Benice

I dont know what makes me like this place more, the food or the lady that owns it. It reminds me of the small town diners where everyone knows everyone and they sit around shooting the shit. Love it.
I always get the new orleans french toast. You get a plate full with eggs for about 7 bucks. I eat here once a week and have never gotten sick, had a bad experience, anything. And im a runny egg eater so…
Service is great, food is great, it has outdoor seating which is nice on weekends to tourist watch, they take credit cards but bring cash for the tip!

Benice is closing!
After almost 25 years, Benice, formerly known as Hot II, is going out of business this Saturday, Dec 31. Anyone who knows me well has either gone there with me, or been dragged there by me. When I lived in Venice, I went at least 3 times a week for my favorite, broccoli and cheese omelette, side of brown rice & beans, and veggie sausage. Today I mourn the loss of one of the last great mom ‘n’ pop breakfast joints in Venice. Hats off to Hi-​Lan and her crew, and let’s hope the landlord doesn’t put some tacky yuppy business in this soon-​to-​be hole in my heart. KEEP VENICE OG!!!

Love this little gem. I go at least once a week on SAT or SUN. The service can be a little slow, but keep in mind you are at the beach. Don’t come here if you are in a hurry! They often get extremely busy on sunny days when everyone is trying to come to the beach.
The food is very good for the price. My favorite feature is you can bring your dog. They often bring out water and/​or treats. But, you can only sit with your dog on the front patio section, so only four people or less.
Also, be advised they got a new POS system, and they can’t add a tip afterwards. So either leave cash for your waiter, or just give them the amount you’d like to leave when you pay.
If you want a fun story, ask them how they got the name «Benice», I won’t spoil it here!

great service. Decent prices. Food will make you sick. Food poisoning from the eggs — not once — twice.
When you don’t depend on locals, it’s o.k. to kill your patrons.

This place used to be the best breakfast place ever. But since my last visit, they have upped the prices and reduced the quality. The worst part is that they have stopped serving their banana pancakes, which was the main reason I went!

I love this place.
Good Eats.
Good Price.
Good service.
Good location.
Good parking.
I sound like a broken record but its as good as it gets.

Greasy Spoon happiness. 19 different kinds of omelets, various types of waffle/​pancake/​egg combinations. Great breakfast/​brunch diner food,

Nothing remarkable about this place. I thought the food was bland and unremarkable. I had blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, and coffee.
Service was good. Nice beach-​y décor and feel (although it felt a little dingy).
I wouldn’t go out of my way for this place.

I love love Benice. I could care less that it has windows that need cleaning, open spaces leading outside that could be better served with doors, occasional sticky surfaces and seating right outside the street. There is a reason that this place gets so packed it has to temporarily close. The random gaggle of wait staff are super nice, very attentive and friendly to talk to. Our server Roxy didn’t even care when we started belting out «Rooooxanne! You don’t have to put on the red light. You don’t have to sell you body to the night!» when she told us her name.
Okay onto the food. I like the fact that it tastes like you could make it at home if your @ss wasn’t so lazy. I can taste that they prep their food fresh and I appreciate that they keep their ingredients simple. Eggs are eggs and nothing else mixed into it. Omelets are great and the pancakes are big enough to own property in Mexico. Portions are consistently big and the oj is fresh. Couldn’t ask for a better breakfast fix. I constantly leave fuller than I wish and it never puts a dent in my wallet.
Def recommend it if you are in venice. You wont be sorry!

I played hooky on Monday! …just kidding. I’m not that cool. I took the day off to burn some vacation days. So, I had been trying to check out this place because it seems to be on everyone’s Venice staple list. Of all the years that I’ve lived in the area and driven on Pacific… to be honest with you, never noticed it before. And Benice is right there in Yellow! Anyways, being that it was a Monday morning at about 930am, no trouble finding parking. Had this been a weekend — parking = my nightmare. I’d either have to bike ride here or just not go.
We walked in and the restaurant looks to be an old converted house into restaurant which I like and can appreciate. Picnic benches style seating occupy the front room, which is where we ate because it was warmer. This place is definitely frequented by locals. The staff is super friendly and very attentive. They definitely recognized their locals. Also, because parking is a nightmare, the only people who could possibly make it to this place consistently is locals who can either walk or bike ride easily to this spot.
I ordered the International Omelet with a side of Hash browns. It was honestly just OK. The omelet was good and cheesy and I didn’t hate it because I practically licked my plate clean. And for the price — the portions were great. The hash browns on the other hand. Tasteless and just weird. Like the texture was weird. They were bland and I just didn’t enjoy them at all. I’d probably get a different side next time.
Overall, Benice is a sold OK — 3 stars for me. I don’t see myself being one of their locals, but maybe I can frequent it next time I decide to play hooky.

My favorite walking distance place for a breakfast when I was a local… I’ll miss it now that I moved away! Not as in your face as Sidewalk café, more affordable than Figtree’s, and not as pretentious as Hash!
It used to be called House of Teriaki, though I never had teriaki there. I get the H.O.T. Omelet, that get’s it’s name from the old biz moniker. Avocados, veggies, cream cheese… mmmm… the cream cheese made it awesome! I don’t know if it is worthy of going out of your way, but when you are in Venice it is way worthy.

It was a Sunday around 10; there were a few spots on the street, though I think the place had its own tiny lot. I met up with a few friends and entered into this seemingly friendly neighborhood joint. It felt like I was entering a friend’s dingy solarium, bursting with unpretentiousness. We ordered, getting a wonderful mix of lower and higher cost items to try. The waitress was friendly and attentive, making substitutions without complaint. The food arrived, and the presentation was about two notches below Denny’s. I got my «six piece» sour dough N’Orleans French toast, which turned out to be three pieces of bread cut in a half. All the same, with my side order of eggs and sausage, I had plenty of calories to go around, particularly since the French toast lacked any semblance of being fried (no crunch), the sausage has skin hanging off its side (very unappetizing) and the eggs, well, they were fine actually. My comrades were happy to be eating but equally unenthused.
Our waters and coffees were quickly filled, so A+ for that. But, when we got the bill, it was written in some weird waitress lingo and made no sense. Plus, for four people, the bill seemed a bit high at around $ 54, so I asked the waitress to itemize. She did, and then we pulled out the calculator, and the bill was off by about $ 10. The waitress listened, but then told us to talk to the manager, suddenly her English seeming less than perfect. We brought the receipt up to the register, and the lady redid the math. She came up with a new charge that was neither equal to the original charge nor the one we had come up with, off by about $ 5. We showed her our calculations, and then she just said [in broken English], «You substituted pancakes for toast, so there was an extra charge.» We said, «True, but rather than charging us a substitution fee, you charged us as if we ordered the whole entrée, which means you basically just didn’t give us our toast. Plus, we never ordered this other item.» She seemed frazzled, but rather than thinking the customer was always right, she just gave us the receipt and turned to another customer. My friend who was treating everyone to breakfast took my slightly evil advice to just pay the full bill but forget the tip and make up the $ 10 that way. Oy, evil, but let them figure it out! Bottom line: Check your bill! (And, don’t substitute, for they don’t know what that means.)

My new favorite breakfast spot!
Fancy upscale breakfast spots are nice… when it’s a special occasion.
But normally I’m just looking for a good hearty breakfast, and not spend $ 15+ for it. Benice is the spot for an affordable and good filling meal.
At a great location close to the beach. Portions are large, great omelets, pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc. Dishes are less than $ 8.
The servers are so sweet and welcoming.
Im definitely coming back!

Do you like horrible service and sub-​par food? This is the place for you!
The place looks like a craphole out front, but were pleasantly surprised at the back patio/​room. It looked like a fun locals spot, and the prices were good — hard to find for brunch in our hood! However, we quickly learned how they keep the prices low… We went in about 2pm on Saturday; it was NOT at all busy, asked the manager where to sit — so she definitley knew we were there — yet sat at our table for 15 minutes before having to go ask for a server.
We finally got our food and not only did it take a long time, it was below average; I got an omelette and the cheese was gross — like sliced pieces thrown in there, instead of shredded. The toast was cold. My bf LOVES hash browns and after 1 bite wouldn’t eat anymore — they were like flavorless mush.
The service continued to be horrible, and the guys who brought our check was either on drugs or just very slow. I gave him my credit card right away, and he came back 5 min later and said they don’t take AmEx… did he not notice the AmEx I handed him 5 min earlier?! The whole experience was just annoying and dissatisfactory. We probably won’t go back.

i literally live next door to Benice and I love this place. Hiran is the sweetest lady (she owns the place) and remembers everything about her customers.
The food they serve is so low down that you can eat the fattiest food or the healthiest food.
I am not a breakfast person. When it comes to breakfast and I can be extremely happy with a cup of coffee but I crave their polish sausage breakfast with brown rice … its just simply my breakfast of champions :).
Their food is inexpensive and good. They make their own salsa and teriyaki sauce which is amazing.
If you are looking for a good lazy weekend to hang out at on the beach and would like to eat some breakfast/​lunch this is the place to go.
’til the next beefoodie adventure!
Definitely

Really great place to have a casual brunch. My friends and I came here for a very late brunch around 2 pm on the 4^th of July and the dining area was completely empty. I ordered the pancake special with banana pancakes, scrambled eggs and cheddar, and pork sausage ($ 7) and a side of hash browns ($ 3). The food was amazing. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the sausages were tasty (but small), the hash browns were delicious and not greasy at all (they were actually more like a hunk of potato than traditional hash browns), and the pancakes were incredible. The bananas were blended perfectly with the batter. I tried my friend’s blueberry pancakes, and they were good, but not sweet enough.
Service was quick and very friendly. They offered to let us stay in the lot for a small price while we went to the beach, but when we mentioned that we were staying for the fireworks, the parking guy bumped the price up to $ 25, forcing us to leave.

Today in fail:
This place should be called COLD-​too, not Hottoo because after almost TWO HOURS we were served (breakfast– at lunch time) seriously cold food. Really? The LEAST you could do after that long ass wait (between the line to be seated and ordering the food) is put a hot plate of food in front of me.
Hire another server — there were only 2 for the entire place and definitely another cook. The one guy is NOT cutting it.
My omelet (#3) was the furthest thing FROM an omelet as it came out more of a scramble. Which, after the length of time I waited to get it was fine because I was going to inhale it. At least the flavor was there.
My toast was not toasted. There was barely any butter and since it wasn’t toasted, it wasn’t hot — and since it wasn’t hot, it didn’t melt on the bread.
Thank god I took someone else’s advice and got tomatoes instead of hash browns.
My boyfriend described his burrito as a Denver omelet, undercooked and wrapped in a tortilla.
All in all — if you’re a hipster kid, who has no job and no where to be, you’ll likely have all the time in the world sit around waiting for food. That’s certainly the category the majority of the patrons in here fell into, which is probably why there are so many high marks.

We came here on a Sunday afternoon, really because we didn’t want to walk around to find a place to eat. I figured it would probably be decent because I saw an ‘A’ in the window AND a Unilocal sticker. I was sooo pleasantly surprised. I had the Club Sandwhich and My man had the banana pancakes.
Let’s just say I don’t like bananas but I wanted those pancakes. So Yummy and unbelievably cheap on our delicate wallets these days. We had more food than we could each and left without breaking a dub. Good stuff I say, good stuff!
** Oh my club sandwhich was great. The bacon was super crispy. Our waitress was very helpful in making a decision.
*They DO need a bug zapper or something on the patio.

Definitely a spot for locals. Let the beach tourists spend 10+ on an average Venice/​Santa Monica breakfast and leave Benice for those of us that live here.
I adore the atmosphere. Relaxed environment, good seating, friendly staff. You’ll notice a lot of regulars and a lot of homey hospitality.
In the end, however, I go to Benice because the breakfast is good and the prices undercut every other establishment of equal quality in the area. At The Brickhouse, Joe’s, The Omelet Parlor, The Firehouse or the rest of its kind, coffee and breakfast will cost at least 10 dollars and usually more. At Benice, meals are 7 bucks or less.
Also, the Veggie Rancheros is amazing.
Cons:
–Service can get slow during the peak hours: weekends, 10-​noon.
–No Benedict on the menu.

Pretty good breakfasts here, nothing special though either. friendly service, good chorizo, really like the black beans and appreciate the healthy rice as breakfast options in lieu of hashbrowns.
i just wish the bacon were better, its good enough, but bacon should never really be just good enough. i also kind of like how they’re so proud of their hot tea maker, i.e. hot water machine, which by the way, keeps the water way too hot. maybe that’s how they come up with the name, hottoo, because of their overly hot water.
for the neighborhood, i would say that they’re like almost a buck cheaper than what i’d expect for breakfast, which on average is about $ 8 or so.