Benaras Bistro

Review: Benaras Bistro D1

Average score: 6.37

From this year forward, Friday 5th May 2023 will be forever remembered for two things: i) the 161st annual celebration of Mexico's victory over the second French Empire at the battle of Puebla in 1862 aka Cinco de Mayo; and ii) the more recent and perhaps more memorable event being the OCC Saigon's review of Benaras Bistro.

According to TripAdvisor, Beneras Bistro is a modern, up and coming restaurant serving a range of dishes from Indian street food to sweet delicacies, all made by experienced hotel staff originating from northern India. The restaraunt has recentl moved to a new location and is part of a group of several curry houses. Ranking in the top 30 restaurants in Ho Chi Minh with an impressive 346 5* ratings out of a total 396, hopes were high that this could be a challenger for 2023 Curry House of the Year (CHOTY) and rival some of the other esteemed restaurants visited in previous months. 

In what must be a first for the OCC reviewers, the restaurant had run out of poppadums, although we are not sure if that was a good or bad sign. The proceeding dishes of tikkas and prawns went down a treat, with a special call out on the breads (in particular the keema nan) which were well received and helped mop up the sauce from the delicious mains. 

By now you are probably thinking with all these 5* star reviews and a broadly positive experience from the OCC Saigon branch, that we must have made a mistake with our scoring? If not, was it due to the lack of popadoms which are an infamous part of Indian cuisine and a 'must have' as a starter for any OCC Saigon review? Well, whilst the lack of poppadums was picked up by a number of members, we think Beneras can improve on value (a warm can of tiger can costing 70k - almost double that of other restaurants, and yes we tested a few) and service - with a number of dishes that were ordered not showing up leaving some members both disappointed and hungry. 

Regrettably Benaras did not really make our top grades ON THIS OCCAISION. But don't let this put you off! the restaurant is clearly loved by some punters. Perhaps a one off in their new home and we look forward to being invited back for a second opinion during the 2024 CHOTY season.  Tell us what me missed and we we should go back!

-- Full scorecard:

Quality: 7.33

Service: 6.00

Customer Care: 6.83

Value: 5.5

Atmosphere: 6.16

Overall: 6.37