Restaurant Review: Benjys on Washington

Hilda was in town and after spending the morning showing the house and waiting for inspections (and on only one mug of coffee), we went to Benjys on Washington for a quick lunch before I had to go to work. I've only been to this particular restaurant once and I remember it being pretty good for dinner - a tad pricey but good.
I like the atmosphere - industrial mixed with comtemporary touches. So let's start with the complimentary dips/breads. First was a nut mixture that Hilda was pretty fond of - probably b/c of the kick it had. I didn't like it as much. They also had these cheddar biscuits that were mmmmm! Crumbly and flavorful. Last, there were paper thin disks of grains? which I didn't like very much.

For appetizer, we shared the Spicy Tuna Tartar on crispy edaname cake with avocado couills. I LOVE this. Too bad there were only five. Tuna was flavored so well but not too overpowering. It complemented the edamane cake so well (who knew you could make edaname into a cake?) and the mix of balsamic dressing and avocado sauce was fantastic. Perfect combination of flavors. They were so good, I'm pretty sure I could have popped 10 or more of these thing. They remind me of the amazing tuna tartar appetizer from Picos in Sausilito.

Hilda had the Asian salad with wonton crisps, cashews, peanut sauce and soy-garlic dressing. It was pretty good - still not as good as Magginos chopped salad. I think this would be have been better with some type of cheese - blue cheese, feta or even white cheddar would have been good.

I had the Pepper crusted tuna with nicoise salad. Not as good as Hildas. I liked the tuna - seared and cooked well but I did not really taste the pepper crusted outside. The salad has potatos, onions, eggs and croutons. I was a tad disappointed in the salad - don't think it complemented the tuna slices very well.

So on a scale of 1 (bad) to 10 (best), I'd give this place a 6. Love the appetizer, enjoyed the atmospohere even thought it was a tad loud and disappointed by my salad. For the price ($16) for an okay, okay salad - I definitely will not get that again.