"My family had a very nice birthday dinner celebration for our most recent visit to Benucci's. We made reservations a day or so before and were seated within 5 minutes of arriving. Our waitress was attentive and took our drink orders immediately, though the restaurant was a bit busy at first and it took a minute before we got our drinks and basket of bread. We had the sangria (photo 2 and it was great, on the sweeter side, but definitely one of the better restaurant-sangrias! For appetizers we had the fried artichokes (not pictured , fried calamari, and the bruschetta board (photos 3-4, respectively . The fried starters were cooked well and not too oily like some other places; the artichokes came with a delicious garlic aioli, but the calamari came with a horseradish sauce that we didn't like so we asked for marinara and preferred that instead. The bruschetta was great as well and the only thing left was the wooden board once we were finished with it. I appreciated Benucci's detailed menu as each dish was accurately represented with seasonings and sauce compositions. For dinner we had: pollo formaggio (not pictured , eggplant parmesan, shrimp scampi, pasta ravioli with grilled shrimp, and chicken limon (photos 5-8, respectively . One notable aspect of the dishes is the spoon that came with stringy pasta, which is appreciated as it makes twirling with a fork much easier. On top of that, everything was absolutely delicious and each dish was seasoned well, having an ample amount of sauce and protein. Everyone in our group either cleaned their plate at the table, or took the rest of the dish home to eat later! For those of us that still had space for dessert, we each enjoyed espresso to drink and tiramisu, creme brulee with raspberry, and italian chocolate cake to share for dessert (photos 9-12, respectively . The lemon peel that came with the espresso was a nice touch; I would recommend rubbing it on the rim of the cup where you sip from for an interesting flavor! Benucci's has an interesting take on tiramisu (still tasty! in that it is more like a pie/cake with a chocolate crust bottom, covered with the mascarpone creme filling and ladyfinger layers. The creme brulee was great with the sweet raspberry sauce though it was not the most intense vanilla flavor (there were no vanilla bean flakes in the creme . The chocolate cake was good, I don't normally enjoy cake but this one was moist with a smooth/rich chocolate flavor. Our group agreed that you can't go wrong with any one of these as your choice for dessert! All in all we had a great experience that came from the good service, great food, and fun atmosphere giving us a birthday dinner celebration to remember! I would definitely recommend Benucci's to anyone looking for a place to have a nice date-night, or dinner celebration!"
