Cucina Bene

There used to be a good authentic pizzeria in financial district called Pizza Italia but unfortunately like a lot of good old fashioned places in NYC it closed. But have no fear, the pizza here is pretty damn good. This is what old school NYC pizza is about. Very thin crust, quality ingredients. This is it! To add you can get two slices and a drink for $ 5, good luck finding that at many other places in that area. P. S.: I have to point out that I found the cheese they use to be a bit salty. So be mindful if you can’t eat salty stuff.

Perfectly fine. Not amazing, but definitely not bad. We live in the area, so it’s convenient and not a chain. The pizza is good, even when reheated, and the garlic knots are super cheesy and garlicky, like giant beautiful chunks of garlic falling off of them. I would come back for the garlic knots alone, but the pizza’s worth a try. Do use the spices and cheese that they have out, it adds just the right oomph of flavor.

Best tasty deal around! 2 cheese slices plus soda for $ 4.99. Slices were tasty and big, being the financial district there is not too much what you can buy for 5 bucks. If you are in a rush but hungry, this is your place. Doesn’t get 5 stars because is a tiny place and it barely accommodates 20 people but maybe that’s how they can afford to give this deal.

Given the paucity of late night spots in the neighborhood, Cucina Bene could get away with being a lot worse, but they have a good, solid slice on offer.

Do not order from here.
I ordered some chicken wings, and it tasted like they were cooked in a dishwasher… I Don’t know how else to describe except that it was the most watery and flavorless chicken wings I’ve ever eaten, and I regret ever ordering from this place. Please do yourself a favor and heed my warning.

I’ve only had great experiences with this place. Yes, it’s a simple pizza shop with no bells and whistles. But they make a great, New York-​style slice. The ratio of crust to sauce to cheese is just right.

Extremely rude service, don’t waste your time here. Pizza is also better at other places around.

I’m on a slow mission to try every pizza place south of Canal Street, which means popping into a number of generally undistinguished slice joints in random corners of the Financial District.
Cucina Bene — good kitchen — is one of them. I doubt many other people who come here work or live more than two blocks away. It’s a neighborhood slice place, where the primary virtue is that the pizza will come straight out of the oven.
Service isn’t really a defining characteristic of places like this, but I wasn’t terrible fond of how one employee gruffly told a group of people to move after he felt they were blocking part of an aisle. The restaurant has been strangely laid out so you have to retrieve drinks from a cooler way down the hallway by the bathroom.
My plain slice was still hot — it was cut right from a brand new pizza — and didn’t need to be reheated. They proudly use «grande» cheese, which I’m not really familiar with but was very nice and stringy when eaten.
There’s also a functioning bathroom, so I didn’t have to brave the J train with a full Diet Snapple in my bladder. When it comes to reviewing places like this, small victories are worth noting, and there are couple to be had here.

The workers are completely rude and disrespectful. They do not honor the loyalty of their customers and I WILL NEVER be going back to this spot. I used to go every weekend late night for a slice of pizza due to convenience but after my latest visit on my friends birthday, they were so demeaning about what we actually ordered and what we were being charged for and pulled other customers into our argument.
HORRIBLE– I hope they close!

OK after totally writing this place off for its s — ty pizza back in the early 2010s when I started a job right across the street, I gave this place another try and I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
The pizza is much better than I remember it – kinda thin crust and reasonably tasty. It’s not fabulous but it’s pretty decent. At $ 5 for two plain slices and a small soda (though the soda is indeed SMALL), it beats $ 6 for the same deal (though with more soda) at Underground a couple blocks away. And while Underground is okay, I find it inconsistent and sometimes too thick/​gloppy.
So Cucina Bene, kudos in improving your product (which wasn’t too hard being how awful it was a few years ago). You’ve won back a customer, at least for now.

Honestly, with pizza, I’m not too picky. If I’m coming home from work late on a Friday night or was out at a happy hour a bit too long and want pizza, I’ll come here.
Cucina Bene’s open till midnight daily, which helps for trying to get late night food fast. I usually only get 2 cheese slices (maybe 3 if I’m greedy) to go. No pies and nothing special.
I judge pizza spots on whether they’re cheap and whether they can make the easiest thing ever: cheese pizza.
Cucina Bene passes the test for me.

I was with a group of people after a long day of day drinking. As this place is right outside my apartment we ordered a large cheese for $ 14 and to our surprise. it was delicious. there were 8 thin slices so we each had 2. could’ve easily had more, but it was enough. Very thin crust but it was good. Everyone was raving over it and my friends who live in murray hill thought it was the best they had and wanted to bring a box home.

I just had this delivered to my hotel and it was disgusting. The veggie slice tasted sour like it had been sitting around all day, and the sausage roll was literally a roll of cheese and round sausages– no onions, no peppers. The outside was completely burnt. Will not order againl

I enjoyed the white slice. It had the right amount of cheese, ricotta and dough ratio. It was not greasy and taking that first bite was divine. Crispy thin and extremely flavorful. There was not much options on a Sunday night so I was pleased with what I had chosen. It’s more of a dive pizza joint then a restaurant. A few chair and tables with a abundance of seasonings to use:) I would revisit if I’m ever around the area!

Not a place I’d go out of my way to find, but if you are in the area and looking for something for pizza, or something to eat for that matter, Cucina Bene is a great choice.
I was pleased to find a pizza place that was open at night in the Financial District (it was Christmas Eve as well). The pizza was pricey (but not ridiculously so) as pizza tends to be if it’s not Little Caesar’s, but the pizza displayed at the counter looked much better. Since I was alone I ordered a calzone instead of pizza. It was very very tasty and still piping hot when I got it back to my hotel room.
There may be better pizza elsewhere in NYC but I found Cucina Bene more than fit the bill!

I’m sure pizza places are a dime a dozen in New York, so this review is for everyone who is willing to make pizza night a good one. If you’re craving pizza, you should order the best pizza possible to satisfy your craving. There is nothing like being disappointed when trying to satisfy a craving.
I found the pizza to be underwhelming. A small half cheese, half pepperoni was nothing special and did not stand out in any way. The pizza came with fake cheese, red pepper flakes, garlic salt, and oregano in little containers as toppings. Maybe they should put the ingredients in the sauce for more flavor instead of offering them as separate toppings — you should make the pizza taste good first and foremost.
If you need carbs after a night of drinking this pizza will do just fine since it’s likely you won’t taste it anyway. If sober I would highly recommend any other pizza place in the area — choose wisely.

I just went in to get a basic house salad with grilled chicken. After waiting for 5 minutes I received a small pizza box with the instructions «be careful». I did my best to keep the box at perfect level to the horizon as I walked 3 blocks back to my office. After stepping off the curb my entire leg was soaked with salad dressing. Hopefully eating it would be a better experience than my embarrassment for having crap pants for the rest of the day.
So much for having ruined not only my pants (I hope the stains come out) but my appetite. The salad was floating in salad dressing F.L.O.A.T.I.N.G. Don’t discount the amount that was already on my pants and all over wall street. The pizza box, the included napkins and utensils, now my cubical is a greasy mess. You might be saying oh you had a bad day.
Why yes reader I had a bad day and just to state for the record the salad was gross and the chicken had no taste and barely looked grilled. The office vending machine is looking good to me now — bon appetit

One of the worst Italian meals I ever had in my life. Ordered my dinner online and asked for two very, very simple dishes: lentil soup and spaghetti with tomato sauce.
These two are probably the easiest things in the world to cook. Honestly, the only reason I ordered online was my own laziness at 10pm. What a mistake.
Delivery time was actually fine but then I opened the bag… This was the FIRST TIME EVER in my life that I threw a meal without tasting it. I felt bad, maybe a little ashamed, but I had no other option. It was my own well-​begin and my upcoming sleep on the line. Plus, I didn’t have any ginger tea at home to wash the oil down.
The simplest dish in the entire world (spaghetti with tomato sauce) was covered by a thick, pizza like cheese covering the entire thing and dripping loads of oil down on the pasta. In the menu they don’t even mention that there is any kind of cheese on the spaghetti and certainly not a mountain of melting cheese. I tried pilling the cheese off, a task which appeared impossible. The lentil soup had no evident taste-​particles of lentil in it. It had no taste, tons of oil, really simply disgusting.
I know, it’s difficult to find good restaurants in the financial district area. It’s even harder to find decent restaurants with decent prices. However, Cucina Bene, shouldn’t be one of them. the ONLY thing Italian about this restaurant is its name.

I really like the pizza at this spot and I’ll continue to patronize it, but it still seems a bit pricey to me to buy a cheese slice for $ 2.75. Yeah, they’re fairly large flat slices (typical NY slice), but it’s well above what a lot of other and comparable places throughout the city charge.
Always open til midnight, never one to turn people away because they’re wrapping up right before close. Also, be sure to have your garnishments ready so you can put them on while it’s good and hot out of the oven!

Three stars for my test, nothing special was expecting something better. Would not recommend unless you need quick food that tastes like a chain shop pizza and will not go back.