East Bay Italian Grille and Bar — Restaurant in Barnegat Township

My first time ordering I had bought 2 Chicken Penne Vodka entrees, I paid nearly $70 and couldn't wrap my head around the pricing, although the quantity was large the food was mediocre. I didn't complain, I wanted to give them another chance. Last night I called and ordered a Eggplant Parmigiana Sub, and a small chicken fingers with french fries which equaled $27. When I picked up my order I thought something felt off as I didn't feel a sub inside the bag. Before I walked out I opened the bag and seen 2 aluminum containers, the sub was a little 5 inch sandwich with a hand full of not fresh fries, the chicken fingers looked ok however it was paired with about 8 grey looking french fries. All the food was cold. I explained to the girl at the counter that the sub is not what I ordered. She kept arguing with me that I ordered the eggplant panini, the word panini never once came out of my mouth. The eggplant panini on their menu is made with balsamic (which I am allergic). The girl behind the counter argued with me that there was no balsamic on it. I spoke with the owner and he assured me they would re-make my order, at this point of going back and forth I was turned off with their service and requested a refund which they refused to do. Im not sure why they would start re-making my food after I told them I didn't want it. I was furious and worried that I would receive a doctored up eggplant sub with scrapped off balsamic. The owner explained to me that the word panini is just a fancy word for sandwhich. As I look at their menu today, I see that they don't even offer subs. I wish this was explained to me before I placed my order. It would have saved us all the headache. I repeatedly insisted that I didn't want their food, they refused a refund. As I walked out I heard the owners wife ask the cashier if I at least paid. No customer satisfaction, they just cared if they got their money. A customer walked out empty handed, and paid for nothing. Your welcome for my service!

In addition, reading the other reviews the owners responses are unprofessional and condescending. Seems like they don't take accountability for their lack of customer satisfaction.

I have copy and pasted the definition of a panini and a sub since they don't know that a sub and a panini are different from each other.

"For a Panini Consider this if you want: A crisp, warm, and uniformly pressed sandwich with a distinctly Italian character, perfect for a lighter meal. "

"For a Hot Sub Consider this if you want: A longer, more hearty hot sandwich with soft bread, ideal for a substantial meal with a variety of classic fillings."

I requested a refund. And told you I didn’t want anything from your establishment. I got the wife’s attention before I walked out and AGAIN said “ I feel like I was rubbed the wrong way, and I do not want any food from for this place” .

First off, secondly is very condescending and proves my point that my review is warranted. A refund to my card would be greatly...

Just Ordered Food from this establishment. Ordered several paninis and some appetizers including fried onion rings. I was given shoe string fried onions which were mostly batter. The charge was $4.99 and I called the manager back to tell her I didn’t receive the onion rings and was informed that is “their style” of Onion rings. I told the manager I was actually looking for onion rings and asked if they could credit me the $4.99 because my kids wouldn’t eat them. She told me “how about Some steak fries”? I said I’d rather have the credit and my meal already has steak fries but she told me they don’t do credit. I said well i’d like to order again and it would make me feel better to have the $5 credit. She said no we don’t do that and I asked her if it was worth a bad review in which she didn’t respond. I asked again if I could get a credit on the next order and she said “no”. Will not order again. Too bad. Food is ok, customer service and attitude is poor.

Response to owner reply- Sir- your manager did not offer a credit. She offered me steak fries. She said she would leave a note in the drawer with my name that I would be credited for steak fries. I told her to put a note in the drawer for a $5 credit. Why is it even an issue? Why not offer a credit out of the gate? I even asked her “is not offering me a credit worth a bad review” in which she responded, we don’t do credits but I can give you steak fries. Why does it always take a bad review to just be courteous to someone when they call and do right when you clearly state you have onion rings on your menu ? I’m sure it’s not your first complaint on the misleading “fried onion rings” for $4.99 on your menu. What you served is something you throw on top of a burger for an extra .75... and that’s a maybe. Leave me your name and I’ll gladly call you tomorrow. It’s not the $5, it’s not even the fact I didn’t have the onion rings to give my kids, it’s the fact that I point blank asked your manager for a $5 for the next time I come in (which I probably wouldn’t even had asked for or remembered at my next visit) and she told me no and tried to offer steak fries (which I already had 2 orders of that with my paninis). I don’t want to hurt your business and I’ll even remove my review after we speak but you have to do better. It’s ok the menu is misleading, it’s ok I didn’t get what I wanted, it’s ok to be understanding, it’s ok to be nice... it’s even better to accommodate someone when they are being polite and asking for an explanation of why onion straws are listed as onion rings and to credit them the next time...

We had a few problems Menu online pricing was not updated to current menu prices so that was misleading. Gluten Free pizza crust is not that great. Sadly, this is the 7th pizza/Italian restaurant Ive tried the gf pizza at hoping to find a tasty crust like I used to get up north before we moved down south. Every restaurant in the area uses the same exact gf crust-probably from the same distributor/company-and they all are salty, horrible, tasteless, and think of this crust as biting into your kitchen sponge topped with sauce and cheese. Not a good thing. They need to go to Restaurant Depot and buy a few cases of Rich’s Gluten Free pizza crust- they come frozen.. or contact Roma Foods and get their Cauliflower Pizza crust- the best on the planet for gf pizza! Please stop using the pizza crusts you have! Tossed side salad- VERY disappointing. I asked for Romaine lettuce. We got wilted spring mix (or mesclun mix) salad greens and literally only about 1/2 cup of greens, a few shaved carrots and a couple of grape tomatoes for a 5$ salad??? My husband got the rigatoni, broccoli rabe and Italian sausage pasta dish. He liked it. He said it was flavorful and not floating in excess oil. He said they used butter and oil in the dish which is smart as the butter adds a richer, fuller flavor to the dish. OK! Now were cooking! We had a gift certificate. We called in the order and wanted to use the gift certificate. We were told that they cant take the gift certificate as payment on delivery items over the phone. No where on the gift certificate does it say that. They said that they have no way to track the gift certificates because they dont have a copy of it once its purchased to be given as a gift. No carbon copy? No record keeping book? Computer program? No nothing?? Ughhhh Might give this place another go around. But not for gluten free pizza. Im not sure what else is gluten free on their menu as there is nothing listed but when I called they had a few items they told me over...