Benedettos

My wife and I TRIED to eat there, but wisely enough decided to depart. The experience started with very bad service at the bar. Being ignored for 20 minutes, followed by not having anything we wanted.
Our antennas went up instantly and we decided that they were (are) not ready for prime time. Anybody that takes short cuts like that (management) is surely not going to be allowed to mess up with my palate or gastro system.

This place is awesome! If you want a great Italian dinner and nice atmosphere for a fair price, go here. I ordered the braised short rib and it was amazing. The portions are perfect and my whole table was really impressed with the quality. I didnt try the special of the day, but my guests were raving about it. The service is top notch and they have a cool bar in the front of the restaurant which has a really chill vibe. I’ve been to a lot of Italian restaurants in Rochester and this definitely ranks among the top. I’d say Benedettos is definitely up and coming for a Rochester hot spot.

After reading the brief review of Benedettos in the City Paper, I brought a few of my friends with me to try it out Friday night. To tell the truth I try to keep my expectations relatively low in Rochester when it comes to restaurants, but I had pretty high hopes after seeing the background of the head chef in the review. I had a very positive experience with Bouchon in the Napa area last year and that only bolstered my expectations.
As you might expect based on seeing the rating I gave Benedettos, those expectations did not marry up to the reality of the food that was served and the experience overall.
We had a reservation at 8 Friday night and walked in and were greeted with no obvious place to be… greeted I guess. Kind of confusing but I walked up to the server station and we got seated upstairs. This is a spacious restaurant and on this night we were the only people in the front upstairs dining area. The lighting is very low which in our case made it a bit difficult for some people in our party to read the menu and we’re all below 30. I’m all for dark ambiance but you have to make sure your guests can read the menu to order your products.
Warm focaccia style bread came to our table relatively quickly and was eaten rapidly with their olive oil/​parmesan/​garlic mixture. The bread and accompanying olive oil mixture was pretty tasty but lacked salt which started a trend of poor seasoning that was par for the course for the rest of the evening.
I ordered for the table family style and started us off with roasted pork ribs, beef carpaccio and their caramelized broccolini. The pork ribs were visually appealing on their website and came out looking just as good but failing execution wise. They suffered from being overcooked and a bit tough with less seasoning than I would expect. The salad served with it was solid and I would be happy to order a full sized version of it. The carpaccio was cut well and tender but showed no signs of the Moroccan spice rub, shallots and horseradish that were promised on the menu. Under seasoning submarined this promising appetizer and left us disappointed. The deeply caramelized broccolini with a pleasant citrus vinaigrette used to cut through the dark roasted flavors was easily the best menu item we had all night and was a hit around our table.
Our main course was compromised of a selection of three of Benedettos pizzas; the pizza benchmark Margherita, their simply named Meat, and the Gorgonzola. The same crust was used on each of the pizzas and was universally disappointing. There was a little more chew than I would prefer and a complete lack of char. Regardless of texture, the flavor of the crust did not measure up to the positive mention in the paper. I would describe the crust as a chewy, unsalted saltine cracker which paled in comparison to some of the delectable crusts I have had from some of the better pizzerias in our area and around the country.
The toppings didn’t fare much better. The Margherita was heavy handed with the spices in the very chunky tomato sauce beneath the generic tasting cheese that covered the entire pie. Restraint is needed to put out a great Margherita and this lacked it with everything but the shards of basil sprinkled on the cheese. The only way I could think to describe the Meat was that it tasted similarly to a frozen Tony’s supreme pizza. Not exactly what you hope for in a sit down restaurant. The Gorgonzola was easily the best topping combination flavor wise (peaches, strong Gorgonzola and prosciutto) but the quantity of the cheese sauce was overpowering even though I love that flavor in general. I don’t recall there being any crispy shallots as described on the menu which would have helped to cut through the overall richness of the sauce.
For some reason, I asked to have an espresso delivered with the bill which was bitter and had no sign of crema. I’m not sure why I subjected myself to their sad excuse for «expresso» (as said by the waiter) but I guess I was hoping for some kind of redemption at the end of our meal. Admittedly, we did not try a number of the items on the menu including any of their pastas but the food we did have didn’t cut it especially considering the resume of the head chef. I’m hoping this is just a rough opening and that they can turn it around and become a good addition to the Alexander/​East restaurant area.