Evil Ronnie wrote:Bait and Switch. Really lame.

It would upset me as well.

One thing I'd like to understand better...was the offer clear that any oyster they had in the house was 25 cents for the pre-designated duration of the special, or were certain oysters from certain regions designated as 25 cents apiece within this time frame while other oysters from other regions were not?

Yeah, I wasn't reading into the offer with a legal eye. I understood that oysters would be .25 cent each in the lounge area between the hours of 4-7pm. The only stipulation being that a two drinks must be purchased for qualify for the special. I called to confirm. It was confirmed.

Bait and switch is an appropriate description of the experience. Next time I will ask an associate to accompany me with more legal and/or customer rights savvy.

riddlemay wrote:One thing I'd like to understand better...was the offer clear that any oyster they had in the house was 25 cents for the pre-designated duration of the special, or were certain oysters from certain regions designated as 25 cents apiece within this time frame while other oysters from other regions were not?

Never been to Benny's, but looked at their website and Twitter stream and it's clear that there's a selection of oysters available during the special. Not sure if it's a subset (some premium oysters being off limits), or the complete list, but it's definitely multiple.

Benny's Twitter 8/22 wrote:This week's Oyster Wedensday features Harbor House, Little Wing, Paradise Cove, Malpeque and Umami oysters. Enjoy! http://pic.twitter.com/1619agAc

Benny's Twitter 8/15 wrote:Join us for Oyster Wednesday today at Benny's featuring Delaware Bay oysters, Peacock Cove oysters, Turtle Cove oysters and Kusshi oysters.

-Dan

dansch wrote:

riddlemay wrote:One thing I'd like to understand better...was the offer clear that any oyster they had in the house was 25 cents for the pre-designated duration of the special, or were certain oysters from certain regions designated as 25 cents apiece within this time frame while other oysters from other regions were not?

Never been to Benny's, but looked at their website and Twitter stream and it's clear that there's a selection of oysters available during the special. Not sure if it's a subset (some premium oysters being off limits), or the complete list, but it's definitely multiple.

Benny's Twitter 8/22 wrote:This week's Oyster Wedensday features Harbor House, Little Wing, Paradise Cove, Malpeque and Umami oysters. Enjoy! http://pic.twitter.com/1619agAc

Benny's Twitter 8/15 wrote:Join us for Oyster Wednesday today at Benny's featuring Delaware Bay oysters, Peacock Cove oysters, Turtle Cove oysters and Kusshi oysters.

-Dan

Based on this, I think Benny's is doing an adequate job of making clear that only certain oysters are 25 cents--on their Twitter stream. But whether they make that clear in the bar itself, that's another story. I can imagine people hearing about the deal and wandering in without having checked Twitter for the list of cheap oysters du jour, and getting pissed off. If I'm Judge Judy, I rule "no harm no foul" in terms of restitution, no finding of malice or intent to deceive, but with an admonishment to the restaurant to do a better job of disseminating the relevant information on their premises in the future.

Based on this, I think Benny's is doing an adequate job of making clear that only certain oysters are 25 cents--on their Twitter stream. But whether they make that clear in the bar itself, that's another story. I can imagine people hearing about the deal and wandering in without having checked Twitter for the list of cheap oysters du jour, and getting pissed off. If I'm Judge Judy, I rule "no harm no foul" in terms of restitution, no finding of malice or intent to deceive, but with an admonishment to the restaurant to do a better job of disseminating the relevant information on their premises in the future.


.....or when people call the restaurant to confim the offer and not told the "fine print"

beelewis wrote:Based on this, I think Benny's is doing an adequate job of making clear that only certain oysters are 25 cents--on their Twitter stream. But whether they make that clear in the bar itself, that's another story. I can imagine people hearing about the deal and wandering in without having checked Twitter for the list of cheap oysters du jour, and getting pissed off. If I'm Judge Judy, I rule "no harm no foul" in terms of restitution, no finding of malice or intent to deceive, but with an admonishment to the restaurant to do a better job of disseminating the relevant information on their premises in the future.


.....or when people call the restaurant to confim the offer and not told the "fine print"

Twitter, shmitter. Some people don't care about twitter. I guess we're not "hip".

Shaw's has been running 1/2 price happy hour oysters for years and we've never heard a report about them running out of the 'special" oysters, so now you have to pay full price.

What kind of restaurant operator advertises a 3 hour long happy hour special and doesn't bring in enough product to last 3 hours?

You call this adequate???

I call it sleazy. Or maybe just stupid. Sad.

This reminds me of the Shiroi Hana (R.I.P.) $1.00/piece sushi special. When you arrived you were given a special yellow sushi order form. You could order as much as you wanted using the yellow form for $1.00/piece, but if you wanted more sushi after that, it was full price.

stevez wrote:This reminds me of the Shiroi Hana (R.I.P.) $1.00/piece sushi special. When you arrived you were given a special yellow sushi order form. You could order as much as you wanted using the yellow form for $1.00/piece, but if you wanted more sushi after that, it was full price.

My wife LOVED that place! The food had nothing to do with it - the old Japanese couple that ran it would bicker constantly; my wife giggled that it made her feel like home.

Sleazy


That's the perfect description of how I felt in there. I wanted to complain, but I knew some pencil neck with a Law Degree( or Paralegal with a Certificate)would come out with an attitude and accuse me of being cheap.

Kennyz wrote:Burgers are good, steaks are very good, and some of the sides are great.

Chiming in to agree on the steaks. I had the dry-aged rib steak recently and it was excellent. One member of our group thought her filet was unevenly cooked, but mine was just as ordered. I ordered it Pittsburgh-style, which was interesting, but I don't think I'd get a dry-aged steak that way again. The outer char was just too much for me. It might work better on a wet-aged steak.

I was not impressed with the sides, which included undercooked carrots and bland rapini. Probably we choose poorly, but we had people with severe dietary issues, which limited choices for shared dishes.

The one thing I want to comment on was the service. They did an exemplary job. We had both sommeliers (because I asked a question about a wine that the first one couldn't answer) and even though our group of five ordered one bottle of one of the least expensive wines on their list, they treated us as if we had been buying a $200 bottle. They were (perhaps rightly so, considering our group) a little concerned we might not like the unknown-to-us wine we were asking about (Tari Irpinia Aglianaco), so recommended something else in the same price point. We wound up going with the unfamiliar wine, which we enjoyed, and they decanted it and served it beautifully.

Our waiter was also wonderfully patient with our group, who included three people with dietary limitations, one of them a very ... idiosyncratic teenager. Plus me, asking a lot of questions out of foodie nosiness. I thought we were a very trying party, but our waiter was just fine about it, and very detailed and knowledgeable about the menu items.

zoid wrote:

stevez wrote:This reminds me of the Shiroi Hana (R.I.P.) $1.00/piece sushi special. When you arrived you were given a special yellow sushi order form. You could order as much as you wanted using the yellow form for $1.00/piece, but if you wanted more sushi after that, it was full price.

My wife LOVED that place! The food had nothing to do with it - the old Japanese couple that ran it would bicker constantly; my wife giggled that it made her feel like home.

Sun Yung Moon recently passed away.

beelewis wrote:Sleazy


That's the perfect description of how I felt in there. I wanted to complain, but I knew some pencil neck with a Law Degree( or Paralegal with a Certificate)would come out with an attitude and accuse me of being cheap.

You never know--they may have surprised you. For instance, I can envision a manager saying, "The special does apply only to certain oysters, but I understand that we may not have done a sufficiently good job of communicating that, so please continue to enjoy any of our oysters this evening for the special price."

I'm not basing that on pure fantasy, but rather on accommodating responses I've received in similar circumstances.

Decided to walk over to Benny's last night, since it's in the neighborhood and I've never been there. I was alone, so I sat at the bar.

First off, they have Aviation gin, which was nice to see so I kicked the meal off with a See Through and shrimp cocktail. The mart was nice, stirred not shaken as so many gin abusers seem to do theses days, and it was a respectable size, not a veritable bathtub. $12, American, was a bit steep, but it was darn near perfect. The prawns were quite good.

For dinner I ordered the bone in rib eye, and sautéed garlic spinach. Surprisingly, because there hasn't been much written about the steak here, I found the rib eye to be quite good. Tender, quite flavorful, and best of all an excellent crust surrounded it. I was at Chicago Cut last Saturday and ordered the 10oz sirloin, so comparison is not perfect, but I'd say the beef quality at Cicago Cut is a notch higher, but the actual execution was better at Benny's. Nice. The garlic spinach was quite good, but as with a lot of steakhouses theses days, the spinach could have been trimmed better, you know, as in at all. I paired the meal with a Sinskey cab/merlot by the glass selection.

All in all, I found Benny's to be a nice surprise and will return

Benny’s Chop House to Close After a Decade in River North

Management behind essential Chicago steakhouse Benny’s Chop House has announced its impending closure at the end of the month in River North after a decade of serving martinis and steaks. Its final day of service is Leap Day, Saturday, February 29.