Ben Ben Restaurant

Service is mediocre (today my husband was scolded for showing up on time to pick up a take-​out order!) and there was a piece of pork in my vegetable dish. Also, his vegetarian spring rolls appeared to contain meat. My dish was fine aside from the pork (I am a vegetarian) and my husband didn’t enjoy his. We won’t be running back.

I had lunch here with my parents recently. Overall we thought it was OK.
We had the Hunan Dumplings ($ 8.95), Fried Noodles Cantonese Style ($ 10.95), Sizzling Beef with Ginger and Onions ($ 13.95) and a bowl of steamed rice ($ 4.45).
The Hunan Dumplings were OK, but I prefer the ones at Rice Pea. You do get more of them at Ben Ben though, I counted 19 dumplings to our order. The dumplings appeared to be boiled wontons with ground pork filling. The sauce was very spicy and tasted more of chili peppers than peanut butter (the sauce at Rice Pea is the other way around).
The Cantonese fried noodles were good but a little too oily for my tastes. Lots of mid-​sized shrimps, chicken, beef and BBQ pork. No mushrooms though :(The veggies were mostly celery and onions. There were some carrots and broccoli but not much. The gravy had a nice flavour to it and wasn’t too salty.
The Sizzling Beef had a lot of beef in it but the beef was rather chewy. It was soft yet chewy, very odd. They use fresh ginger and the ginger was mild so it did not overpower the dish. The onions were a mix of regular onions and green onions.
The rice was huge. We had forgot to order rice so after the server brought out our food she asked if we wanted steamed rice, we said yes and silly us did not specify the size, so she brought us the big one. A small serving I believe is just $ 1.45, but ours was $ 4.45. My mom regretted not paying a few dollars more for a fried rice instead.
Service was very good. There was just one lady serving the entire restaurant so she was very busy but she was pleasant.
The décor is typical of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, very utilitarian with minimal decorations. The dining area is clean, but the washrooms are less so.
They have lunch specials from 11am to 3pm everyday including weekends. You get an entrée and your choice of a spring roll, wonton soup or hot and sour soup. It’s a good deal if you’re dining solo or don’t want to share dishes.
Street parking only.
There is currently construction at the front of the building where the restaurant is so it sort of looks closed, but they are open during the construction.

It’s great to finally get fresh and authentic Chinese food that is a big step above the fast food variety. Fresh vegetables, sizzling food and homemade iced tea is a real treat. Apparently one of Stephen Harper’s favorite places to use his government credit card. The servers are hilarious and friendly although the service can be a bit slow. The food is worth the wait.

Talk about value! My plate of Cantonese Style Friend Noodles was overflowing for less than $ 15 with tax & tip. Food is good quality, contains all the aspects of the dish and done well.
Not sure why there’s hate on the service — my waitress brought me tea without asking and packed up my leftovers (which you will have) when I was done. Sure, the décor/​overall feel of the place isn’t great, but I couldn’t find anywhere that beats this place in the area. Give it a try!

I can’t understand how there are so many negative reviews. I have been coming here for years and the both the service and the food is always excellent. Some of our favourite dishes are hot and sour soup, stuff eggplant, hunan veggies and that general tso’s, which is legendary. Its unlike any I have had anywhere else and I have simply stopped ordering at at other places because they always pale in comparison.

I hadn’t been to this restaurant in at least ten years. This used to be one of my favourite lunch places, until I moved out of the area.
Now that I’m back in the area it was time to see if it had remained the same!
It has!
The hot and sour soup is how I remember it. It actually had flavour instead of just being over salty and bland. The spring roll was crispy and the sauce that came with it was delicious.
The other dishes we ordered were also really tasty.
The portions were huge. There was enough left over to make a filling lunch for tomorrow. I love leftover Chinese food! There aren’t to many places that full me up and then send me home with food.
The food here is a little different from your typical Americanized Chinese food. It feels more «homemade» somehow.
The dinner for two (B) was about 45 dollars after tax and tip. This felt like a really good value.
They have lunch specials that run in the 10 dollar range before tax.
I’ll be back!

Lunch menu is great. They have difference type of food at very reasonable price. I eat there at least once a week as i work in the neighborhood, will have to make an effort to get back there try the dinner.

Super tasty.
Order for take out.
My favorite dishes:
Kung po chicken
Crispy beef
Buddhas delight fried noodles

Good authentic (interesting) Chinese food. Restaurant itself is nothing special. Would most likely return if the service was bad… rather than horrendous.
Waited well over 50 minutes for 2 dishes, because apparently, there was only 1 chef working. Granted, the restaurant wasn’t empty but it sure wasn’t understandably full! The waitress/​manager was barely apologetic about the situation — even told us to leave if we didn’t want to wait any longer. We by no mean made a fuss since we understood there was a shortage of staff, but her response was entirely inappropriate. Terrible experience, not even worth a second chance.

Food Quality & Price: All food was made fresh. The portions are HUGE and though we ordered «4 bowls of rice» they brought steamed rice out in a large bowl that ensured everyone had enough. The quality of the food was good (not exceptional) but absolutely no complaints. I’ve read reviews before about cold food and that was definitely not the experience we had. A «small» bowl of soup feeds 4, «medium» feeds 6 — 8 and «large» feeds 8 — 10. For a party of four, we paid $ 40. So, in my opinion, for the price, the food was worth it.
Facility: The location is convenient, located in Chinatown Ottawa. However, the restaurant itself could use some updating. This is what brought the mark down. Washrooms were terrible to say the least. It is exactly what you would expect (rickety slide lock stalls, dirty walls etc). The interior of the restaurant needs to be redone to bring standards up. It has the typical drop down ceiling tiles and a giant pillar in the middle of the room (covered in mirrors). I really think that with spending more money on sprucing up the place, it could be more successful.
Service: I’ve seen reviews that are hit and miss with service. We noticed maybe two employees working. The main lady who worked basically as cashier and waitress was exceptional. She had recommendations, a sense of humor and worked very efficiently. She was kind and warm. I didn’t see much of the other worker which is probably why some patrons say they received «cold service». The restaurant owners need to hire better people so this poor lady isn’t doing everything herself!
Overall: I really liked this restaurant. It all came down to price and food quality, which I found balanced out quite nicely. It was nice to have some authentic Chinese food in Ottawa. The menu was a good mix between real Chinese food and entertaining those who prefer North Americanize Chinese food. One thing that is kind of annoying was that NONE of the menu items were numbered and you were given paper and pencil to make an order… that meant writing out the entire name of the dish. (With a large group, this can be a long process). I would probably return if friends were going again but I’m not sure I would seek out the restaurant purposefully on another trip to Ottawa.