Katie Flaherty

What happened to the old Benchmark? I recommended this place for dinner with out of town family and was embarrassed when all aspects of this once great neighborhood gem were gone. We went on a rainy Saturday night, and the restaurant was not very full. The house made liquors like “vodka”, “bourbon”, and “tequila” were nothing like the real thing, and in each of these drinks the levels of alcohol were wildly different. The mojito was undrinkable. It just tasted like mint and “alcohol”. We laughed it off as an experiment, got a bottle of wine, and left our cocktails unfinished. They had run out of branzino so were substituting cod, but kept the branzino price which always gets an eyebrow raise from me. The vegetarian entree, which has been quite good in the past, was not. The veggies were bland and under seasoned, the sauce didn’t pair well with it, and there were uncooked seeds left in the squash. The blacken pork tenderloin was good, but I used to rave about the food at Benchmark, and it’s just not there anymore. The services was also surprisingly off. Once we ordered drinks, we waited a very long time to get our cocktails, then another long wait for the bottle of wine, and our water glasses went unfilled for long stretches. The dining room was never full even when a few more tables were sat. It took 2.5 hours for six of us to dine there, and we all only had 1 entree course. No starters or dessert. We were so underwhelmed by the experience we went somewhere else for dessert. On our way out we passed our server and another employee who were talking to each other right next to the exit and didn’t acknowledge us with a bye or goodnight or anything. I loved this place but now I’m taking it off my list.