Benny’s Burritos

CLOSED!!! WTF???
Oh Benny I’ve been going to your establishment since college I was so sad to walk up to your door this evening with my hubby only to find you closed forever with the exception of a small part of you that’s turned into a takeout place
I’m going to miss your funk and your velvet paintings and chicken mole olé.

Ok, so points for the 20 minute delivery. Beyond that… Food was just woefully overpriced for the quality. Burritos had way too much of this Taco Bell rice, and the little bit of beans that were piled on top tasted more like chili. The salsa and guacamole came on the side so I had to unwrap it and then it was putting toothpaste back in the tube to get it back together. Ended up just getting a fork and plate. The browned and bland guacamole came in stingy portions (which was fine because I couldn’t eat it anyway) with flavorless chips. There are just so many better, cheaper options for burritos in the east village that I can’t justify paying for this again…

Good but nothing to write home about.

This review is long overdue as I’ve been coming to this place for a while now. They are very generous with the food portions and I never leave there dissatified with the food.
I absolutely love margaritas– as they are my Go-​To drinks. I gave this review four stars because last couple of times I’ve been there, the margaritas were a hit-​and-​miss situation. Your margarita comes out good depending on who’s behind the bar.
But still, it wont stop me from returning. Just hoping they get the margarita situation straightened out:)

Awesome deals on margaritas! The scene is a little grungey but you get what you pay for…

Arrived for dinner before a show. We were seated and given menus. We waited almost 10 minutes for someone to take our order. When they arrived they just stood there and did not greet us. I had to raise my eyebrows and look them in the eye for them to look embarrassed and ask «are you ready?»
We ordered a mango margarita, chicken burrito, shrimp tacos. It was not busy for a Thursday night around 730 so our order came out quickly. They allowed us to taste various hot/​spicy sauces to select one for our meal. These come on the SIDE not in your dish and depending on what you order you may use a lot of the portion they give you, to the point you may run out before you are done with your meal.
The food was good, the margarita was as well. We had no issues with service and were out of there in time to get to our show. There are NO free chips or salsa like at the West Village location (if there were they did not give us any). The menu here is also different than the menu in other locations (i.e. W. Village has chorizo they do not).
They seem to deliver, so that must be nice for locals. There were 2 delivery people working the night we were there. They seem to have a good happy hour crowd with a stand alone bar, something the W. Village location does NOT have.
It is wheelchair accessible, but the door is very VERY heavy and you must pull it towards you, not push. The door also sticks and if you have even any bit of a muscle ache (as my partner did after a hike later that week), it will exacerbate your issue. If you are using a cane, wheelchair, or walker, you’ll need someone to open this door for you. There is another door on the side of the restaurant on 7^th St that cuts between the seating area. This is also wheelchair accessible, but I’m not sure how heavy the door is. We did not use bathrooms.

Just solely based on their happy hour (10-​midnight) and bar service.
Came in here for drinks after getting a delicious meal at Somtum Der.
Super chill vibe, bartender was nice and attentive. Between my roommate and I we ordered 3 margaritas! And our bill total was $ 16! I’ve ordered shots that were that expensive! The drinks were strong and good, definitely worth it! My roommate gave a thumbs up to the bartender when he asked if she wanted another drink, and he assumed she wanted another, but to her the thumbs up meant she was good, haha so we continued our conversation and I noticed another drink next to her empty glass, he was kind enough to not charge us for the spare margarita.

I love Benny’s. So much. They have great vegan options. I really enjoy being the kind of full-​fledged slob that brings shame to my family name while eating the vegan «cheese» and «beef» burrito with guacamole and vegan sour cream. Their happy hour will indeed make you very happy (if you’re that kind of drunk. I am) as the prices are some of the lowest in the ‘hood. Parents: stop bringing your kids here. It prevents me from getting as drunk as I want.

Great place! The margaritas are really good and we got their nachos which are awesome. If I hadn’t been full at the time I definitely could have eaten that whole plate. I like the atmosphere, too; it’s fun and not overly noisy or anything. Good place to go if you’re wandering Alphabet City :)

I can not even begin to begin my utter disgust for this place.
This is our neighborhood Mexican place and ate here all of the time, more out of convenience then really anything else (the food is nothing that spectacular). We had a few issues with the food we ordered not coming when it was delivered and a few bad waitresses but we kept giving them a shot.
Last week we went to the restaurant for dinner. We had a horrible waitress who basically ignored us the moment our food arrived. We paid and left and that was that.
The next day we discovered that i had someone else’s credit card. I spent all day on the phone with the bank dealing with fraud charges on our account, and ended up having to cancel our card that day… on a Sunday, when no banks are open. When i went to speak with the manager to let her know what the waitress had done she was horrible rude to us. She accused us of lying and never apologized about the situation. She even went so far as to laugh in our face.
I am disgusted that this is the way these people treat their customers. After all of the money we spent at this place you would think they would have shown us some respect. We will never eat here again and I suggest you all do the same.

Whenever I’ve walked by Benny’s, I noticed that it’s always packed with a line of people waiting to be seated. After dining here, I’ve come to realize that this is probably it’s backed up, not just busy.
We were seated rather quickly and given menus, however it was about 15 – 20 minutes before our waitress showed up to take the order. Ok, maybe she was busy.
30 minutes later, she brings our food… then our drinks (you would think a Mexican restaurant could whip up a few margaritas in less than ½ hour, right?)
By the way, it was another 15 minutes before she brought us utensils to eat with. The service was absolutely horrible — I understand if you’re busy, but at least be around to tell us our order is coming out or there’s a delay of some sort.
Will definitely never go here again.
P. S. The food was most certainly NOT worth the wait.

4 stars for the yummy $ 6 strawberry margarita! Or was it $ 5? I remember adding flavor was an extra dollar — my lack of memory attests to the strength of this margarita.
Guac and chips were delicious. The only caveat was that the server charged us for two sangrias we didn’t order. It took a bit of a dialogue before he agreed to change it.
I love the décor, although since we were at the table right behind the beaded curtain, it always appeared that the hostess was eavesdropping on our conversations whenever she leaned in to look around. Thankfully, I am sure the hostess has better things to do than to listen to our tipsy banter.
Will come again to try some of their other food, and of course, another margarita!

I’ve been to this location twice before. It realyl does feel like I’m in Mexico with the out-​of-​date décor.
Our waitress was nice and patient as I didn’t realize this location has totally different owners from the Benny’s in the West Village therefore having a different menu.
Since it was during happy hour, the margs were half price and tasted like a typical cheapy marg… which I love.
The food tasted fine. I would not recommend this spot for a true Mexican food lover — it’s really Americanized. But Benny’s is a great spot for a quick lunch or dinner before going about your day.
Side note: no chips! Any Mexican food place that does not serve chips and salsa pre-​meal is pretty lame.

I came here for the first time to get a late lunch/​early dinner on a Sunday. Since I was alone, I sat at the bar, which seemed to annoy the bartender.
I ordered the chicken chimichanga, which was terrific, and a Dos XX Lager draft, which was stale. The food arrived quickly.
After I finished both my food and my beer, my dishes sat empty in front of me for over ten minutes. No one came to check on me even though I was in plain view of all the employees. Finally, a busser offered to take them and I had to ask him for the check.
The servers seemed to be focusing on their sidework and not their customers. The reason it is called «sidework» is because it is done on the side when guests don’t require the servers’ attention. The workers here seem to have it backwards.
The food is really good, and worth a visit. The service is a easy fix for management. The servers simply need to be trained to pay attention to the customers. If they can’t do that, then management simply needs to get new servers.

Looking for Mexican food that’s at least halfway decent? Keep looking!
I went here last night in search of something quick, tasty, and somewhat filling to eat. It was going to be Falafel at the place next door, but I decided against that when I saw them put a huge block of frozen and seemingly processed meat onto the rotating spit. If that was any indication of the quality of food there, I wasn’t interested.
Benny’s seemed like a safer bet, so i went in to their take out counter to place my order.
I told the guy I wanted the Soy Beef Tacos with Vegan Cheese. He asked which beans and I told him dealer’s choice. He told me it would be 5 to 10 minutes and that seemed cool. I was ready to eat.
The tacos came out in about 10 minutes and I asked the different guy that handed them to me if it was the Soy Beef Tacos with Vegan Cheese and he checked the ticket and saw it had real cheese on it. Really? That was especially annoying when I had stressed that I wanted vegan cheese to the guy taking my order. After another 2 – 5 minutes or so, I had my order.
I opened up the foil to find two tacos that more closely resembled little quesadillas (quesaditos?), a little pile of rice, lettuce, black beans, and pico. The ~$ 10 seemed pretty fair for that amount of food and after checking to see if they indeed used daiya and soy beef, I was ready to dig in.
As I picked up the first taco, the soft corn tortilla immediately gave way and fell apart. There was no way to pick this thing up. I bit in and there was absolutely no flavor. There was absolutely no seasoning on the Soy Beef. In an effort to improve the taste I thought I would add the pico and lettuce. Unfortunately the pico was also unseasoned and actually not even pico, it was just plain diced tomatoes. Also, by this time both tacos were already in pieces in the aluminum to-​go container. I just decided to mix the whole thing up and try it as a bowl.
The beans were probably the tastiest but they didn’t seem super fresh and the rice was also completely unseasoned.
I will never go back here.

Had a great experience with take-​out here.
Great menu selection and yummy food. I love that they have vegan options — they offer soy beef & soy cheese! I ordered shrimp tacos and a soy beef burrito. Both were really good. The shrimp was really delicious and well-​prepared (believe it or not, a lot of places screw up the shrimp texture/​flavor).
The inside is cute with a kitschy vibe — lava lamps and beaded curtains.
I’d totally come back here to eat-​in, there’s a bar and a decent amount of seats.

The food here is mediocre. I’ve had waaaay better Mexican food than this. I ordered the shrimp with rice and black bean platter which was bland and nothing really special. However, their happy hour runs all night, so I was able to purchase a $ 3 margarita at 1 am which was absolutely delightful!

Can’t comment on the food, but the happy hour is solid! HH runs after 10pm as well which is a huge plus and it includes margaritas, beers, and their marg/​beer fusion drink the bull dog. They also have nice chill seating around the outside of the restaurant.
–1 star for not offering free chips and salsa. wtf!

As far from authentic Mexican food as it gets. I was searching for Mexican food, it was a cold dreary night and Benny’s Burritos was the only thing in sight. It looked pretty crowded, so I thought how bad could it be? I was not expecting anything amazing but OMG what a letdown!
From the gross décor to the cold and tasteless generic crappy food, this place is in desperate need of a makeover! Starting from the kitchen, it needs a complete menu change. Nothing was good, not even OK! I’ve never NOT finished a burrito in my life, so sad! I don’t understand the colorful light bulbs all over the restaurant and the ugly tables. I hate to be so tough on this place but it does have potential. Such a waste of valuable space. This reminds me of one of those places you could see on shows like ‘Kitchen Nightmares’. It needs a complete transformation.
Whoever runs this place needs to visit a few good Mexican spots in the city for ideas, or maybe just restaurants in general? They don’t even chop up the quesadilla into pretty little triangles. They just give it to you as is and it looks like a ginormous soft taco on your plate. WTF? Seriously? Did the chef fall asleep and not finish the job? Skip this place. Never going back.

There is some good and some not so great about ol’ Benny’s here.
Friday night by 6:30 p.m. Packed in like sardines already, but that’s to be expected. A table for 6 already ran a 45 minute wait time! As a friend and I crowded in at the bar, selfishly stealing our seats and holding onto them for dear life as long as we could, we got some margaritas at good Happy Hour prices. I just needed a small frozen Sangria Margarita to take the sting of a long work week away from me, and it hit the spot, at only $ 4 to boot!
Once we got to our tables, we sat. We drank. We ordered. We got our food. Unfortunately, some of our orders got screwed up. A friend asked for no cheese on their tacos. His tacos came loaded with cheese. A matter of just scrapping it off, yes, but still. When our check came, all of the small margaritas were listed as medium margaritas, adding an unwanted $ 20 to our final bill. (Good thing, one, we read our checks in depth. Two, we were all lucid enough to recognize billing mistakes. Ha!) It was all remedied, but none of us were too pleased, needless to say.
As for the burrito… well, it was fine. I got the spinach burrito, as I did not feel like spending more than $ 11 for any other one on the menu. It was a good foot long. The ends were not rolled up. The filling was relatively scant, which, I didn’t mind! I hate horribly overstuffed fetus-​sized burritos. The burrito itself was quite flavorful, thank goodness. But… where was the cheese?! I like my rice, beans, and spinach entangled in a mass of hot, greasy, viscous, cheddar-​y goo. I… found none. The menu stated cheese in my precious burrito. I was looking forward to it. Immensely.
Boooo.
Honestly, I think I had more fun with my company while pounding back margaritas to celebrate National Margarita Day (…whatever that REALLY is…) than eating. The drinks? Great. The environment? Festive and joy-​inducing? The food? Passable, but nothing I’d ever travel just to Alphabet City to ever eat again.