Mancini's Brick Oven Pizzeria and Restaurant — Restaurant in Fenwick Island

This used to be my must go-to place - unfortunately the past 5 times I've been there have been progressively worse each time (I gave it FIVE passes I loved this place so much). So I'm out.

This past week we went to eat at around 5:30pm when there's less crowd. If you get there later you're bound to wait (this has to be from past year's reputation). The place was hot. Not warm. Hot. No air. It's July.

The waiter who seemed a nice enough guy seemed out of his depth almost immediately. We asked 3 times for butter and a set of silverware and small plate that was missing when we sat down. Three times. My wife had to wait for 10 minutes while her app sat there getting cold...waiting for utensils. Butter came after we asked the 4th time and by then the food was almost out.

Then there's the food. I went simple: marinara and linguini. Ya know how at the end of "Goodfellas" Henry Hill, says "I ordered spaghetti and marinara and I got egg noodles and ketchup." ? Thats what this was. Barely seasoned, what tasted like sweet tomato sauce. I could have sworn it might have been canned regular tomato sauce. In past years their marinara has been outstanding, robustly seasoned and firm. This was tasteless watery slop.

I also got the roasted garlic bulb (again, previous years...really good) this time? Burned on the bottom so much that the cloves were black on the bottom edge.

My Mom said immediately after starting to eat "this place isn't what it used to be...they've done something." And I couldn't argue about it. I used to rave to friends about this place and recommend it - to which said friends would come back and say "that was amazing!" I can't do that anymore. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Our last meal there, (and I say last because I'm done with the place after spending several hundreds of dollars there) was $150 dollars...and it wasn't worth $35.

All I can assume is they are seriously cutting corners, relying on previous reputation to keep people coming in. Or, they've made their money and just don't care anymore. Either way, it's a shame that one of the premier eating establishments in the area doesn't seem bothered to let it all go downhill, and coast on past...

First time trying this place while on vacation. We decided to get takeout rather than dine in, which was smart because there was no parking available. In their defense, it was the day after Labor Day, most of the other pizza places were closed on Labor Day, which created a mass frenzy when they opened back up the next day- which also means most places were unprepared for the mass pizza frenzy and consequently ran out of pizza. Strange restaurants did not anticipate this, but then again everyone is on beach time. But Mancini’s did not run out of pizza. They were not our first choice, because we were just looking for pizza. Regular large pizza shop pizza, but there was none to be found that night. We gave this place a try and we were not disappointed! I would preface this by saying this is NOT a pizza joint. This is a family Italian restaurant, that also serves pizza. They are smaller 12” pizzas. Rustic wood fired pizza typically is not any larger than 12”. So you’re not going to find a 30” pie here to feed a room full of kids, for senior week. We had the margarita pizza, which was delicious. Nice crispy crust, with a chewy, foldable texture. Bright, fresh tomato sauce, with a hint of sweetness, accompanied by fresh basil. Perfect for one person, or to share with other menu items. In addition, my wife ordered the Romaine and Gorgonzola salad-very fresh. I’m saving the best for last here… the Meatballs are AMAZING! We also ordered a side of meatballs. Two large homemade meatballs. These are the real deal! The right amount of fresh parsley, herbs and parmigiana. Very moist, extremely divine! Dinner for two…margarita pizza, fresh salad and a side of outstanding meatballs- pair with your favorite red wine and you’ve got the perfect fair. The server that delivered our food curbside, was friendly, but also visibly tired, from the amount of volume they were handling. She was a trooper, and they were doing a pretty good job at handling the parking lot traffic, which was pretty crazy. We’ll...

Whenever we're at the beach hubby and I try to have a different cuisine for dinner each night of our trip and we chose Mancini's for Italian night after reading reviews. We arrived later in the evening and were seated right away and greeted by a delightful waiter named Victor, very personable and great personality. We started with the Roasted Garlic along with the crusty bread and also a Caesar Salad. The bread was really good but I guess I was doing something wrong because the roasted garlic really didn't have much of a taste but I loved the Caesar Salad, the dressing had that little bite that I like, just a hint of spiciness. For dinner I went with the Veal Parmesan and Spaghetti and Hubby got a Pizza with meatballs. We ended up sharing most of my veal because the portion was so large and we knew we could snack on the pizza later. The sauce was perfection, I love a sauce where you can taste the fresh tomatoes and the veal was good but I would have preferred that it be cooked a little longer, I prefer the breading on my veal to be more crispy and this was a bit mushy but I guess that next time I could ask them to cook it a little longer. The pizza was quite good and I was pretty shocked to see how large the pieces of meatball were. I have to say the best part of the meal was Victor and his huge personality, when he saw me about to take a photo he asked if I would like for him to grate the parmesan onto my pasta as I was taking the photo for a more dramatic effect - he's a gem. We'll definitely be back but will share a meal next time, yes the portions...