Benson Eating Station

This place sucks. All their plates, bowls, and cups are all dirty to the extent that even soap and water can’t clean it. Their service is horrible as well; it took them around 2 and a half hours to get one dish to us. They fill the dishes very cheaply and things just don’t taste right.

This place sucks. About a year ago, my family and I ate here. We had to wait there for an hour or so. When it was finally our turn, it took the staff 10 Minutes for them to serve us. The staff were so rude. They gave us an attitude. Also, when the staff served us plates, they were disgusting. They were oily. Not only were the plates oily, but so were the chopsticks. We had to use tea to clean the plates and chopsticks. The food is nothing special. We had to pay them even though they had horrible service and we only ate there for 10 minutes or so. We were planning on eating here on my birthday. Thank god, we didn’t! We ate here a few days afterwards. I highly do not recommend this place. I’m not coming here ever again!

This place has recently expanded and have a larger space on the left side of the restaurant. They also started serving dim sum in that newly renovated space early in the morning. The food selection is small but they have your dim sum basics. The quality of food is average. Particularly, the har gow is really bad. I can’t even pick one up with out it sticking to the paper lining and then falling apart. The shrimps inside the har gow are also not cleaned and deveined properly. The better dishes are the chicken feet and roasted pork buns. There was also a small dead bug when I poured tea into my cup.
I think the selling point of Benson Eating Station having dim sum available is to level the demand of morning dim sum in the neighborhood. The next closest restaurant that serves dim sum around here is near Bay Parkway and there’s always a wait there. So it made sense that Benson Eating Station expanded. However, the quality is very average. If you’re near the nabe, don’t want to wait at the other places, and don’t mind average dim sum, then stop by here.

The Alaskan King Crab is what attracts most Chinese families to try this spot.
Now I’m not a huge fan of seafood, but everyone else in my family is. What I am a fan of is integrity and honesty.
My family reserved a table and called a few days in advance regarding to their pre-​fix meal including a 5lb crab for $ 368.
The owner guaranteed us there would be a crab reserved for my family.
When we arrived, we were seated and ordered our dishes. Around 10 minutes after my family settled in, prepared to dig in, the owner arrives and says they dont have a 5lb crab and the smallest is a 10lb, which will be an additional $ 200 bucks!!!
Obviously my family was not happy about it but we were already so hungry and didn’t want to move to a different location so we reluctantly agreed on paying an additional 200 bucks.
Food was like any other average chinese restaurant, service was attentive. Not happy about the dishonesty in this restaurant though. It seems like they do this quite often, luring in customers with a 5lb pre-​fix meal, and then adding additional charges. Don’t think i would return back nor would I recommend this place to anyone.

I’m surprised at the low rating of this place.. First time here and it was a pretty smooth experience. It definitely does help a lot if you have someone in your party who can speak Cantonese since that’s the primary language I heard the staff use with the majority of the customers (who for the most part, were Cantonese too).
Ate dim sum and every dish was tasty. The dish that stood out the most for me were the steamed chicken feet. Instead of the usual reddish look and sweetish taste, these feet were simply steamed and seasoned lightly. This proved to be good since it wasn’t too heavy or overloaded with sauce. As for the other dishes, standard choice and taste.
Tip: if you know what you want for dim sum, walk up to the cart and get it. If you don’t see what you want, tell any of the wandering staff and someone will eventually get you your order. Plus, the staff was pretty attentive and got my table everything we needed without much delay.

The food was delicious and on-​par. My party came on a rather quiet Saturday night, so service was good. The staff speak Cantonese.
Get the giant crab. SO. GOOD. Their other dishes were delicious too.
I don’t really have much else to say, it’s a pretty standard family-​styled Chinese restaurant.

Food was great. The only CON was that the service was a little too slow. Definitely will come back again.

Called for a reservation for Saturday night for 12 people initially, but had to change it to a final count of 14 people. The manager/​receptionist reassured me that they already had a table for us that will be ok. We were placed at a table that could only fit 12 people. It seems like the restaurant is only limited to 12 people tables on the main level. Another manager told us after dinner that they do have VIP rooms in the lower level that could fit up to 16people, which also includes Mahjong tables, and karaōke.
So as other people have already stated, the layout is weird. It’s an L-​shaped restaurant with 3 separate dining areas on the main level. You have to walk down a couple of steps to the back area of the main level. The inside of the restaurant looks very dated. The chairs were a little too low for the table. I felt like I was cramped into someone’s living room.
The bathroom was disgusting. There was only two unisex bathrooms. The floor was wet-​not just the toilet area, but the entire bathroom floor! There was no toilet paper, or towels; at least they had a hand dryer.
Food was okay. Their specialty is the king crab, $ 368 for a pre-​set dinner limited to a 5lb king crab. $ 33 for each additional lb afterwards. Just FYI, all of the crabs in the tank looked to be over 8lbs. So be prepared to pay an additional $ 70-​$ 200. The king crab that we picked was 10.75lb, which made the final bill to be quite hefty.
I wished they paced the dishes. Most of the dishes were brought out all at once, so it was annoying trying to make sure drink glasses weren’t knocked over when turning the lazy Susan. Maybe the kitchen is continuously making the dishes as most of the tables ordered the pre-​set dinner?
1) King crab legs and body steamed with garlic and scallions — This was yummy. Can never go wrong with garlic. This was my first time having fresh King crab. The meat was very tender. The crab legs were pre cracked, but be prepared to use your hands to deshell everything.
2) Crab roe in egg drop soup — The soup was very gloopy. I didn’t taste crab.
3) Crab shell with vermicelli — The noodles were okay. Nothing special.
4) Large pan fried shrimp — Overcooked. The shells were very hard to peel off. Other then that, it tasted great.
5) Beef cube stirred fried with pineapple and snow peas — Okay. Exactly what you would expect it taste like.
6) Tofu, mushroom and snow peas stir fried — The tofu was good. There was too much corn starch in the sauce, hence the sauce was gloopy.
7) Fried and sautéed fish with celery and snow peas — See a trend here? They used snow peas for 3 of the dishes. Anyway the fish was way too salty.
8) Crispy chicken — It was good, but I felt that the chicken was very small. It looked like only half a chicken.
9) Fried rice — It was okay. Had yellow raisins.
10) Desserts: orange slices and red bean and sesame Chinese mochi cakes. The mochi was delicious and very pretty. Not too sweet.
Overall I enjoyed the crab legs. Everything else was meh. There was too much msg (I drank 4 cups of water as soon as I got home). Personally I think the restaurants main draw is the their King crab. Otherwise it would be very hard for them to survive on 86^st amount competitors.

Terrible
Service lacked
Food barely warm
Order beef crêpe noodle and had to wait over 20 mins when it arrived the beef was hard and cold.
Last but not least there were roaches crawling up the way which was when we decided to leave right away
Not going to return ever.

Not a good place for dimsum! Service is horrible! So slow and staffs are so rude! Food isn’t good. And place is so small and tight, it was uncomfortable! Place is dirty everywhere. Never going there ever again!

Do not waste your money and time on this place.
When I came here the first time, service was pretty bad, the place is dirty, and the waiters are nosey and bad at their jobs. The second time, and will be the last time I’ll be coming, was worse. The food is bland and the chicken we ordered was extremely salty. The plates, utensil, and cups are also dirty. The walls and carpet are dirty. The interior design sucks. The bathroom is extremely dirty and smelly. Because their kitchen is small and staffed with incompetent chefs, food doesn’t get out in a timely manner and the food looks disappointing. Near the end, they gave us cartons to take food home, but there was a dead bug in one of them…
Seriously…stay away from this place. They promote their huge crabs and because the crabs are so huge, they are overpriced. Not worth it.

This is the worst Dim Sum restaurant I’ve ever been to. There are no system whatsoever. When it’s crowded, they do give you a number, but they also just let anyone go in and take the table when the waiters are still cleaning up. If you are seated at the lower level, no cart will ever come to you. There will be one lady that brings out the food on a tray and ask around, by the time she gets to you, there will be no food on the tray, then she goes back and get more and there still wouldn’t be any food left. You have to be aggressive here or you won’t get any food. It’s really a battle zone! We sat there for a good an hour and half and got 3 dishes of dim sum, we ended up just ordering a noodle dish from the menu. The selection of dim sum is completely lack of. They just bring you the same food, over and over again. I counted, there were maybe 7 – 8 dishes passed around the whole time. The service here is horrible too, the waiters never bother changing your plates, it took awhile to get anyone’s attention. They are outright rude and nasty. Lastly, the food is below average. I will not return, ever.

Came here for dinner on a Friday night. Place was packed, we were seated at such a small table for a big family. The waitress asked if I made reservations prior, didn’t know I needed to. The place and décor is fairly dirty with flies looming around, typical small Asian Seafood restaurant. The special was the Alaskan King Crab for $ 33 per/​lbs. Umm. what? The smallest crab they had that night weighed at least 10lbs. So, we decided to look for different types of dishes from the menu. The sliced conch with fried tofu was pretty tasty, as was their Stir fried double Lobster with garlic sauce. The the rack of baby lamb was too raw and gamey for my taste.

We went there last Saturday for a get together dinner. We pre ordered the set menu (King Crabs & Seafood) that they advertised for $ 368. The restaurant interior was kind of odd. The dishes were average. However, when the bill came they added an extra $ 80 because they claim the King Crab was 2 ½ lbs over the normal one they served. This was outrageous and a ripoff. If in fact the King Crab was a little bigger the usual, they should gave us a heads up BEFORE and not just added to the bill. So be warned !!! There are plenty good restaurants on 86^th Street. This is not the one you want to try.

Taste like caca.

We visited this restaurant with the strange sounding name last night. We somehow managed to get the last free table as most of the other tables were reserved for a party. While the décor of the place was weird, the food and service was pretty decent.
We didn’t have the Alaskan King crab this time but we were quite impressed when they brought out the live crabs for the other tables to inspect. My favorite dishes this time was a Grilled Lamb chops dish and something that involved the innards of sea cucumbers. I’m not entirely sure what our party ordered but the host was proactive in helping us balance our dishes such that there’s no overlap. For example, we had initially chosen 2 dishes that were Salt & Pepper.

It’s way worth the visit just for the live Alaskan King crab prepared 4 ways! We had ours prepared as followed: shell stirred fried with mung bean vermicelli, bodies fried with garlic ad chilis, legs steamed in egg white and wine (oh my was I in heaven!), and last but not least crab roe bisque. Even though it can be a little pricy @$ 38/​lb but you will get every single one of your dollars worth.
Other live seafoods are also offered, they are on display in the fish tanks once you step in the door. Just explain to your server how you like them prepared, they will do everything to accommodate your request. (Sorry most seafood items are not listed on the menu). For those that are not less experienced with sea creatures, ask for advice from the server. A piece of advice if you are there for the Alaskan King crab — make sure you call ahead to reserve the crab cause they do go really fast.
Other menu items we had were out shined by the King crab 4-​way but it doesn’t mean they are in anyway under scored. But fresh seafood is the king here.

This place has a poor system of maintaining satisfied customers and efficiency… if you’re seated to one of the tables downstairs good luck on ever getting fed. They keep dimsum carts (2 at most) are kept upstairs while the ladies would occasionally bring a few plates of food (that’s been left on the cart for a while so not good) downstairs just to get rid of it so they can refill their cart with a new batch of dimsum. Also the ds ladies don’t really know what their doing… one served us cilantro rice noodle and forgot all about the mandatory soy sauce. The waiters/​waitresses were not any better they were all sloopy and rude. They would be talking (very loudly) to a friend or coworker across the room WHILE takimg our order. Again, that’s a terrible system because 1) I’m not getting hot, fresh food 2) if you manage to catch one of the ds ladies make sure you ask them for other options thoroughly or you won’t see them again for another 20 mins which means your stomach will have to suffer until then… 3) rude service is a turnoff for any restaurant regardless of how casual the setting is which means waste of my tip money.
Besides poor service, there was nothing special about the food. Very very limited amount of dimsum dishes avail they only have the very basics so don’t expect anything special like taro puffs, fried durain dumplings, radish cakes etc. I always order shumai everytime we try out a new dimsum place and believe me, one shumai can tell you a lot about the rest of the food. Their shumai is barely subpar, whole thing was just fat pork, no shrimp, wrapped in a very sad and thin sheet of dough. BLEH. If you are stuck with this place because you didn’t have another choice, don’t waste your time on waiting forever for dimsum and just order stir fry noodle dishes like beef rice noodle or vermicelli. Tried a fried rice dish and it’s just sad (a few pieces of peas, egg, spam, literally 5 pieces of baby shrimp), waste of money.
Like the other review said, they seem to be only surviving because of their regular customers who are elderly men and women who mostly come in to gossip and relax for 2 – 3 hours over tea (or a glass of Henennesy in the afternoon) and a small dish to share.

I was running out of places along 86^th to try; just when you think your options have run out, another restaurant pops up. Gotta love NY.
I’ve been here for lunch a couple of times, and I have to say it is a sweet deal to order off their lunch specials menu. It’s $ 5.95 and you get a rather large entrée-​sized dish of various noodles and rice dishes. If you happen to be off on a weekday, you can share a dish with two other people and still be full.
I have had the broad noodles with beef, the fried rice with crab meat, and a few dishes of dim sum. Dim sum is rather limited on weekdays so there wasn’t much to choose from. We ordered the pork spare ribs and shrimp rice noodle. The pork spare ribs were pretty good. You’ll find that the food isn’t too salty here. I also found it to be a lot less greasy than other dim sum places.
There is truth within the other reviews: it does seem more like a place for elders to gather and chat for hours. It’s also obvious that the new owners didn’t bother upgrading the interior. I mean, what old school Chinese dim sum place is going to sport purple café lights and reflective mosaic tiles on the walls, and then have stapled plastic along the tables? Couple that with an ancient looking rug and it is faced with an identity crisis.
The KTV is really one big TV on the lower level of the restaurant. They play the China version of The Voice on it; it’s rather entertaining. I will be monopolizing that mic if I find that they play English songs on it as well.
All in all, it’s a decent place to share a slow-​paced meal over conversation. The food has the special wok taste and this is most definitely attributed to the chef’s skill level. To a particularly discerning eye, it might need some interior work, but if it isn’t broke, why fix it?

Minus out the overall features of the place the food is decent. Until my son threw up