Beningo's Restaurant

I've been remiss in not writing about a great meal we had a few months ago at Beningo's Restaurant in Bloomington.

My husband was looking for something different to do as we were in a little bit of a rut, ran across Beningo's on the web and noticed a picture of a nice looking pizza pie on their website, so he suggested we try the place and made a reservation.

The restaurant is located in a nondescript brick building.

On the phone, my husband had been asked if we wanted upstairs or down. He mentioned we had not been there before and the hostess said we wanted upstairs then.

We were taken to our table in the 1960s style dining room.

I looked over the menu which had a lot of pasta offerings, but with pizza being what made my husband pick the place I decided we needed to try it.

We went with one of their pre-arranged topping pies, the Sicilian, topped with sausage, tomatoes and hot peppers.

There was a cracker basket on the table and we munched on those a bit while we took in the atmosphere and waited for our food.

After looking around at some of the other diners it occurred to me that they served alcohol, which I hadn't realized when ordering.

We noticed some people showing up were leaving, apparently feeling that the wait for a table was too long or being told that there was no room.

We decided to see what we were missing in the basement so we headed down the stairs.

We were blown away by the decor! It reminded me of the early 1970s basement of my mom's friend's house when I was growing up, complete with vintage carpet. We decided it would be a blast to eat down there some time.

Back at our upstairs table the pizza soon arrived. It was wonderful! The pie took me back to the way pizza tasted as a kid at family-owned restaurants. The cheese (which I am picky about) and the sausage (which I am normally not a big fan of) were great.

With a pie like that paired with good service and great atmosphere, now that we've found Beningo's, we'll certainly be back.