One thing Aubrey and I both love to do is eat! We always love trying new foods and restaurants, especially when we travel. Luckily, every now and then there’s a new and exciting restaurant that opens up in our backyard that we get to try. We’ve been anxiously waiting for this newest restaurant to open for what feels like forever! Rober is Benton, AR’s newest addition to the downtown restaurant scene and we are so excited to have it as an option. Keep reading for all of the details and how to schedule your reservations ASAP!
What is Rober?
Rober is the newest downtown Benton restaurant that is adding a new and interesting flavor to the dining out scene. The business is owned by the same family who owns and operates both Baja Grill and Valhalla downtown. In fact, it’s right next door to those two restaurants! Baja is personally one of my favorite restaurants of all time, so I already knew we would probably really enjoy Rober. I would say the main difference between the family’s other two restaurants and Rober is that Rober is more of an adult atmosphere while Baja Grill and Valhalla are very family friendly.
Rober describes themselves as “serving upscale American dinners, having an open-view charcuterie bar, an eclectic lounge facing South St. to meet with friends, enjoy high-end wines by the glass/quartino/bottle/flight, cocktails (classic & signature), & whiskey flights.”
After visiting Rober ourselves, I would say their description is certainly accurate!
Menu Highlights
Food
There are a couple of special food menu highlights that had us really excited to try Rober! The first special highlight is their bacon flight. It is 4 strips of pork belly bacon all done differently, and presented in the most fun way! The presentation also includes bacon cutting scissors to keep the appetizer easy to share. Flavors include candied brown sugar and, my favorite, chocolate pistachio! Another of the menu highlights I was very excited about was dessert. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I’m always excited to check out a new dessert menu. Rober has an affogato, ice cream with espresso poured over it, that was the perfect sweet treat at the end of our meal. For our main course, Aubrey had their burger and I had the gnocchi appetizer. Both were really great and more than either of us could finish in one sitting.
Drink
One of the most surprising and exciting part of Rober’s menu is their drink options. They certainly pride themselves on their bourbon and whiskey selections, and they have a list of really great craft cocktails! For our first visit, I played it semi-safe with a traditional Paloma and loved it. Aubrey is a big rum drinker, so he tried a drink called On The Rum that was really good too. There are a ton of different craft cocktails made with vodka, gin, whiskey, and bourbon on their drink list as well as an extensive wine selection. You would be hard pressed not to find a drink for everyone in your group with all their options!
Check out some pictures from our dinner here:
Atmosphere
The atmosphere at Rober is one of my favorite things about the restaurant. As you can see in some of the food photos, it is a romantically lit room with beautiful furnishings that are also very trendy. The servers are in all black, and the moment you walk in you feel like you’re in a really special place. Besides the actual restaurant, they also have a lounge called the Mary Ellen Lounge where you can meet more casually with friends or coworkers for pre-dinner or happy hour cocktails. The lounge is decorated with funky wallpaper and décor that’s a ton of fun. This is definitely one of the most unique restaurants in Benton in all the right ways!
