Bensonhurst Review

I have been really excited waiting for Bensonhurst to open up on 17th Ave, the restaurant interior was done by Amanda Hamilton interior design and I truly love her work. It's amazing. I would love to hire her when we finally buy a house but I am pretty sure I would need to sell my first born child to afford it. Either way check her it out, she is talented.

According to Bensonhursts About Us section "Bensonhurst Pizza Co. allows guests to experience  different styles of pizza from around the world in a unique New York themed restaurant.  We focus on regional variety while paying tribute to pizzeria techniques from the past, specializing in the styles of New York, New Jersey, Naples, Chicago, and California."  

I wanted to go so badly because I LOVE NYC and have been craving NYC style pizza for quite a while now. My favorite memory from my last trip to New York is sitting on the sidewalk outside some restaurant in the financial district drinking cold beer and eating pizza on one of the muggiest hottest nights in my recent memory. Keep in mind Calgary gets hot but it's a dry heat so the wet heavy air of the east coast takes some adjusting to.

We ordered bruschetta to start and a New York style pizza and added prosciutto and green pepper. Our couple friends also ordered a New York pizza and a Chicago deep dish pizza to share. I also ended up getting an order of cheesecake to go. The New York pizzas are huge at 18" and our order had a VERY hard time fitting on the table.

You can definitely tell that the restaurant is new there are some kinks to work out. We were seated near the front of the place and it was VERY busy with people waiting for tables, people squished into tables, whenever one of us would go to the bathroom someone would try and steal our chairs, there was a baby in a carrier right under my feet/table I was trying not to kick by mistake. Towards the back the atmosphere was definitely calmer and I wish we got to sit near the back closer to the kitchens. 

The bruschetta was only ok it was pretty oily and the menu listed it as deconstructed bruschetta which I am not sure what that was supposed to mean it was just grape tomatoes cut in two. I probably wouldn't order it again and I want a big bold flavor in my bruschetta and this was a little flat.  

The pizza's were good but they took a really long time to come out. Over 45 minutes for the NYC ones and although we were warned the Chicago pizza's take 45 min to cook and said they can just bring the NYC ones out when they are ready the Chicago came out right after the NYC ones. The pizza was good although a bit overcooked as the crust was rock solid. Still good we ate most of it (so hungry by this point) and took a few slices home. 

The cheesecake was also really good lots of stuff going on and interesting flavors although I wouldn't call it a traditional NYC cheesecake. The cheesecake filling was a bit lumpy so I am going to guess they make in in house which is great but next time just beat it a bit more before baking.

Overall the experience was ok I would like to go back in a few months and see if they have ironed out a few of the kinks. Great decor and nice selection of Pizzas and with any new place it takes a little while to get into a groove.