Benvenuti, Droitwich – review by Hungry Owl
On March 10, 2024 by HungryOwlIt was a girls only night on Saturday, three of us out to have a good natter and some good food.
We pre-checked with the restaurant, Benvenuti that they we able to amend some of the dishes for my one friend who was gluten intolerant – they confirmed that they would have Gluten free Bread and Pasta available and there would be some desserts that were also compatible.
The restaurant was full when we arrived and it was very hot – we opened the window.
We ordered a bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (which I pronounced the Italian way with the ch sound) and I was corrected by the waitress that it was pronounced with the hard English C. This did irritate me as I do speak Italian.
Anyway things got worse when we started to look at the menu and started to spot the typos in the Italian words. I get some menus are adapted to the English palate hence chicken with pasta ( a big no no, almost as bad as pineapple on a pizza), but there is one recipe adaptation that should not be seen on any menu – Carbonara with cream!!!! NO! Carbonara is made with pasta, fried Guanciale or in UK Pancetta, eggs yolks, pepper, Parmigiano Reggiano and a little pasta water.
My one friend and I decided to play safe and ordered Lasagne, the waitress then advises that the gluten free pasta was Penne only and this could be cooked and the coated with any of the pasta sauces. Not exactly what we expected from the email. My gluten free friend also tried to order Bruschetta and was told that they did have gluten free bread.
The food.
Starters (for those who could eat gluten) was Arancini – this were not nice. The rice was like wallpaper paste, no seasoning and stuffed with mozzarella, the menu said that there was beef too, but we didn’t have any. The spicy tomato dip was very nice though. (£6 per portion)
Mains – Penne Bolognese for the gluten free friend and Lasagnes for the other two of us.
The Bolognese was tasteless. The pasta was a little less cooked that al dente. My friend said she would struggle to score it a 2/5 (£13)
The Lasagne was also tasteless and they was lots of bubbling watery tomato sauce, no idea where the pasta was it was so overcooked it had dissolved. The topping was a small blob in the middle of the dish. There was a small bowl of leaves on the side that had been dressed with something extremely salty. We agree the score here would be a 3/5. (£14.50)
We were just really grateful that the wine was good.
We debated risking a dessert and in the end we decided it couldn’t be any worse and to give it a go.
Friend 1 – Profiteroles – 2 small ‘cakes’ which we filled with cream and covered in a chocolate sauce.
Friend 2 – Affogato – 1 small scoop of ice cream and espresso (spelt on the menu as eXpresso) – no gluten free biscotti.
Me – Gelato con Limoncello – 2 scoops of gelato with a shot of limoncello poured over. This was actually very nice. The coconut gelato was to die for.
The desserts were all £7 and certainly not worth the money for the portion size.
We asked for the bill and then had to wait 30 mins for that to arrive. Just not acceptable.
Considering the people who have set up the restaurant were running a very highly recommended restaurant in Pershore – I was totally surprised and let down.
Will be return? No. There are too many other Italian restaurants around that serve food and offer friendly service
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