Nino's Coal Fired Pizza Brick — Restaurant in Brick Township

I will preface this review by saying that I live in Times Square and I am surrounded by approximately 50 Italian restaurants within 10 blocks. New York prides itself on having special water that makes the sauce for its pizza the best in the world, so what a pleasant surprise it was to find this Gem of an Italian restaurant down at the Jersey Shore

The restaurant is definitely family style and reminds me a bit of a smaller NJ version of Carmines, but dare I say, the food is actually better. To start, the warm bread, which is baked in the coal oven is heaven and we probably could have given this place 5 stars for that alone. Since we were a party of 6, we opted for the family style, and got a huge salad, chicken wings (that were about the meatiest wings I have had in a while) and the pasta bolognese, which other reviewers have raved about, so it must be a house specialty. Since the place is known for its pizza, we got 3 different types of topping, and my sons really thought the fig and goat cheese was something so unique and excellent, that they would travel 2 hours again, just for that.

To top it off, we had the most amazing Zeppoli with Nutella, that is better than any dessert I have had in NYC. Once again, the coal oven is likely the hidden secret, as everything tastes so fresh when it is warm and out of the oven

Last, but certainly not least, was the excellent service we received. The place had a descent crowd for a Sunday night, but my table felt like we were the only ones there given the attentive service and excellent recommendations we received. In this case, the hidden secret was not the oven, but as we found out, our server - Joey - was the son of the owner - so great service and taste must run in the family. He actually told us about the Instagram page - under the name of the restaurant - which had some amusing videos, which made our trip home that much more enjoyable

Not sure if we will be back at the shore again this summer, but we might just make a special trip out of the city and down to Toms River to eat at this place again, especially if we are guaranteed to see the father and son that we watched on the many entertaining videos

Thank you again Nino's for being a highlight...

Update [12/11/18]: went back with my husband to give it a try. food was good and service has gotten better. The issue is that when we left the restaurant, my stomach started to hurt and I could feel it bubble. by the time we made it home I had diarrhea. I’m a nurse so I knew that I’d i was feeling sick but my husband wasn’t, whoever made my food must have not washed my hands. I said to my husband that it’s clearly a bacteria making me sick. that's when my husband told me they didn’t have any soap in the men’s bathroom. he felt gross not being able to wash his hands. It dawned on us... if customers can’t wash their hands... the staff probably can’t either. This happened Friday night and here I am on Tuesday still sick to my stomach. I called to speak with the owner because I’m sure I’m not the only one that got sick. no return call. My score was originally a 2, but now I dropped it to a 1. I’m sure the department of health will enjoy this.

[original post]: I’ve been here four times and while the pizza is delicious, the service is horrible. it’s enough to make me not want to return honestly.

had I know that one of the pizzas we ordered wouldn’t come with sauce and would basically be a white pizza, I wouldn’t have ordered it. I asked for a cup of sauce on the side and it never came. I would have appreciated when placing the order to maybe he told “hey the menu doesn’t say, but it doesn’t come with sauce”. I basically had bread with butter garlic and cheese for dinner.

we asked for bread since there was olive oil on the table. The bread came towards the end of our meal and there wasn’t a plate.

We would have asked for a plate but we couldn’t find the waitress and since it was at the end of the meal.. it wasn’t worth the effort anymore.

We tried to get a refill on our drinks but again couldn’t find the waitress.

we were there an hour before closing on our most recent visit and the workers were more concerned with getting everybody out than providing optimal customer service.

I really wish I could give this review a higher score but it doesn’t matter how good the food is when the...

I’ve been trying to go here for about 6 months after seeing their content on their instagram page. We live in Wall and our friends live in Beachwood, so it was a perfect meeting point and byob! The second we walked in we witnessed the famous Angelo Bella singing to the customers. It was fantastic!! What a great way to start a evening. We were greeted by Pauly who was super welcoming and showed us to our table. We had Dawn as our server and she was training Julia who is brand new to the restaurant. They were both so sweet and accommodating. We had to try the homemade mozzarella sticks for an appetizer, which were amazing. Dawn made a great suggestion for our sides of pasta by letting us know which are fresh and made in-house (I believe it’s the spaghetti, linguini and fettuccine). If you never had fresh pasta, it is a world of a difference than dry pasta and soaks up 20% more of the sauce and the texture is incomparable. As our appetizers came out, we were also served complimentary warm Italian bread and bruschetta with crostini's. Then we were served complimentary salads with our meals!! So much food! All so fresh and delicious. Our friend who came changed her order from penne vodka to linguini and vodka (great suggestion from Dawn) and she loved it! I had the coal fired wings and the tomato pie and both were so crispy with such nice flavors from coal fired oven. When we received our bill it was only 108 dollars for 4 people!! I was floored by the value we got for such a gourmet meal. I had to give this restaurant 5 stars between the atmosphere of the loving family who owns the restaurant, fresh and delicious food, and the more than reasonable price for the experience. Thank you for the wonderful night Nino’s, we will...