Mad Bene - Kapolei

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.

In short, the food is flavorful but expensive. The service was slow with minimal attention from staff. Read on for more details.. Our server persuaded us to order the eggplant mozzarella stick appetizer by reminding us that the pizzas in particular take a while to cook and we should anticipate a long wait. The appetizer had good textures flavor, but for the price, we were expecting more than 4 mozzarella sticks The shrimp linguine was creamy, with a nice lemony flavor visually pleasing presentation. The portion size seemed small for the price. The mad garlic pizza was pretty good.. I would have liked the option to add some black pepper or red pepper flakes over top just to enhance the pizza. However, after our food arrived, our server did not return to our table for over 20 minutes, by then, the pizza was cold. This kind of characterized our experience- lack of attention from the servers, though they were friendly when explaining the menu options did warn us that the entrees take time to prepare.

We ordered the Truffle Pizza, which was the special of the week, and it was absolutely amazing. It offered a unique combination of slightly sweet and savory flavors that I can't recommend enough! Another favorite of mine is the Carbonara Pizza, but I also really enjoyed the Hot Honey variety. Along with the Truffle Pizza, their MB Old Fashioned was outstanding! It's honestly the best Old Fashioned I’ve ever had. On top of all that, my waitress, G, was exceptional! She provided detailed explanations of the menu, offered great suggestions, and checked on me frequently. I will definitely be coming back, and often!

Mad Bene was outstanding. I've never experienced authentic Italian cuisine before, but I believe this might be the closest to it in Hawai'i. The flavors were incredible, and the customer service was top-notch. I’m definitely planning to dine there again very soon.

The waitress was nice and made an effort to help us, but the food was simply terrible. To make matters worse, the manager on duty was unfriendly; he didn't even acknowledge us when we tried to wave him over. It's baffling that he isn't more involved, especially since our waitress displayed far more respect and attentiveness to the customers. Then there was the salad dressing, which was overly tangy from too much lemon and had anchovy bits—definitely not appealing. I couldn't even finish my meal and knew I wouldn't return. We ended up paying for our unsatisfactory experience and left to find a better place to eat. This is a restaurant I will not be visiting again.