Benss Cafe

Location: on Victoria drive and E41 Avenue (it’s across London Drugs mall and it’s not as easy to notice)
Parking: along the street
Service: ok; friendly in general
Food: We ordered 3 mini-​set dishes and they didn’t turn out to be good. The portions are small in general as compared to other HK style café with this price point. We saw a lot of people ordered clay pot rice so maybe that’s a better choice.
Baked pork chop on rice — sauce was good, but the pork chop was horrible … it’s not easy to chew; the fried rice could be better too
Fried Laksa Seafood Udon — too salty
Shredded chicken with preserved vegetables on deep fried noodles — the noodles/​ingredients mix is good; noodles are crispy; the sauce is just ok
Price: $ 8-​$ 10 for a mini set with hot drink. The regular ones are $ 10-​$ 14. Clay pot rice dishes are around $ 8-​$ 10 as well (and that comes with soup).
Ambience: small HK-​style café
Discount: They have a different special set every day of the week and they also have discount on the clay pot rice.
Overall comment/​tips: If I ever got there next time, I would try out clay pot rice. It seems like that’s a better choice than other items on the menu.

Few pieces of meat drowned in a sea of fillers (onions) in the clay pot rice. The crusty rice got the star. There was no soup! The menu should have read onion potted rice. Won’t come back.

I would like to give this more stars as the food we ordered were decent but after finding plastic in our baked spaghetti dish I can only rate it with 2 stars.
Although I question their kitchen cleanliness from what we found in one of our dishes, I must say their pot rice dish 煲仔飯 was pretty good. If you like the crispy rice from the bottom of the pot then this is definitely a place for you to check out.

My family and I are frequent guests here. The food and service are both pretty good here. Out of the last 10 visits, only once did the food come slow. Otherwise pretty fast the other times. Prices and portion sizes are fair. Except the beverages are a bit too pricey.

* Another HK Café *
I’m a sucker for a great HK café. There is something comforting about the baked rice dishes with a cold milk tea for me.
So I ordered my standard baked pork chop rice and a cold milk tea. Service was particularly friendly for a HK café — actually smiling and chatty. That is kind of unusual!
The tea arrived first and it was a nice strong flavour. (I can’t stand when it tastes watered down from the ice.) They did it right here. I enjoyed the cold milk tea. Photo:
Then the dish arrived. It looked a bit burned at first glance (Photo:
) although oddly even though it looked burned it didn’t taste burned at all. They included whole slices of fresh tomato which was a nice touch. The chop itself was a bit more breading than meat — they could use a bit less breading. The rice was fried with bits of scrambled eggs in it. Didn’t have any wok hei unfortunately though. I really need to have wok hei for me to love this dish. Overall was a decent version though. Photo:
I’ll likely be back and see how they do on some of their other dishes.

I’ve visited this place three times, bringing various family and friends with me. We’ve all enjoyed the food here. Unfortunately, I haven’t strayed too far from my two favourite staples: the laksa and the minced beef with egg claypot rice. The prices are fantastic and the booth seating is very comfortable and private. I’ve come with a larger group and there is a separate room next door that houses three bigger tables; however, the service is more prompt and frequent in the main part of the restaurant.
I am bewildered by the choice of name of this restaurant. Every time I mention this to a friend, I feel somewhat sheepish… as though I am explaining a spelling error… but a spelling error of what (?!), I’m not even sure.

That’s just for their cold HK ocffee/​tea drink, good flavour. Probably leaning more for their booth style seating, free parking in the park, and best of all, free WIFI ;)
Nice joint in this hood.

Originally I was taken here by another co-​worker, sort of, for lunch and I come back again with my partner and my brother for more of that ‘bo-​zai fan’ (pot rice) stuff and I have to say that both times were pretty good experiences. I have a feeling this ‘bo-​zai fan’ thing might be the new craze, as more places seem to have it now, but still not enough, so bring on the next challenger to the throne. And with the ‘line-​up’ style business of this dish just a few blocks up, it was only a matter of time till they opened another one to compete.
As usual, the disclaimer warning, cash only, yes, this is your typical Chinese restaurant, they don’t have any card machines for you to use any of your plastic retangular cards to settle the bill, so bring the colored money. They are going with the trend of offering sheets of paper for you to choose what you want in your noodle combo (soup, noodle, toppings, drink) just like your Deer Garden, Cattle Café combo’s, I’ve grown out of this, and will stick to the rice dishes I have had here. On the last time I was here amongst the three of us, we ordered two rice pot and a mixture of the combo noodle dish, substituted with rice.
The two rice pots took about 20 minutes to prepare, as stated on the menu, so the combo soup rice dish came first. The people with the claypot rice weren’t left empty handed at the beginning as those dishes come with their house made corn soup for the day. The corn was not good, the soup wasn’t bad, as the corn fetl dry and tasteless when you bit into it, the flavour might have went all in the soup. They call this dish «pow-​fan» in Chinese and the soup my partner picked out was a good mix. They added enough meat and cabbage into this dish, so I did not feel cheaped out. When the two rice pots came, they opened the lids, and steam was coming right out of them, the woman who served us left, and I was wondering where the sweet soy sauce was, as usually it comes in a small bowl accompanying the dish. The soy sauce was at the table, as this place specializes in this, why make it a hassle to bring a seperate bowl.
I only wish they left the lid with us as I would have poured the soy sauce, then would have covered it up again to let the sauce cook into the rice, but many places just take the lid away. My order was a ground pork dish with salty fish and Chinese sausage, and it was all done well, with the crusty bottom layer forming right. They could have used more salty fish (personal preference) but they gave enough in meat where the ratio almost felt 1:1 with rice and meats where I wished there was more rice. Some greens to top it off and this is a meal under $ 10. The portion is smaller than what I’ve had near the joint I usually go to (Duotian), but in terms of quality this place is not bad, and I would have to say better than the one up the block now (.com). The place is more comfortable to sit in, and if you like watching Cantonese soaps, they are playing all day in here.
I like the setup they have in here, big tv’s in both directions, nice big booths that can comfortably seat 4, and may sit 6, you may hit elbows here. There’s ton’s of parking around here, and it’s all free, and it’s a welcome addition to this part of town that needed another casual, affordable, eating destination.

Malaysian Style Noodles:
If I could make this at home I definitely would, and I’ve definitely tried! HK Café style comfort food. Yum!
Black Fungus and Pork:
How could we resist ordering black fungus? It’s amazing, we love it and this version with pork, crunchy peppers, and soft, sweet onion.
A quick meal, convenient location, and reasonable prices.

Another HK Café trying to capitalize on two big trends right now — Noodle Combo’s & Claypot Rice (Bo Zai Fan).
Modern space, sparkly clean, very bright inside, with typical booth and banquette style seating. If you’re slightly bigger skip the booths. I’m small and even I found the space a bit tight.
We were seated promptly, and ordered a laksa noodle combo and two claypot rice (Pork Rib/​Sausage & Tender Chicken/​Chinese Mushroom/​Sausage) to share.
When you order Claypot Rice, what you’re really after is that crunchy golden crusty layer of rice that forms against the piping hot claypot. If that crust doesn’t form, then the entire dish is a failure.
Both our claypots formed perfect golden crusts, and were pretty tasty overall. While the portions are much smaller than some of the other Bo Zai Fan specialist places, I’d say it’s one of the better one’s I’ve had.
The laksa noodle combo was a disappointment. Watered down bland soup base, barely any veggies, and the brisket was a bit tough. Cuttlefish balls were very good though.
Not worth a special trip, but if you live/​dine in the area then definitely pop in and try their claypot rice.