bennett's chop & railhouse

disappointed : /. we had driven over to st. paul on mother's day for a nice dinner, and sadly one of our all time favorite restaurants was full. we had read some decent reviews of bennett's c&rh as a "neighborhood gem" so we opted to try it and got there at 5:45 or so. we arrived, got seated in a quiet booth which was nice and our beverage order taken. that is the last reallygoodthing i can say about bennett's, due to the service, other than my filet with bearnaise was verygoodwhen it finally got to our table -- that will be the only nice thing i will say about our experience there. it took at least 45minutes to get our appetizers. meanwhile, we were not offered our salads or bread in the meantime waiting for our apps to arrive, and they were decent fortunately but not great. then it took longer to get our entrees and more beverages and the service was slow, and not attentive to our table at all. even after waiting a very long time for our food for which our waitress apologized ( i felt sort of sorry for her), we were offered no comps at all after having waited over 45 minutes to get a morsel of food -- that is where they went way wrong imo. no management came over and comped a drink, a coffee or a dessert -- bad, bad, customer service and why these kinds of reviews get written. if i had been that waitress, i would have taken it out of my tips to provide a few small comps. if they had done that, this review would not have been written and we might have given this place a 2nd chance. we go over to that neighborhood a lot for other restaurants but we will not be returning to this "neighborhood gem" not because the food doesn't deserve a 2nd chance but because the service and the management does not. they don't know how to do it right - sorry and it showed.

i would not reccomened this place at all. checking out the menu online suggested this place was a higher end restaurant based off of menu items and prices. with no knowledge of what this place was when we came to it we weren't sure if we were at the right place. it's pretty much a bar with a fancy restaurant menu. i went with my husband at around 10pm for dinner and the onlygoodthing about the place was the service and the drink menu. staff were really friendly and attentive. but if you are going here for agoodmeal i'd choose somewhere else. my husband had the tomahawk ribeye and i had the seafood risotto. the ribeye was decent but definitely was not worth the price. the vegatable sides and bake potato were mediocre. vegtables had no flavor besides the excess salt. the potato was super dry and the "loaded" toppings barely were enough to get through how dry it was. the seafood risotto was terrible. all i could taste was seafood flavor. no individual flavor of the lobster, shrimp or scallops. the rice part of the risotto was like mush. by far one of the worst meals i've ever had anywhere. the only decent part was the crab cake.

this place is a hidden gem in all honesty - it may not look fancy inside or outside from an appearance perspective, but it sure is better than a lot of gastropub places i have been to. it's also a great stop if you're brewing beer at vine park across the street. the service tonight was fantastic - we had the 'big ben' (a delightful, yet more glamorized big mac), and the 'sticky burger' (the peanut butter on the bun caught my attention in agoodway). try this place out if you're in the area - we truly enjoyed it.

best service around. i suggested bennett's to two friends who live nearby and had never been there. we waited a while to have our drink orders taken due to the place filling up fast. ben, the barkeep, jumped into service and truly was a fantastic waiter. the food was excellent and we felt we got special treatment, but you could tell this man was takinggoodcare of everyone. often one is ignored and the genuine warmth is totally absent in a lot of restaurants. ben @ bennett's, excellent service is your middle name. whoever is in the kitchen, kudos to you too. we will be back.

great bar food, dark musty restaurant. i have enjoyed most of the food on the menu at bennett's and found the family-run business to havegoodservice most of the time. i agree with the comments about happy hour. the horse-shoe bar up against the wall of the tiny place is dark and cramped, and lends very little to agooddining or drinking experience. the policy of offering the specials only to those who suffer at the bar itself vs. the tables located 8 feet from the bar is senseless in light of the fact the tables are mostly empty most days.
there is no mistaking it for a fine dining restaurant, but the food is verygoodwhen there is no event going on.