The pizza is decent NYC pizza. Nothing I'd rave over, but if I want a slice, I have no problem coming here. The garlic knots are meh though.

The best thing about this place is the 2 slices and soda for 5 bucks. Pizza quality is horrible and flimsy and it only taste good when you have a few cocktails and nothing else is open. The staff behind the counter can be rude but this is New York City. They definitely need a course in customer service. read more

I'm sure pizza places are a dime a dozen in New York, so this review is for everyone who is willing to make pizza night a good one. If you're craving pizza, you should order the best pizza possible to satisfy your craving. There is nothing like being disappointed when trying to satisfy a craving. I found the pizza to be underwhelming. A small half cheese, half pepperoni was nothing special and did not stand out in any way. The pizza came with fake cheese, red pepper flakes, garlic salt, and oregano in little containers as toppings. Maybe they should put the ingredients in the sauce for more flavor instead of offering them as separate toppings - you should make the pizza taste good first and foremost. If you need carbs after a night of drinking this pizza will do just fine since it's likely you won't taste it anyway. If sober I would highly recommend any other pizza place in the area - choose wisely. read more

This used to be our local pizza joint, until... During Hurricane Sandy, they doubled the price of their pies since they were the only place open! Not cool, Cucina Bene. My friends and I will be boycotting them form now on, and I suggest you do the same. read more

In a nutshell: Slow service. Bad service. Food is nothing special They are very "I don't care that you're waiting" attitude. Seem more annoyed of having fulfill my order. I had to wait for my pickup order but i was 15 minutes early, but its what i experienced during the wait that make me give it a 2 star. Customer was trying to get someones attention at the counter, and no one even looked at him, two employees were having a conversation just 4 ft from him and they just ignored him until their conversation was over. Even when customers are being polite and smiling, it was just stone cold, busy with their own side conversations, and no response to customers' "thank you" as they walk out. Food is typical NYC pizza joint, maybe on the little better side, but really nothing special. The food wasn't horrible so I didn't give this a 1 star. read more

Average pizza place in a below-average foodie area. Downtown / FiDi has few good food affordable lunch options, especially if you are trying to avoid Subway and food carts (I like food carts, but eating from them too often just feels too unhealthy). Cucina Bene offers averages slices of pizza, so it's a welcome option, when craving pizza. While they are not gourmet and don't offer Grandma's slices, they do have white pizzas (the tomato-less kind with ricotta cheese). read more

Good for a quick slice if in the neighborhood, but nothing to write home about. The plain cheese is what you'd expect, nothing more nothing less. Similar to the type of pizza place everyone's hometown had growing up. I had a specialty slice, which was much better. read more

Tonight I had some eggplant and spaghetti. The whole meal was drenched in oil. The eggplant was very greasy and fried in something with more of a batter consistency. The sauce tasted like it came out of a jar. Not great food. read more

Best pizza in Wall Street clean and tasty) I tried just cheese pizza I will came back for another one) read more

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The workers are completely rude and disrespectful. They do not honor the loyalty of their customers and I WILL NEVER be going back to this spot. I used to go every weekend late night for a slice of pizza due to convenience but after my latest visit on my friends birthday, they were so demeaning about what we actually ordered and what we were being charged for and pulled other customers into our argument. HORRIBLE- I hope they close! read more

I'm on a slow mission to try every pizza place south of Canal Street, which means popping into a number of generally undistinguished slice joints in random corners of the Financial District. Cucina Bene - good kitchen - is one of them. I doubt many other people who come here work or live more than two blocks away. It's a neighborhood slice place, where the primary virtue is that the pizza will come straight out of the oven. Service isn't really a defining characteristic of places like this, but I wasn't terrible fond of how one employee gruffly told a group of people to move after he felt they were blocking part of an aisle. The restaurant has been strangely laid out so you have to retrieve drinks from a cooler way down the hallway by the bathroom. My plain slice was still hot - it was cut right from a brand new pizza - and didn't need to be reheated. They proudly use "grande" cheese, which I'm not really familiar with but was very nice and stringy when eaten. There's also a functioning bathroom, so I didn't have to brave the J train with a full Diet Snapple in my bladder. When it comes to reviewing places like this, small victories are worth noting, and there are couple to be had here. read more

Great pizza place! It's a little hard to locate, but it's worth it. Lots of variety of pizza at a good price. Get the mozzarella pizza, it's a classic and the cheese is fresh and delicious with the sauce cutting through. The crust is perfectly crispy. The waiters were also very considerate even though my mom changed her mind a billion times of what pizza to get. read more

Cucina Bene - The fresh mozzarella pizz - Pizza Near Me - New York, New York

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One of the worst Italian meals I ever had in my life. Ordered my dinner online and asked for two very, very simple dishes: lentil soup and spaghetti with tomato sauce. These two are probably the easiest things in the world to cook. Honestly, the only reason I ordered online was my own laziness at 10pm. What a mistake. Delivery time was actually fine but then I opened the bag... This was the FIRST TIME EVER in my life that I threw a meal without tasting it. I felt bad, maybe a little ashamed, but I had no other option. It was my own well-begin and my upcoming sleep on the line. Plus, I didn't have any ginger tea at home to wash the oil down. The simplest dish in the entire world (spaghetti with tomato sauce) was covered by a thick, pizza like cheese covering the entire thing and dripping loads of oil down on the pasta. In the menu they don't even mention that there is any kind of cheese on the spaghetti and certainly not a mountain of melting cheese. I tried pilling the cheese off, a task which appeared impossible. The lentil soup had no evident taste-particles of lentil in it. It had no taste, tons of oil, really simply disgusting. I know, it's difficult to find good restaurants in the financial district area. It's even harder to find decent restaurants with decent prices. However, Cucina Bene, shouldn't be one of them. the ONLY thing Italian about this restaurant is its name. read more

I just went in to get a basic house salad with grilled chicken. After waiting for 5 minutes I received a small pizza box with the instructions "be careful". I did my best to keep the box at perfect level to the horizon as I walked 3 blocks back to my office. After stepping off the curb my entire leg was soaked with salad dressing. Hopefully eating it would be a better experience than my embarrassment for having crap pants for the rest of the day. So much for having ruined not only my pants (I hope the stains come out) but my appetite. The salad was floating in salad dressing F.L.O.A.T.I.N.G. Don't discount the amount that was already on my pants and all over wall street. The pizza box, the included napkins and utensils, now my cubical is a greasy mess. You might be saying oh you had a bad day. Why yes reader I had a bad day and just to state for the record the salad was gross and the chicken had no taste and barely looked grilled. The office vending machine is looking good to me now - bon appetit read more

Really good pizza, but as well, for some reason this is the closest I've come to being in Manhattan but feeling like I was back in Rome. I don't even know if the owner is Italian, and I'm not sure what does it exactly - the food, the staff, the color scheme, the tables, the football (meaning soccer) on the television, the fact that it's off a small, dingy cobblestone street, or a combination of all of the above - whatever, it's somewhat nostalgic, which makes the food taste even better. And there's an older gentleman in there who always waves hello and goodbye (the owner? who knows). read more

What a slice. I order a small pizza with pepperoni and told them to really cook the crust hard. JEEZUS the thing was huge when it arrived and had that perfect crunch crust when folded. You always fold a slice what are you some kind of animal?!? This pizza took me back to my child hood in Brooklyn it was that freakin' good. I wouldn't suggest going there because the staff is kind of rude and I wouldn't order anything but the pizza but what great pizza it is. read more

The meatball calzone was awful, the sauce they send with it tastes like old jar sauce and the pizza was so thin it kept flopping and you couldn't get a good bite unless you held it with both hands. Won't be ordering again. read more

Average. Food was decent. The staff is a bit strange. They tend to shout when speaking for all transactions. The plus is they are open on Sundays. read more

Best tasty deal around!! 2 cheese slices plus soda for $4.99. Slices were tasty and big, being the financial district there is not too much what you can buy for 5 bucks. If you are in a rush but hungry, this is your place. Doesn't get 5 stars because is a tiny place and it barely accommodates 20 people but maybe that's how they can afford to give this deal. read more

It's a good pizza, but nothing extraordinary. Affordable. $3.75 for veggie or chicken slice. My first pizza here was deserving 5 stars. Second one - maybe 4 stars. I would never rate place based on service but in this case let me just say that this place is not particulary friendly. read more

I and other fellow NYers really enjoy this pizza. It's not amazing, but it is indeed really good. They have a lunch special: two slices and a soda for $5. Otherwise a slice of cheese is $2.50. The downside? The slices are well sized but I expect a bit bigger. Will definitely come back often. Partly because it is good, partly because I live next door. read more

I was walking down to Battery Park the other day and decided that I had suffered the arctic winds long enough. Pizza was in order. Squished into this small place with a handful of construction workers and FiDi types for a few slices at my first NYC pizza experience, one spinach and one eggplant. Both slices were on the unexceptional side of adequate. Nothing remarkable about either slice (of the cheese and sausage slices I also tried) but nothing offensive either. The guy called me "Hon" after fumbling my spinach slice onto his chest while plopping it into the oven, I'll chalk that up to special seasonings. They also offer a variety of Turkish items and some pastas, their card says the name "Lahmacum," which means pizza in Turkish, but they're also listed as Exchange Pizza. 2.5 stars for cheap basic NY style slices, a suitable option amongst the more expensive business lunch places. read more

Adequate pizza in an otherwise pizza-starved area of town. It's not great but they're open on Sundays, which is huge down here. The stuffed pizza is an enormous amount of food for the price and probably the best thing on the menu. The staff are really sweet, for what it's worth, and they do seem to put a lot of love into their pies. Sadly, sometimes love is not enough. You can definitely get pizza that's a million times better in almost any other New York neighborhood, but down here during the weekend, this might have to suffice. read more

I enjoyed the white slice. It had the right amount of cheese, ricotta and dough ratio. It was not greasy and taking that first bite was divine. Crispy thin and extremely flavorful. There was not much options on a Sunday night so I was pleased with what I had chosen. It's more of a dive pizza joint then a restaurant. A few chair and tables with a abundance of seasonings to use:) I would revisit if I'm ever around the area! read more

Cucina Bene - White slice - Pizza Near Me - New York, New York

This is the best pizza in the financial district for take out. Period. They use quality ingredients imported from Italy and the food is made to order. I've been ordering from here for 4 years and with the exception of Adrienne's no one makes a better pizza. The pasta dishes and heroes are exceptional as well. I definitely recommend that you at least try their lasagna or their meatball hero. You will not be disappointed. read more

Pizza is sub-par, not your typical "new york pizza" flavor. Also extremely thin for the higher price, like they are trying to be cheap on the dough!! Rude on the phone, i was confused when they didn't take my name for a delivery order read more

I've lived in NYC for the past year and in that time, Cucina Bene has become my go-to spot. Sure, Grimaldi's and Joe's and Prince Street and John's and all those other places are great and may have a technically better product, but Cucina Bene holds its own and is incredibly convenient. The plain slices are as classic NYC as you can get, thinner than almost anything else I've been able to find anywhere. read more

Decent pizza, not fantastic or anything to write home about. The slices were thin but still had an ok taste and the time to cook a plain pie was under 10 minutes. If you're in a rush and hungry then drop by for a slice, otherwise I'd look for a better spot. read more

Solely based on service. First visit here and full transparency, while waiting for my food I thought everything looked decent I should come back with a friend. This was until one worker was incredibly rude and unhelpful. If this doesn't bother you, then yes, the food looks decent. But with so many good pizza options downtown, I will no longer support this business and their lack of customer courtesy. read more

Best heroes hands down. I've never been to the actual restaurant, but I have gotten delivery on several occasions. Food always comes hot. I even opted to try the chicken soup today which also was excellent. Delivery is always fast and the people I have dealt with are usually very nice. If you go - get the meatball hero, you will not be disappointed read more

Great pizza made by some gruff New Yorkers. You can get both a quintessential experience and a quality slice when in the city. Downside: the exterior is currently under construction and so the location is extremely difficult to find unless you already know where it is. Restroom cleanliness could use some work. read more

Moved to FIDI in the spring and one of my biggest fears was that there was going to be an inadequate amount of good, cheap, late night/weekend slice options. Luckily this place is on the block. Since the spring, I have put down a couple dozen plain pies from This fantastic spot. I love it. It's exactly how I like my regular plain slices. I don't need frills, I don't do toppings, I don't think I have tried anything else on the menu. So my review is purely based on the slice. I am very stingy with 5 stars when it comes to pizza, but this place earns them time and time again. Now all i need to do is learn how to moderate how many times a week I bring a plain pie home from here The slice is floppy, there is just enough grease and the pie is like 15 or 16 bucks. I don't go for the ambiance, but as far as your everyday place to walk in and bang down a slice and soda and hang in shop for 15 minutes, it's above par. read more

Like other reviewers said, this pizza is good, especially considering lack of selection in the area and that they're open on Sundays while just about everything else is closed. Also, as earlier mentioned, the staff seems cool--they were watching some soccer on TV when I was there. I'll definitely hit it again. read more

Love this place! Pizza is good, but the pasta is delicious! Their tomato sauce is as good as a family owned Italian restaurant I used to frequent. They are super fast to deliver if you live in the area! Definitely would recommend for an easy dinner :) read more

Mamma Mia! I guess this explains it all. The best and fresh pizza in NYC, not commercial and real homemade pizza. The owner Mufasa was very friendly and provided great service. Thank you! read more

Urinal stench at the front door should have been my queue! Staff is ghetto, sloppy looking, and rude to customers. I ordered a slice of pizza and it was bland, small and very thin for $5 bucks! Nasty and rip off! read more

Best pizza in FiDi, period. I haven't lived in the area in almost 5 years now and I still miss the Cucina Bene slice. No bells and whistles at this hole in the wall, but great quality thin crust pizza. Classic, no-grills NYC Italian. read more

Three stars for my test, nothing special was expecting something better. Would not recommend unless you need quick food that tastes like a chain shop pizza and will not go back. read more

Cucina Bene - Pizza Near Me - New York, New York

Thieves! They're going to charge 2.75 a slice for sub par pizza in manhattan then try to steal $15 from me claiming I gave them a $5 bill when I gave them a $20 bill?! Seriously?! Go elsewhere. There's another spot justinos around the corner. Don't give these losers your business.... read more

This is some of the best pizza I've ever had. It's the second best in NYC (took forever to find) in my opinion. It is a bit pricey but the pizzas are huge and delicious. I find that NYC pizzas lack flavor in basic cheese pizza but this place has it DOWN! So good. Everything else is basic and minimum, don't get the salads and such, the garlic knots are pretty good but not the best. JUST GET THE PIZZA. Worth it. Promise. read more