Villa María Restaurant — Restaurant in Hamilton Township

I love this restaurant. It is one of the hidden gems in the area because it looks like your typical pizzeria but the menu has some of the best Italian food. The fried calamari is one of the best I’ve ever had, and the appetizer is enough to feed the table. The shrimp cocktail is also remarkable as they use jumbo shrimp and not the puny ones you get when you order Red Lobster’s version of the same dish. The mussels (either red or white sauce) are amazingly fresh and delicious. Do not hesitate to order seafood here. I have been going to this restaurant for over 20 years and have never been disappointed. The daily specials is why I come back however. They have such an amazing variety of specialty dishes that they rarely repeat themselves. I don’t want to miss a dish because it may not be on the menu for another couple months. I highly recommend Villa Maria. It is a hidden gem for seafood dishes and is one of the best Italian eateries in the area. Great pizza and cheesesteaks, especially the chicken Romano pizza, but the entrees and specials is where they outshine every other pizzeria in the area. They are in a class of their own, and I wouldn’t go anywhere else for pizza, cheese steaks, fried calamari, shrimp cocktail or anytime I want an...

Food ranged from outstanding to downright awful in what was overrall a mixed bag experience. Starting with the good, the clams casino was among some of the best I've ever tried, with very generous amounts of filling and good clams. The Sicilian style calamari was also excellent as it was very crispy with a great sauce to it. The stuffed eggplant also was very good and the Italian bread provided with the meal was perfect. The negatives came with the veal. I ordered the veal francese and it was unfortunately the most rubbery and dry piece of veal I can remember. The bready also was quite soggy despite being fried and the sauce it came in was bland and tasteless. The angel hair pasta also was far too mushy and overcooked to salvage. House salad was mediocre as well. The service also was on the more subpar side with our servers being pretty inattentive and not even opening our bottles of wine for us. Overrall food can be very good if you order the right thing but food quality was very...

Being new to this area I decided I wanted to try a dinner from here. My normal “go to” dinner is a lasagna with meatballs. I also ordered the soup special of lobster bisque which is something I really love! Was told it would be ready in 25 minutes and it was. It looks like it has a nice restaurant seating area in the back as well. Got home and sat down to eat and noticed there were no meatballs with my order. As soon as I cut into the lasagna my gut said it was going to be bad. By far the worst lasagna I have ever had. It was more like a bland wet noodle soup with zero flavor. I could only choke down a few bites and threw it away. Then I was hoping my soup would save the day. What I thought was supposed to be a lobster bisque tasted more like a spicy corn chowder to me and not something I would have picked. Was really hoping this place would become my “go to” Italian place but looks like I will still...