Ristorante MV — Restaurant in Bernardsville

What was supposed to be an intimate, romantic evening out turned into a game to see what ridiculous thing happened next. The attention to aesthetics has sadly overshadowed attention to details of the food and overall experience. It honestly felt like someone saw a hip Manhattan restaurant on tv and tried to recreate the vibe, without understanding that you can't recreate Manhattan anywhere else.

This restaurant is in a stunning old stone building, truly beautiful. The tree in the middle of the room is a little odd but still pretty. There is no noise absorption, so between all the people and the loud thumping music, we had to shout at each other. The table was long and narrow, so that we felt very far apart but somehow there wasn't enough room and it felt cramped.

When we walked in we were greeted by two incredibly beautiful people, who stared us down like they were judging whether we were good enough, and barely said two words (or maybe we just couldn't hear over the noise). The woman who seated us floated through the restaurant. It looked fantastic but did not make us feel welcome; it was like being seated by the Mean Girl at school.

The waitstaff seems to be comprised of 4 or so middle aged men who look like they walked out of a photo of an Italian restaurant from the 40s: very stiff, wearing dress shirts and ties, sort of glowering like they don't want to be there. They were clearly hired for, again, aesthetics, rather than experience, as the pacing and other details were very off. Most of the actual work of service seems to be done by the army of younger servers who don't interact as much with customers.

Our server (whose name I could not hear over the noise, if he even told us) asked me if I wanted a drink, I asked for sparkling water, and he walked away without asking my husband for his drink order. Then he kept coming to take our order when we were clearly still reading the menus. He did not tell us the fish of the day until we asked. When we finally put our menus down, ready to order, we had to wait quite a while for him to come back. That's what I mean by uneven pacing; the whole evening went like that. After finishing dessert, we gave up after about 15 minutes and eventually asked a different server for our check.

By the way, the menu you see online is only half (or less) of the actual menu. When you arrive, they present you with that one, plus a "daily specials" menu that is at least as long as the main menu. It includes wines down the bottom and is in tiny print, so it takes a minute to orient yourself to two different double-sided menus: there are at least two wine menus, two lists of appetizers, two lists of pastas, etc. so you have to keep going back and forth. That's why we took so long to order, we kept finding new things we hadn't seen yet on the menu. If they want to present a daily changing second menu, they should find a way to better organize that information and present it to customers.

The food was inconsistent. There were some dishes that we were really happy to see; as others have noted there are dishes that are pretty rare outside Italy, and a couple that my grandfather used to make for holidays, which was very heartwarming to see. The tuna and tomato salad was very good. The fried zucchini seems to come in different sizes to different tables, but was tasty. Nearly everything was under-seasoned. They did provide a salt shaker (only salt) on the table, so my guess is they under-season for the older patrons and then let you dump salt on top if you want more.

The biggest crime is that we both got pasta dishes, and none of the pasta was al dente.

It's not that the food was bad, not at all in fact. However, it doesn't come close to the food at other restaurants in the area that are similarly priced. You could do better at one of the other Italian restaurants in Bernardsville alone.

tl;dr: A hilarious amount of effort trying to look cool and authentic, not quite enough attention on BEING cool and authentic, and definitely not enough attention on consistently delicious and...

My family and I have been to Ristorante MV a couple times and have generally had an exceptional dining experience. This time around, however, there was one issue in particular that tainted the entire endeavor that will almost certainly keep me away from the establishment for good. I will elaborate below.

My latest dining experience took place on Valentine's Day, which included a fixed holiday-specific menu - meaning that it was a 3-course meal with an appetizer, an entrée, and a desert.item. Myself and the party with whom I attended, as usual, enjoyed everything we ordered and were pleased. The appetizers ordered were an escarole salad, a clam oreganata, and a fried mozzarella dish, all of which were good. For entrées, I ordered salmon which was well-cooked and nicely seasoned; the steamed vegetables on the side, to the contrary, were something that I would expect as a side for salmon at a diner, not at an upscale dining establishment. That was a disappointment because it was below their obviously high standards. My other acquaintances ordered a seafood risotto and fettuccine with a truffle cream sauce, all of which tasted great in their opinion. For desert, I ordered the chocolate tartufo which was delicious and had some obviously homemade vanilla gelato; my other acquaintances ordered a ricotta cheesecake and a tiramisu, all of which were exceptional - so within expectations. It is obvious that MV cares a great deal about the quality of their food and it shows in their execution and output: you can notice the quality differential between MV's food and average Italian cuisine. It's almost hardly a comparison.

Along with the experience, we were lucky to have a live vocal performance from someone that sounded remarkably like Frank Sinatra, which was a huge plus to the experience.

So...why 1 star? The price: among my PARTY OF THREE, the bill amounted to $650...I am NOT joking. This is an absurd price point - even for an upscale place like MV. The meal, as good as it was, was not even remotely justified for the price we had to pay. After burning through a great deal of cash, I recalculated what my order would have amounted to outside of Valentine's Day dining. It would have been around $70-75. What in the world justifies a 100% price increase for the same food?

You may be asking: why did you bother coming if it was well beyond your dining budget? Simple: the restaurant didn't even bother disclosing the price of the 3-course meal. We didn't even know it was a special $150/person three-course fixed menu until we walked in and were handed the menus. It was not disclosed on their website; it was not disclosed on OpenTable - the site you use to make reservations; it was not disclosed on the reservation confirmation email. I don't know if this was deliberate (hell, I don't even know if it is legal), but if it was, then this is a disgraceful practice in which to engage. For obvious reasons, it would have been outright silly to sit down, get the menu, read the price, then get up and leave the place when we went through the trouble to make the reservation, let alone waste the lengthy drive and preparation to dress the part. My party honestly considered leaving after being in the establishment for only five minutes. For a restaurant that already served pricy food, this is a serious problem. Again, I've been to MV twice prior to this - I was expecting to spend a fair bit of money, but NOT $650.

For a restaurant like MV to forget this detail is deplorable and deceptive to consumers - a grotesque practice if not disclosing the price until arrival was intentional. The owner might as well have pickpocketed me after I ate, and then booted me out of the place in the same way you would see in children's cartoons.

Nothing about the experience justified raising the price by 2.0-2.5 times what is normally sold, not even on a holiday. I'm not going to be deceived in an act of what felt like highway robbery, which is why I am NEVER going back to this establishment. I am thoroughly...

My family and I have been to Ristorante MV a few times however this was my first time dining on their Trattoria side

[Important to note: if you have a reservation, you will enter in the lower portion of the restaurant where the little VW Beetle is parked. If you don’t have a reservation and want to sit at the bar/high top tables, you can go into the Trattoria side right next to the valet that has a smaller menu than the regular restaurant. The Trattoria side is first come, first serve, and it does get packed.]

Parking: there is valet parking and very limited street parking (almost none). The valet is free however don’t forget to tip!

SERVICE: We were promptly greeted by our server who said the tables and bar were seat yourself. We had arrived around 5:45-6 and there were more bar seats than table tops available on a Friday, and we sat at a high top. Our server, and older gentleman, was great (didn’t write down a single thing and everything came out correct - quite impressive). He had great recommendations and was very friendly without being overbearing. Between our server and the buss boy, we were well taken care of with food and drinks. It was also very refreshing to see that the Trattoria seemed to have quite a few “regulars” - great to see at a restaurant.

APPETIZERS: Mozzarella “Croccante” | Rating: 5/5 - absolutely to die for. If there’s one dish to start off your dining experience, it’s this. The breading on the outside was light as well as the sauce. The mozzarella was fried to perfection, probably some of the best we’ve ever had! Fritturo Di Calamari | Rating: 5/5 - super crispy and lightly fried, great portion for a table of 4. Came out piping hot.

ENTREES: Baked Fuscilli Pasta | Rating: 5/5 - the pasta was cooked to perfection in the middle with a crispy outer layer smothered in mozzarella. Delicious! Penne Rigati | Rating: 5/5 - SPICY as it states but delicious. Full of spicy flavor from the peppers (which you can ask to omit), and the garlic was a great addition to the flavors of the pasta. Eggplant | Rating: 5/5 - exceptional, super flavorful and delicious. The eggplant had a great crisp to it as well and that sauce is just to die for.

DESSERT: Cannoli | Rating: 5/5 - light and delicious to split with the table. The fruit was super fresh and sweet too (and this was in April 2024). Highly recommend as a dish to share.

DRINKS: My table did order drinks and said they were spectacular. The right amount of alcohol and mixers in their martini and pear drink.

Overall, if you haven’t tried Ristorante MV and want to, you absolutely need to dine at both the Ristorante and Trattoria - they offer different but similar menus and the food is out of this world - fresh, flavorful, and piping hot. The drinks and bar are fabulous and overall just a really elevated establishment....