saturday afternoon, when not much else is open in the area. This isn't fancy Thai food, but rather reliable, flavorful, and satisfying.
I had dinner here tonight and this place is merely average. The food comes out pronto which makes me wonder if it has been sitting around all day.
The service was very basic, no smiles, but the food came out quick.
They serve sodas in cans. I hate that.
I had spicy noodles with beef. It was average, better than some and worse than others.
The one thing I did not like about this place is that it was smoky. Not cigarette smoky, but Thai food smoky. I smelled something awful when I left the place!
I would go back if everything else was closed.
For our party of 8, the food came out in less than 5 minutes. That is just wrong. I suppose Bennie's Thai Cafe falls into the generic Thai restaurant category and if that's what it's aiming to be, it does it well. I think many of the reviews here are inflated because the Financial District lacks decent lunch options but if you tossed Bennie's into districts with a little more competition, it would die a very painful (but quick) death.
That said, the food is edible, but I wouldn't stray too far from the classics (or americanized... however you like to see it) dishes like pad thai or basil chicken. One friend ordered something slightly out of the norm and ehh, I don't think he liked it very much. Some of the dishes do pack a little heat (especially if you ask for it extra spicy!) which I love. Nothing beats a warm heat in the center of your belly during cold winter days.
Also, this didn't factor much into my rating, but the service is pretty horrendous and I'm 100% used to Chinatown service! The waitress pretty much barks at you when she takes your order and the man who handed us the check definitely didn't waste a moment in doing so (repeatedly implying that we leave too). I'd understand the impatience if you needed to turn over tables, but save one another couple, we were the only party there!
Used to come here all the time when the boyfriend and I were wandering around South Street Seaport and looking for something to eat in the area that was neither disgusting (i.e. American "Chinese food") nor disgustingly priced (i.e. everything else around). Once it was crowded and as a result, service was inattentive and unpleasant, so we just came during non-lunch hours afterward.
Their Thai tea is great-- just ask them not to put too much ice in the cup (or wait for the ice to melt a bit as it is very sweet). I disliked the Tom Yum Gai (I think), but I attribute that to my just not enjoying those flavors in soup form.
More importantly, their pad thai was quite decent. And I don't even remember what else we'd get. I guess none of it was particularly memorable, but their location is convenient and it's just so cozy sitting vaguely below ground level, hidden away, with the pleasant mural outside the window. There was also a very sweet man who worked there who was extremely nice, and who always remembered us even after we hadn't been to Bennie's in something like 4 months.
I have no objection to this place but also often feel no inclination to patronize it even when I do find myself in the area, so I guess that's a raging 3 stars of simple approval.
Bennie's is like an Express stop, especially during lunch. If you're looking for a really quick, hearty, inexpensive lunch near South Street Seaport (minus the tourist crowds), then head to Bennie's. Even when you have a big group with you, you'll make it back to the office on time if you order at Bennie's. The food is pretty decent Thai for a pseudo-sit-down.
Hot and Delightful, tasty and loving, cute and luxorious...we love bennie's. The only downside is that it's cash only.
We like the spicy noodles and food us terrific only downside it's cash or Amex only. Otherwise… Read more »
I live and work downtown, so finding a good thai place was essential. My co-workers and I usually hit up Bennie's for lunch and they have a well priced lunch menu.
I usually get the spicy basil chicken, but i recently just got the roasted chicken. The spicy basil chicken is dead on good almost every time I eat it, and with good portions. The roasted chicken looked good the last time my co-worker ate it, but when I recently had it, wasn't so great. Not sure if I will be getting it again.
The service is fast and it seems like they try to turn you around relatively quickly, since they do have a large lunch crowd.
Good place, not great. But you can't expect much for $7 lunches. 3 Stars.
I would have given this place 4 stars if the label wasn't "Yay, I'm a fan!". I say that only because for Financial District resident standards you do with what you have after the 5 o'clock whistle. I am strictly a seamlessweb/delivery customer and never stepped into the restaurant for a meal. The closest I've ever been to the place is if and when I get off the Nassau/Broadway stop and walk past the corner of fulton and gold and to look down at the establishment.
Good PadSeeEww and thai iced tea, this place fulfills my thai cravings, nice and simple.
Came here after a meeting for lunch and had just a delicious meal and you get the sense all the dishes are equally good. This is a small cramped space and even when packed is still kind of quiet, probably because everyone is really enjoying the food.
A real pet peeve of mine is when you get just enough sauce for the ingredients and end up eating dry rice. Not here. The sauces are full of delicious flavor and there's more than enough to pile on the rice and get it all soaked up with goodness.
This is not a fancy restaurant but it's good, fast and of course really tasty. Minus one star because it could be cleaner.
TAKE OUT
Usually I have to just grab and go from here. It's good enough to come back every once in a while, but the dishes are hit or miss. Especially the Beef Massamun Curry. Every once in a while it's really good. Other times it's mostly not edible. Like today. I had 2 tiny pieces of good beef. ALL the rest was crunchy cartilidge, gloppy fat, or chunky veins. The pork dishes usually have much better quality meat.
SIT DOWN
I HIGHLY recommend that you sit down instead of doing takout from their steam table. The food quality is much better, and the service is pretty good. Their noodle soups (coconut curry, and Tom Yum espeically) are fantastic.
My rating reflects the food/experience from their takeout selection. Their regular sit down food/experience would be a 3.5.
Water Refill Meter: 3/5
Have to ask usually, but don't have to wait too long after doing so.
Went back to see if the sit down service w/ made to order food would be any better. Indeed it was. Service was generic and cold. They hinted for us to leave by saying 'Thank You very much' after we got our check...several times in fact, as they had customers waiting to be seated.
-N1 Chicken Pad Thai ($9.95) [sauteed medium rice noodles w/ bean sprouts, chicken and baby shrimp, grounded peanuts, egg, scallions (shrimp/seafood, +$2 supp)] - would have preferred it drier but still good, big portions
-P5 Gai Yang ($9.95) [chicken marinated in special Thai sauce, grilled to crispness, served w/ Thai style plum sauce] - the Thai sauce I'm guessing is soy based maybe w/ some hoisin sauce, plum sauce was more like a simple syrup, same as what you get a Viet places, gave 4 hugeass pieces (2 thighs, 2 legs), so much food I had to doggy bag a thigh, great deal
-Thai Iced Tea ($2.50 x 2) - way too sweet, premade so they couldn't reduce the sugar when requested, definitely needs dilution
Total came out to $16/pp after everything
Pics: http://www.meetup.com/...
From the slums of Shaolin, Bennie's Thai strikes again. I walked by so many times and never knew… Read more »
What kind of thai lunch special doesn't have pad thai? Well, they didn't. The waitress was super anal about where people sit, and didn't care about customers sitting directly in front of a wall. Food was alright, but I've definitely had better in NYC. I would prefer Cafe Sage over Bennie's
For Financial District standards, I suppose Bennie's Thai Cafe is a solid place to satisfy' one's craving for Thai fare. The prices are not amazingly cheap, in fact they could be considered pricey for Thai food, but reasonable given the area. Best time is for lunch and I would consider avoiding this place for dinner.
Hardcore Thai foodies may scoff at the simplicity of their presentation and taste of the dishes as its somewhere in the middle of impressive and subpar. I think the food is relatively decent given the area and the delivery is fairly good.
Dining in is a whole 'nother story. The place is classic downtown Manhattan, deli-looking, cramped for quarters, and generally not recommended for group dining or dates. I would consider this place to be a lunch spot only and not one totally worthy of a dinner spot. For better Thai food, look up north in Hell's Kitchen or any place out in the boroughs.
My go-to Thai place. Such good food, such reasonable prices.
I've had almost everything on the menu, and it's all good: pad thai, chicken satay, yum salads, pad see ew, hai nam noodles (this is my favorite, and I tip my cap to whoever thought of combining chicken and squid in the same dish), ..... I even had the weird pumpkin slice custard dessert thing once, and it was OK for what it was. (My Texan tastebuds don't think very highly of Asian desserts in general.)
You know the ingredients are fresh, because if you go in a slow period you'll see some of the staff chopping and sorting vegetables at the table near the door.
The decor is fun in its old-school downtown sort of way, but I only eat in about 1 out of every 10 times. The mural on the wall outside the window is relaxing and weird at the same time. And the little old man who buses tables and delivers food is just so friendly.
Definitely not a good date place, since it's not romantic in the least. But dang, the food is good.
Came here for lunch...since the other place we were trying to go was closed.....
We had:
Pad thai: which was brown (that makes Billy C. happy) and was decent...not overally dry, good texture, and taste....would go back for it again...
thai ice coffee: sucks, was served in a hoblet sized glass....
Thai chicken: huge portion was very very good....the skin was marinated perfectly and for $10 this is a steal!!!!
Service: the thai lady kept asking me and my friend if we needed anything else like a million times to hint that we over stayed our welcome, so minus a star for that....
if your in the mood for thai and can only get it from around Wall st...you can safely venture here....
This is my go-to takeout place for Thai food in my 'hood. I get the same thing every time: massaman curry chicken, chicken pad see-ew and rice. My regular order is usually enough for two people for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day. It's also reasonably priced (entrees less than $10).
Order on seamless web at 8:12pm on a Wednesday, they were here by 8:30! No idea how they managed that. The food was delicious and piping hot and the portions were huge! The tom kha gai was to die for! Will definitely be back
Awesome. I love Thai food and have some great places where I am from. This was fantastic. So good.
I suppose the vomit on the sidewalk just outside the door might have been a clue, but alas, it appeared some time during our lunch and wasn't there to warn us before we went in.
We were seated promptly, and about 1 minute later the waitress came by and demanded (yes, literally demanded) our order. Since i'd had just enough time to see that their lunch specials menu, with over a dozen items, had not a single vegetarian option, i'd only started to look over the full price menu for possibilities. There were several items in the vegetarian section, but i ended up going with the pad thai, ye olde standarde Thai food, because i simply didn't have time to peruse the other options.
One of our four meals arrived within about 45 seconds. The next appeared about 3 minutes later, and the last two together another 2 minutes after that, leading to that wonderful awkwardness in which the people without food tell the people with food to eat, but they refuse on the grounds of being polite company.
Once we all had our food and started eating it was interesting to juxtapose our ongoing dining experience with the newspaper review on the wall from five years before. If that glowing review was remotely accurate, then their quality has gone down dramatically in the past few years.
The vegetable red curry was so thin and soup-like that it came with a soup spoon. According to the person who ordered it, it was tasty. The Red Sea soup was, to quote the person who ordered that one, 'tomato-y', but also good. The chicken something that the third of our quartet ordered looked grey-ish and unappetizing, and apparently tasted worse. My vegetarian pad thai was bland, with hints of chicken (because nothing says 'vegetarian' like meat).
Our conclusion as the plates were cleared was that two of us present thought the place was decent, perhaps even good for the price, while two thought it was awful, even considering the price. Add into this the terse waitstaff (the water-pourer was so surprised when i said, 'thank you' that she just stared at me blankly for several seconds), the crowded tables, and the general cafeteria-like ambiance... i won't dine there again.
Cafe Sage is only a block away, and while it's only mediocre, it beats Bennie's hands down for both food and service.
Decent Thai. Hmmm, do you like how you can never rate a Thai restaurant more than 3-stars?
Eating Thai food always reminds me of what my Father used to say when I'd tell Mother that I particularly liked a dish she made: "You like it because there's a bunch of sugar in it."
Yum . . . Thai food not only brings back fond memories, but satisfies my sweet tooth! I win!
Definite take-out. At lunch hours, this place gets packed. Better yet, have it delivered via http://seamless.com or http://delivery.com.
We had it delivered, so I can't comment on the decor or whatever. But the food itself was pretty good. The "jungle curry" and massah man curry were both really tasty. The massah man was creamy without being too heavy on the coconut milk, and the jungle curry (red and spicy) was really flavorful without being too oily.
We also ordered the Thai fried rice just to try it--it was actually pretty good, savory and fluffy with lots of random ingredients and not greasy at all.
The portions were huge and the food came fast. We'll definitely keep their menu around for the next time a curry craving strikes us. I'm sure there's better Thai in the city (how could there not be?), but when you live in the Financial District and don't feel like going anywhere, you take what you can get.
UPDATE: Have eaten here multiple times now and every one has been very satisfying. Their pad thai, gang curry, spicy noodles, and dumplings are particularly awesome. I'm upgrading them from three stars to four because it's totally deserved. Bennie's is a great place for solid Thai food on the cheap.
"Thailand Takes Over Italy"
At 88 Fulton Street (corner Gold) is "Bennie's Thai Cafe". Across from the Strand Bookstore, the restaurant is sunken below street level which is somehow oddly appropriate. I say that because outside its long, windowed, street-side wall is a full length mural of what else? Venice, itself a place very much on the sink (Clue: it was an Italian Restaurant in a former life). So although longboats on the Klongs would have been better, it was still waterways through a city I thought.
The medium size room bustles at lunchtime with Wall Street escapees and localistas and does have an air of a workaday restaurant in Bangkok. I did an exploratory lunch and ordered one of the cheapie specials, Yellow Chicken Curry over Rice ($4.75) and a Thai Iced tea ($2.50). It was simple and 'safe' tasting but left me with a desire to sample more items.
The next time it was a more complex delivered order, which was accurate and very well-packed. Not to subject you to a blow-by-blow, suffice it to say that it's workaday character extended to the rest of the menu. That's not to say it was bad, just (again) safe; I felt the dishes were just not extroverted enough for Thai food. Recipe-wise I did find a general overuse of green and red bell peppers in too many dishes but more curious was the 1x5 (precise) rectangular cut to many of the ingredients; very 'Soylent Green' I thought.
Bennie's, like Bangkok itself is easy on the wallet, competently staffed and definitely worth a try if you're down in the South Street Seaport area of Manhattan. Don't forget to check out the gondolas.
Three Saimese Stars.
Bennie's Thai place is located on the corner of Fulton & Gold street-- across from Strand's book store. If you aren't looking for the restaurant, it's very easy to miss the place because it's secluded in this underground section.
It's a cozy little restaurant that has decent prices. There are vegetarian dishes, rice dishes, noodle dishes, and a seafood section.
The pad thai isn't awful, but i've had better. The rice dishes are approximately $8.95. They're pretty tasty.
This place is PACKED during lunch-time, so I would avoid going during your lunch hour. It's a cute place to dine because the location is underground-- the brick wall surrounding the restaurant has a beautiful 360 degree mural on the wall.
Bennie's offers the most authentic thai in lower Manhattan largely because Lemongrass is its only competition. This is not the say that Bennie's is bad, just far from mind-blowingly good like Sea in the east village, Thai Market on the uws, or Song in Park Slope. They do pad thai, pad see aw and other noodle dishes well if on the greasy side. Their non-curry meat and vegetable dishes, such as ginger or garlic chicken, are a little too heavy on the sauce. One thing Bennie's does well is the thai iced teas and coffees; another is the satay appetizers with peanut dipping sauce. It's a toss-up whether to recommend dining in or taking out because while the food is more aesthetically pleasing and hot if you eat in, the service is rushed and it gets quite crowded at lunchtime. On the other hand, delivery takes a long time, so your best bet is probably to pick up the food in person.
Benny's is definitely a "hole in the wall" type of place to eat. I went to college for 4 years at Pace University and dont think I came upon it until my sophomore year.
Benny's is great for lunch, having an extremely cheap (5 tp 8 bucks) array of choices on the menu lunch special list. At any other time, Benny's is not superb, but definitely good. For the price you are paying for a meal, I think Benny's does a good job.
Not to mention, The Thai Icea Tea for $2.50 is pretty good! You should def go there for their lunch specials.
The place looks like shit, is in a shit location (the staircases look nasty and they hide empty mop buckets nearby), but the food is definitely good!
Quality Thai at Thai prices. 'Nuff said!
Though I'm only giving this cozy, divey Thai joint 3 stars, I will eat there again. Located somewhat underground, this simple, bustling eatery is perfect for a quick lunch with friends or alone, as long as you're not looking for healthy!
The food is good but a little bit on the greasy side. I order veggie Pad Thai (I wanted to add mock duck, but they wanted to charge me over $3 to do that). It was delicious, not the best I even had, and like I said, a wee bit greasy. My lunchmates ordered regular Pad Thai and a meat-based noodle soup. The noodle soup entre beckons my friend to return to Benny's often, touting it, in his opinion, the best Thai in Lower Manhattan, sadly I agree.
I look forward to going back to try the mock duck, a favorite veggie option anywhere. I will update my review when this happens.
Very affordable, very busy, rough but competent service.
I live in the financial district, and while there is not a ton of thai around me, this place is totally sufficient! it has a fun atmosphere, especially during lunch when it's crazy packed, and it's good, too! not the absolute best thai i've had in the city (pukk so far!) but it's by far not the worst! I would recommend this place to a friend, definitely.
I've eaten here dozens and dozens of times for lunch. The staff is Thai, the food tastes like Thai, and they have a 4-jar spice tray. The noodle dishes trends towards slightly greasy; the rice dishes trends small for the price; but the lunch specials are a good deal (I love the roasted chicken over rice peppered up with the spice tray). And though my friend says the vegetable sides reminded him of leftovers they fed pigs with back in his village in China, it doesn't taste half bad.
3.5 stars (food) + 0.5 (lunch location) - 0.5 stars (cleanliness; weird seatings) = 3.5. Definitely for lunch; maybe not so great for dinner since it is in such a dark, isolated location unless you are at the South Street Seaport. I'm so sick of bland Thai food in Hell's kitchen.
I have ate in this thai restaurant yesterday (2/8/08). I have ordered a Chicken Curry and a soda. Bennie's is pretty hidden under a glasses store in Fulton Street.
The reason why I give this restaurant a 3/5 is because when I got my chicken curry I barely saw any chicken in my dish.... The chicken was literally cut into tiny pieces. What I mostly had was the vegetables and rice. Curry was very bland. Overall the food was decent and a reasonable price. I have spent only around $7.25 (to be honest I don't remember the exact price.) in the dish.
My only issue about this restaurant is the time. No, no, it didn't take long at all. The food came extremely fast. Took them like a minute to take my order and have the food sent to me. The food was warm when it came to me. I would of asked them to reheat it but, I decided to eat my food and get the things done in school as soon possible.
The service in the restaurant was great. They gave me time to look over the menu and when I was ready they attended me quickly.
In conclusion, if you want to eat decent Thai food with a reasonable price, I recommend this restaurant. But, me personally I wouldn't dine there again. Since there better places to eat around that area, and you will spend same.
for a quick cheap asian lunch... come here! not too americanized!
they have haianese chicken on chicken rice... super fresh dark meat chicken! labelled something else on the menu i forget...
they have other entrees that are about 6-7 bucks a pop and fill you up definitely!
I've eaten here many times. Their Pad Thai and Chicken Satay is well worth the small wait. The service is quick. If you have trouble finding it, look down, it's on the basement level.
Bennie's is THE Thai place for lunch downtown. The ambiance might not be the best, but the food makes up for it. Everything I've eaten had just the right amount of spice and flavoring.
If you want to grab and go, there are always about 6 options to choose (vegetable, meat, noodles, rice, etc.). Prices for take out are $6 for 2 entrees plus rice or noodles and $7 for 3 entrees.
The staff is quick and always has a smile. I've even considered picking up dinner at Bennie's but know I'd never be able to hold back my hunger for the 45 min commute home.
You may not even notice this little restaurant downtown near South Street Seaport and The Strand Annex. It's hidden in the basement, down a steep flight of stairs. The decor is not much to look at: it's mostly a bunch of mirrored walls and mute murals, but do not let the looks deceive you. This is great Thai food! And inexpensive too! I love their chicken satay and their chicken fried rice. They have a large menu, and very helpful staff. The bathrooms are a little tiny, but always clean. Bennie's is really a hidden gem in downtown NYC!
Bennie's is hidden pretty well so chances are that you'll walk by it without ever noticing it. Heck, I did that for years up until recently. Considering the area, you get good food for a very good price. Whether you're there for lunch or dinner, you can get a meal for two people for less than $30. It may not be the best Thai food I've had but the prices more than make up for it.
$7-$8 Lunch Special w. Free…
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