Mad Bene

The food came out a bit slower than we would have liked, but the gnocchi and drinks held us over until our food arrived, and boy lemme tell ya, it was well worth the wait! We were seated in the really pretty outdoor seating area, and I would say this is a great spot for romantic dinner dates.

I was so impressed by this place! Everything I had was really good.
Even though the lettuce was a little soggy, the Caesar salad was delicious! But the star appetizer was the Crispy Potato Guy (not sure how that got named.) The potatoes has such a nice texture and just enough sauce to add a little zing to it.

We ordered the Truffle Pizza (it was the pizza of the week) and it was incredible. Such a unique mix of slightly sweet and savory. Highly recommend!

Another favorite of mine is the Carbonara Pizza, but the Hot Honey was also really good.

In addition to the Truffle Pizza, their MB Old Fashioned was phenomenal! It's honestly my favorite Old Fashioned of any I've tried.

Also, my waitress, G, was fantastic!! She explained everything on the menu, gave suggestions, and checked up on me often.

Will be back for sure! And often.

Overall had a positive experience at Mad Bene! Looking forward to visiting again and trying more items on the menu (more in depth details of my experience below)

The restaurant has what I'd describe as upscale cozy decor with a casual dining experience. There was a little bit of a fly problem, and we spent a decent amount of the meal trying to shoo them away. We came on a Saturday during lunch to a fairly empty restaurant but extremely nice waitstaff! They spent the time to have conversations with us and made sure we understood the menu and had a good time. Food was a little slow, but the kitchen also seemed to only have max 4 people in for lunch service and maybe 4 people at the front of house.

appetizers:
The Chopped Salad was beautiful and nicely dressed. It wasn't personally to my taste since I'm not huge on salads but my family enjoyed it.
The Caesar Salad was standard looking and teensy bit over dressed, but had good unique croutons and actual pieces of anchovy as a garnish, which I'd never seen in a Caesar before! The salad was good, if a bit peppery.
The Fritto Misto was excellent and the table really enjoyed this pick. The marinara it came with was a bit plain on its own but worked really well when eaten with the fried items.

mains:
I had the lunch special with the Pappardelle Bolognese. The ragu was good, a little lacking in depth but a solid attempt compared to what I've experienced in Italy.
We also shared the Mad Garlic Pizza, which had a good satisfying crust and lots of garlic. In my opinion, the dish smells better than it tastes. I'm a huge garlic girl and was looking forward to trying the pizza, but it was a little bit of a let down. However, the cook on everything in the pizza was perfect. It was very rich, verging on heavy despite being a thinner crust, so I recommend sharing if you order this!

desserts:
The tiramisu was rustic looking but delicious! A perfect, light end to the meal.
We also ordered the Olive Oil Gelato since we like trying unique ice cream flavors, and it was interesting. We added some fresh cracked black pepper to take away some of the odd earthiness the olive oil brings, and it improved the gelato in our opinions.

(note that I copy/pasted my review from Yelp onto here so that my feedback might be more helpful)

Sorry to be negative, but I’ve had so many bad experiences dining out on Oahu- I am very cautious. Our evening out at Mad Ben went above my expectations.

Prices- for the quality and amount of food we received, I feel like the prices were extremely reasonable. I’ve paid the same at other spots with way less quality of food.

Quality- good ingredients, fresh. Unique

Service- everyone there was so attentive and professional. It really makes a difference.

Clam pasta was incredible.

Can’t wait to try more.