Really mediocre Indian food. I ordered a delivery. The order arrived on time, packaged nicely. However all the dishes lacked flavor. Aloo tiki - sharp flavor of ginger, completely soggy. Dum aloo - boiled potato slices in some nut, creamy sweet + spicy gravy. Malai kofta - the biggest disappointment. Three huge balls of minced vegetables deep fried but still uncooked and flavorless inside in sweet creamy gravy. read more

TL;DR Absolutely disgusting food. Hard, rubbery, excessive food coloring and oily AF. They have no idea what Indian food is. Ordered: Dahi kebab, paneer tikka, chicken tikka, galouti kebab, paneer makhni and garlic naan. Dahi Kebab - oily and dense. The only way to eat it was with a lot of Sriracha or it wouldn't even go down. Paneer Tikka - Rubbery paneer with poor seasoning. Had to throw it. Inedible. Galouti Kebab - excessively oily parantha and terrible kebab. So far away from a decent galouti. Had to throw this out too. Paneer Makhni - Rubbery paneer with an excessive amount of food coloring. Washed my hands over 6 times and they're still stained the next morning. Don't recommend this place at all. You're better off heading in the opposite direction. read more

We came for brunch and it was wonderful!!! I never went with an empty glass, the staff was so attentive and fun to interact with...and the bottomless is 2 hours!!! Amazing value in an amazing neighborhood. The food was delicious as well. We had the chicken kebab platter and the chicken tikka pizza. read more

Benares - Chicken kebab platter and chicken tikka pizza. - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

Such a nice spot! Food is delicious, the staff is AMAZING and the drinks are fire! I highly recommend if you looking for a chill spot where you can actually have a conversation with your group and enjoy good food. read more

Benares - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

Really bad food and they have GRADE PENDING from health department. They are hiding it behind TRIP ADVISOR sign a bad way to hide their mistake and make the customer fool. I won't go back ever. read more

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Pretty happy with this place! I have had the lunch special twice with friends and each time came away satisfied. Portions are good, and I love that they include Nan with the lunch special. They also put out delicious chips before your meal arrives and the drinks were strong. Also, the options for the lunch specials provide variety for vegetarians, meat eaters and seafood lovers alike. I would give it five stars if it weren't so dimly lit inside, and if the foyer entrance did not always have a stale smell right when you enter. But these are matters of decor and if you are happy with good food at reasonable prices then eat on! read more

I was craving Indian food on this particular night and I brought three of my vegan friends with me and we were very happy with everything! We had reservations on a Tuesday night but the place was pretty empty so it was quiet. We shared vegetable samosas which were great! I ordered my usual Chicken Tikka Masala, my other friends got a lentil dish, a cauliflower dish and I can't remember the last one but the waiter was nice when they were asking questions about vegan items. The food was delicious and the waiter was great to ask about level of spice which I often forget, and I am sensitive to spicy food so I ordered Mild. I will definitely be going back here! read more

We were introduced to their food at a friends wedding and we knew we had to find this place. The food is amazing and they have an extensive menu and great hospitality.. we took our parents and they absolutely loved it as well. We recommend the chicken tikka appetizer and the khadi goat. read more

We had high expectations but food was average. Benares Cachori was good. Daal and other vegetables was bland; when asked to spice it up, they did it but still no change. read more

This place is my go-to takeout restaurant in the city. While I wouldn't recommend Benares as an ideal sit-down restaurant, this is the place to go if you're looking for quality takeout. It's one of my top casual restaurants in Lower Manhattan and one of my favorite Indian restaurants in the area. I would recommend getting their Butter Chicken and their Andhra Chicken Curry read more

Had lunch at Benares last weekend...here are my thoughts: Ambiance was unexpectedly nice and VERY clean, which I love. The restaurant was fairly busy too, considering the downtown location and the fact it was a Sunday. Service was good for the most part. The exception was the server who delivered our daal, and who basically lied and impatiently insisted it didn't contain cream, when I was 99% sure it did. Another server confirmed the daal was NOT vegan and brought us the tadka dal on the house, which was very kind of him. (I am lactose-intolerant). Food was spicy but pretty good. I recommend ordering from the lunch special menu, which is a great value. The bhindi, pakoras, rice, and tadka dal were delicious. My husband and daughter said the chicken and naan were good too (I didn't try these). Avoid the salad appetizer which is utterly bland. Due to the spice factor and location I'm not in any rush to return. But if we happened to be in the area again I'd have no problem going back. read more

One of my new favorite Indian restaurants​ in Manhattan! Benares recently got new ownership with an experienced chef from the famous Bukhara Restaurant​ in Delhi, India. Ambiance & Service - The restaurant​ has a full bar and huge dining area for both the casual and formal lunch/dinner experience. The hostess and waiting staff were very friendly and gave their recommendations as well as suggestions based on our mood/taste. While most of the customer base comes for the traditional dine-in experience, the location near the World Trade Center makes it very convenient​ for take out orders as well. Benares even offers catering for all types of events & occasions. Food & Drink - The restaurant​ has a huge selection of popular vegetarian​ & non-vegetarian​ dishes with a unique cocktail list and full bar.​ For the appetizer, we had the chili paneer, which was spicy and tangy. Very unique and so good that I asked for another order to go. My table ordered dal makhani (chef's specialty​) and malai kofta with garlic naan. Our waiter​ even offered to spread our naan order so that it was brought out fresh as we ate our meal. I've had a lot of Indian food in both India & US and I can confidently say that Benares' cuisine​ reminds me of home cooked food with an elegant preparation​. The owners stopped by my table to ask about our experience and if there was anything they could do to make our evening better. With great customer service, large & traditional food selection, experienced chef, and unique cocktail list, my friends and I will surely be back! read more

Came here because it was close to our hotel. It wasn't the best Indian I've had but it is good for a fast dinner. We ordered the garlic naan and they took a really long time to get it out but when they finally brought it was super flavorful and delicious. We did get overcharged which was annoying but the waiter was super nice and made sure to take off the over ordered item. read more

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Stopped by here for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. They have a lunch special where you choose a salad, soup or appetizer followed by a main course. They have a standard dessert. The special is served with rice and naan. The food itself wasn't great, it wasn't bad but you can find better Indian food quite easily. The ambience of the place is quite nice. Their restrooms were a disaster quite dirty and no soap to wash your hands. Their service was pleasant and attentive. If I had the option to give them three and a half stars I probably would. I doubt I'd try this place again read more

Benares - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

Extremely rude service. Do not recommend at all. Drinks only consisted of ice, takes too long to serve food. The person serving Constantly makes terrible jokes and will make you feel uncomfortable with his statements. Never had such an experience here in any of the restaurants. read more

Came here with a group, and we had a great time! The service was extraordinary and our server, Aldi gave us great recommendations. We had a mix of vegans and meat-eaters, and all the food and drinks were delicious. read more

I want to take the time and say a few good words about this place. I ordered something through seamless and my food was dropped at the lobby instead of getting delivered to my apartment. When I called the owner and told him my concerns he explained me that it was a third party delivery company, he apologized and even took the time to text me shortly after our conversation. So please don't order from seamless but directly from their website or just call them. Ae far of the food- it was great! We got the chicken tikka masala. 10 stars! Highly recommended ! read more

Many thanks for a splendid meal. The service was the best, staff lovely and the food was great. We really enjoyed our time with you all. Thank you for making my perfect day even better." read more

Visited for dinner on a Thursday night and there was plenty of seating. Servers were friendly and attentive. We ordered khasta gobi and Papdi chat for appetizers along with some cocktails. The khasta gobi and Varanasi cocktail were delicious! For entrees we got malai kofta and garlic naan. We were pretty full by then so took most of it to go. Overall great experience, I definitely want to come back for brunch! read more

Benares - Malai kofta - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

Benares is hands down the best Indian food south of Houston. To be fair, I've only eaten in one time, but have gotten takeout well over 50 times. The prices are good, the speed is optimal and the food is top-notch. If you're ordering takeout, get the prix-fixe (a few popular options to choose from), which comes with a main, rice, a side and naan, as well as 3 chutneys to dip with. Huge portions and will be ready ~15 minutes after you order. Highly recommend for takeout and would happily sit in as well, as the restaurant is clean, fancy and quiet, plus the employees are extremely nice. read more

Benares - 1/week takeout. Very good! - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

It is a great Indian restaurant. I was with my work team for lunch when I visited here for the first time and everyone ordered from their lunch special 2-course menu. I got theirs non-veg platter with Chicken Tikka as appetizer, Andhara chicken curry as main. Others got seafood plate, 2 veg plates with different curries. Food - Chicken Tikka was delicious, chicken was soft and tasty. For lunch course menu, I only had 2 pieces of chicken tikka in appetizer. For main, andhara chicken curry came in a small bowl with 3-4 small pieces of chicken. The quantity for all appetizers and main was the same as above. We got naan bread and rice for the table. At the end, they gave everyone 2 very small rasgullas for the desserts. Service - fine and quick. Delivery - they also have delivery service which is fast as well. I have ordered from here for one of the conference lunch as everyone voted for Indian food. Everyone liked the food as they served us fresh. Could not take the pictures but will definately post some pictures when I visit next. read more

Definitely one of the best Indian places in the neighborhood. Great service and food is amazing. Order Everything.

Great lunch spot but get in by 12:30 otherwise fills up quick. A appetizer and entree for 12$. They also give you naan and some other sample of bread. At the end they gave some Fruit and What tasted like rice pudding. Very busy, great atmosphere, very good price and lots of food will be back. read more

Outstanding Service!!! Hats off to the entire group... everyone was on point. Recommend the Masala Vodka....

Food was tasty. Service was awesome. Waitstaff was very attentive and took good care of its customers. The only recommendation I have is to add or be able to accommodate gluten free options on the appetizers. I really wanted some chaat or pakoras but they both had wheat flour :,( I was hoping the business could make me some chickpea flour pakoras or a plate of Aloo Channa Chaat but it wasn't doable. read more

Went here for brunch with a friend. Staff was very friendly. Ambiance wasn't all too great, but mango mimosas were pretty good. Got the naan pizza, sauce was too sweet for my liking and it was a little soggy. My friend got the chole bhature and liked it. read more

Benares - Naan pizza, chole bhature - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

Really delicious and high quality Indian food. Nice upscale room, very clean, very pleasant service. Food is authentic.

The food and service was amazing. Shared 2 appetizers, 1 vegetarian dish with rice and garlic naan and have a lot of leftovers. Will definitely come again read more

Excellent Indian fare. Michelin quality food(think Junoon, Table) food at a much reasonable price. The Raan E Akbari & Chettinad crab were exquisite & a must try. The menu is pretty elaborate with both veg & non veg options. read more

We went to Benares after a long time and had a great experience! Food came out quick and each item was delicious!! Everything was favorable and fresh. Taking off one star since the restaurant looks a little run down now. It could use some modern decor. Also our table was right near the kitchen area and the staff was so loud banging the dishes, unacceptable for the high price experience. Staff should be more mindful or they should rearrange their table setup for better customer experience. read more

Delicious. When it comes to Indian food, I'm very picky. They do it just right. You won't regret ordering from here! Delivery is quick. My usual order: Mutter Paneer, Naan and Kheer Benares Recommendations: You should have an option for customers to add the sauces to decrease your plastic waste. Not all meals require sauces! Just a thought. Thank you! read more

If you are Indian or know Indian food well then look elsewhere. The food here was a major disappointment. We went for dinner at around 6 PM and found out the happy hour was on. So we ordered bunch of cocktails which were fine, no problem. But then we ordered our food and it was a disaster. All entrees and food literally came out in less than 5 minutes which was a red flag. No one can cook that fast unless the food is already premade and you just heat it and serve it. Paneer was typical red and super sweet creamy sauce with no flavor, Navratan Korma was full of cream and bunch of mixed veggies and Punjabi goat curry gravy literally tasted uncooked masalas. Even naans were cold to touch. Again, if you are not very familiar with Indian food then its all good because the place is nice. Customer service is on point, drinks were good and servers were really nice too. But the food is just blah! read more

Went there with a friend. The servers were friendly and very nice. Food was Ok. I did like the Kakori kebab (very soft, was good) Fish Amritsari was also good. Chicken Biryani was just average ! read more

I was quite disappointed with our meal at Benaras.... having bookmarked it for a while now, was hoping the food would be excellent, but what we had was pretty average fare. Paapri chaat: this was well done, tangy and not too spicy. Saag paneer: The most lackluster tasteless, salt-less saag paneer I've ever had. Absolutely no zing and was watery - the photo speaks for itself. Had to ask for salt to season it and some achaar (pickle) to make it palatable. Garlic naan - Terrible. Burnt on the edges, very little garlic and extremely dry. Benares team -- why so stingy? Garlic naan is supposed to be buttery and flaky. Go get some basic culinary lessons. Laal maas - lamb cooked in red gravy - the only reason this is a 3-star review as this dish had the right texture and well balanced spices. My family liked it. Dal makhani - average fare, nothing stood out in terms of the flavor, under seasoned as well. Service - strictly okay, not super warm or friendly, our server looked bored when we asked for recommendations. The worst part of the meal was that they actually charged us $3 for the pickle - which was actually store bought and tasted meh. I haven't seen any Indian restaurants charging for pickle which is practically a staple and served with every meal in every restaurant. They didn't even bother telling us there would be an extra charge for this. NOT COOL. I'll stick to Tamarind Tribeca henceforth. read more

Benares - Saag paneer: strictly average & under seasoned - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

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I'm not an expert in Indian food, but my Indian coworkers tells me Benares is one of the better more authentic places around the area for Indian food. I've always ordered the lunch prie fixe menu which comes with your choice of an appetizer and an entree from a list. The seafood and meat entrees cost about $1-2 extra. The prie fixe also comes with a basket of naan, a bowl of rice, and a bowl of Banarsi Dal, and a dessert. So much food at a decent price. Things I've ordered that I thought were delicious: Andraki Samosa - crispy and potato-filled, try it with the chutney Salmon Curry - strangely really really good, better than the chicken masala and curries in my opinion Saag Paneer - favorite dish they serve, lots of chunks of paneer and tastes great with naan Jaipuri Ghobji - this dish is a little oily Lamb Biryani - very flavorful with the saffron and rose water. could use a bit more moisture and yogurt though. Before the meal, they also give you these fried snacks and three different kind of chutneys to dip them in. My favorite is the mint chutney and the tamarind chutney. Tastes great on the samosas too. read more

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Benares gets 4 stars for food but zero for service. The food was cooked very well, nicely seasoned, not overly spicy. We ordered the tandoori chicken which was cooked right, juicy and tender. The chili paneer was very flavorful- the caramelized onions blended well with green and red peppers and paneer. The paneer was soft and cooked perfectly. The chicken tikka paneer was excellent- the tikka gravy was the right consistency with robust flavor. The naan was soft, the garlic naan had a nice kick to it. But the service...once we were finally able to get our order in and food to the table the waiters just left us. No one came to check in and ask if we needed anything. We weren't even able to flag them down- surprising bc there weren't a lot of people in the restaurant. So zero for service, food was good...but plenty of other options around the area where you can have both read more

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Their portions are great and food was delicious. Not to mention their service. Very attentive, my family and I were in town for a vacation. Wanted to get some Indian food and they did not disappoint! read more

Was excited to try out this spot, so visited for dinner on a Friday. We were a bit surprised to see the restaurant pretty much empty, even at 8:30 PM. They started us off with fryums, which were soggy (potentially been sitting outside for a while). We had to inform our server and he replaced them with crispier ones. We ordered the paneer tikka and the lamb seekh kabab for starters. The paneer tikka, when it was first served to us, looked like marinated pieces of paneer that hadn't been on the grill, as each piece lacked char. Additionally, paneer tikka is supposed to come with onions and peppers, but theirs did not. We had to send it back to be put on the grill for a bit (the picture I posted was the one after they put it on the grill for longer and brought it back). However, it lacked flavor completely - no spice, the paneer was chewy and not soft, so they agreed to take it back. The lamb seekh kabab was hard and chewy (again seemed like it had been cooked a long time ago and they simply reheated it and served it), and they had to bring us a fresh one. The 2nd version of the kabab that came out was pretty good - succulent and full of flavor. The daal Makhni, chicken curry and Lachha paratha were all really on point, and we enjoyed the rest of the meal. We wanted to order dessert but they informed us they are shutting down for the night. Overall, I believe this place has good food to offer, but we really had to push them to give us their best after they initially served us food that was sub-par in terms of quality. read more

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Once again, I've found another solid food spot in FiDi. This is my friend's go to Indian spot in the neighborhood. I was starving and when he asked if I wanted Indian food, he spoke directly to my soul. I recently became in love with Indian food. I love it so much, that I've been throwing Indian spices into everything that I cook. Lasagna? Garam Masala? DUMP. Chicken soup? Curry? DUMP. Its getting pretty bad. Because I'm still in the honey moon phase, I will say that I still have yet to decipher what is decent Indian food because I find it all amazing but here's what I liked about this place: 1. Waiters are super attentive. Three different people came by several times to refill our glasses. I was never down to the last sip. Hydration, check! 2. Portion and price. Lunch Prefix is 10.95. My friend and I shared Paneer Tikka, Malai Kofta Adraki Samosa, Baingan Bharhta, rice and a butt load of naan. For once, I begged someone to take food away from me. 3. When I pronounced the food items terribly, no one made me feel stupid. I really tried but I knew I was so off. The gentleman (who I think was the owner/manager) was extremely nice. 4. Free after-lunch treat. Tasted like rice pudding. FREEEE. 5. Once I wobbled out of the restaurant, I was in a good ass mood. Went back to work and finished the day like a CHAMP. read more

Benares - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

After hearing my coworkers and friends brag about this place for a month, I finally made time to go here today for lunch. When we arrived, the line was out the restaurant door. I was a little reluctant at first since I never have enough time on hand for lunch. However, my friend worked her charm and got us a table in less than 5 minutes. "The less people you go with, the less the wait time." Why did I not think about this ;) For lunch, you have an option to either order from the regular menu or from the lunch special. As per the Manager's reccomendation (who also happened to be our server), I decided to go with the lunch special and ordered Chicken Tikka for appetizer and Andhra Chicken for Entree. My friend ordered Koli Erachi from the appetizer section of the regular menu. I liked the presentation of my chicken tikkas, they were served with a side of salad. The chicken were very juicy and tender and marinated and spiced to perfection. When my friend's Koli Erachi arrived, the entire table next to us stared at us and were very keen to know what that was. That dish was as delicious as it looks in my picture. The gravy had delicious taste of ginger, garlic and black peppers and the malaysian paratha they served the dish with was a good combination. I was in shock when my entree from the lunch special "Andhra Chicken" arrived. I expected a small bowl of Chicken with a side of rice or naan. To my surprise, this is what all i got. Bowl of Andhra Chicken Bowl of Yellow Lentil Bowl of Basmati rice with peas Basket of Naan That was quite a lot of food for my petite self after already finishing that chicken tikka. But, everything was so delicious and I so wished I had a bigger appetite. When I could barely finish more than half of the food they had served me, my friend didn't forget to remind me that my dessert was still arriving as part of the lunch special. Phewww!!! This place is no doubt the most generous in the neighborhood. How can I say no to sugar! When the Gulab Jamun arrived, both of us so wished it was served warm. That thing was cold and hard. If you guys had Gulab Jamun before, you'll know what i am talking about. It just taste way much better warm and soft. Well, no matter how stuffed I was, I loved it and I am definitely coming back again next week for lunch. If you are reading this, please serve us warm gulab jamun next time :) read more

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