Rudy's — Restaurant in Cliffside Park

I must admit that I'm not a fan of bar/restaurants because the emphasis is always on the "bar thing" and not the food. Despite that, last night (Friday, January 24, 2020) we decided to try Rudy's Seafood Restaurant in Cliffside Park, a neighborhood joint we've passed by a thousand times.

When we got to Rudy's the bar area was a bit busy already; the dining room, which is a small, "kind of cozy" and bare-knuckles area adjacent to the bar, was not. The dining room has a rustic feel with lots of old family pictures all over the walls. The tables were arranged with just paper mats and paper napkins--sorry, no tablecloth and/or cloth napkins here.

We sat down and soon after were greeted by the server, a "quick-on-her- feet" (to the point that it was quite hard to get a hold of her) lady, not too engaging and certainly not interested in more than the necessary talk with customers.

Our order consisted of a "Bottle of Chardonnay" ($27), which was served cold, however, the server never bothered or offered to bring an ice bucket or a wine cooler, in order to keep it cold; a full portion of "Fried Calamari" ($14) to share, which is the house specialty but we found it to be just OK; a "Zuppa di Pesce" ($25), which was rejected by my partner because the pasta was almost "ice cold"; and an entré portion of Seafood Salad ($17), served in a small plate (perhaps to make it look bigger than it really was), that consisted of "fake crab" (yeah, those sticks of colored pollock fish that you find in most Asian supermarkets), calamari, a few scattered slices of scungili and a handful of tiny defrosted shrimps, over a bed of romaine lettuce---very disappointing!

By the way, NONE of the dishes we ordered (which are, apparently, their claim to "fame"), resembled in the least the ones depicted in the official pictures on Rudy's website.

In the end, we found Rudy's to be a quite expensive proposition, considering what we had : $80.50 for a bottle of inexpensive white wine, a fried calamari, a seafood salad and a glass of water (the server forgot to bring my partner the glass of water he had asked for when she brought the wine).

On the way out, we walked through the bar area, which was then packed with people drinking, talking, laughing and socializing---seemingly having a good time.

If you're looking for an Italian seafood home-cooking experience, then skip Rudy's---you won't regret it!

Our rating (1-Lowest - 5-Highest): Food: 1.5, Decor: 1, Service: ...

Went today for Father's Day. Terrible. The food, the service, the seating, everything.

Ordered the seafood combo. I have ordered this for decades in dozens of restaurants. It's usually between 3 and 6 seafoods. Today, it was 2....calamari and shrimp. The cocktail sauce was so hot that my tongue and mouth were on fire, my eyes watering, and my nose running. And I like it Spicey, but this was too much. They said it was medium. Of course, I'm out of water and the waiter is no place in sight......for 20 minutes. We finally see him and I ask for water and a different sauce. I'm dying. It takes him another 5 minutes to bring these. Now, my food is cold.

The waiter advised that my entree came with a side of pasta. Someone else brought the food out, but no pasta. She said it didn't come with it. I told them I wanted pasta and they brought it.

Used to go there years ago quite often. The tiny room usually seats about 15 to 20. Today, it was 30. As a result, it was so loud We couldn't hear to talk. We literally had to ask the entire table next to us to get up and move so we could leave. The guy in the table next to us was one inch away, but not back to back. His back to my...

Stopped by for dinner tonight with a big group. It wasn’t busy in the back room so once they got our table ready we got seated. Our server was very sweet and friendly. We started off with the calamari (one full portion and one half), pasta fagioli, spicy thai coconut wings, and thai tarragon wings. All the apps were very good but my favorites were the wings! Sooo sooo yummy. They also gave us some bread; weird but they don’t serve butter….

For our mains we got the chicken francese, chicken marsala, linguine with clams, shrimp francese and penne vodka with grilled chicken. The chicken francese was served over linguine, it was okay, needed some work and some salt; same thing with the penne vodka. My sister and boyfriend got the linguine with clams and they both loved theirs. I also tasted it and next time I come I would probably order that.

For dessert we ordered the tiramisu, cannoli, and cheesecake. The tiramisu was by far one of the best ones I’ve ever had (I got it without chocolate sauce). The cannoli and cheesecake were good too but the best dessert option everyone should be getting is...