Augustino's — Restaurant in Hoboken

Ever since I moved to Hoboken, I have wanted to eat at Augustino's. There is this hype surrounding Augustino's as being sort of the Rao's of Hoboken. A place that's difficult to get a reservation that serves great food. Given the current pandemic, my wife and I thought this would be a good chance to finally try Augustino's. Knowing they are busy (even just doing takeout), we ordered at 4 pm with the hope to be eating sometime shortly after 5 pm. I called to place our order and the woman on the phone sounded flustered. She took my order and was very curt, however, polite enough. She said she would call back to let me know when I can pick up the food and that it would be around 5 pm.

We waited patiently and at 5:40 pm, I called the restaurant to check on the order. This wouldn't have been the first time a Hoboken restaurant has messed up/or even missed our order. Again the woman sounded flustered and I told her I was following up and that we've been waiting since 4 pm. She told me I could come in five minutes.

I walked to the restaurant, go inside and I was asked which order I was there to pick up. When I told her my name, the woman began berating me for calling to follow up on my order. I was completely taken aback. I felt like I was little kid being disciplined by my mom. Imagine the audacity to follow up on an order after waiting an hour and forty minutes. I waited a moment and tried to make a joke about it and this just further triggered her. She went on a mini-rant, saying they're not making McDonald's back there. She went on to say, she didn't care how long ago we placed our order because all of these other orders (pointing to the bags of food) were waiting just as long The whole incident was bizarre. I was getting the sense that in her mind I should be grateful they are allowing me to buy their food. I starting thinking to myself that I should just leave, I don't need their food.

The total was $61 and I started sorting through my cash to get the money and I handed her $60 and was looking of a single dollar. When I handed her the $60, she said it was $61, though she could clearly see I was still looking for another dollar. Her level of impatience was unbelievable. Who treats their customers like that?!? I was nothing but polite through this entire situation.

Now to the food. We ordered calamari with sweet sauce, chicken parm and cheese ravioli. I would not normally order chicken parm, however, I read so many rave reviews, I felt compelled to try.

The calamari was pizzeria quality. It was not good. If you want the best calamari in Hoboken (or perhaps the best you've ever had) go to Tutta Pesca. Also, the owner there is kind and appreciative of his patrons.

The chicken parm was good, however, I can get comparable chicken parm from a number of other restaurants in Hoboken without the side order of attitude.

I can't speak for the ravioli, though my wife said it was OK.

I've been to Augustino's two times, first and last. This is unfortunate, because despite the average food this time, I would like to have tried something else that had rave reviews to see if they are as good as advertised.

One thing I can say with certainty is don't believe they hype! There are better...

It pains me to write this, as I always looked forward to an upcoming Augustino’s reservation. After this last visit, though, I will absolutely not be returning. Our group of five made a reservation three months in advance for 9:30pm. I’m a former Hoboken resident and was traveling from out of state for a super short trip, and booked this reservation as one of the only things I’d get to do with my family. The day before the reservation, they asked if we could make it 9 instead, only to call us an hour before our time and move it back to the 9:30 time. Sure, no problem. We show up for our 9:30 reservation, are not even greeted, check-in with the hostess, and assuming it will only be a few minutes, proceed to wait outside, as the restaurant is quite small. Mind you, it’s freezing out. After about twenty minutes, we head in and stand against the wall waiting to be seated. Around 10:00, still patiently waiting, I tried to order two drinks at the bar. The woman who always mans the phone area says she’ll bring me the drinks because I can’t stand in her area. Another twenty minutes go by, still no drinks. At this point I accept that we’re not getting our drinks, but I see them wiping down a table which I assume is ours. Wrong! Another group walks in around 10:15 and is immediately seated. Now irritated, I walk up to the woman near the phones and tell her we’ve been here for well over a half hour. She says the people that just sat had a 9pm reservation, ours was 9:30, so they get seated first. Mind you - they weren’t even physically here waiting! If they called them and told them their table was ready, why couldn’t they do the same for us? They saw us waiting there for about 45 minutes and never even had the courtesy to tell us to wait inside when we were standing out front. At this point, we are all exceptionally irritated. This woman was beyond rude, unapologetic, and condescending. She said ‘there’s nothing I can do. Everyone was late tonight.’ Why wasn’t I told that when she called me an hour before my reservation time instead of wasting our entire night? She acted as if it was our fault. I can’t imagine speaking to people like this in general, let alone at the business you run. It was a horribly irritating and exceptionally embarrassing experience. I recently moved out of Hoboken and hyped this place up to my family big time, only for them to have this experience as first-timers. You can find delicious food on every single block in this city. Without good service, let alone horribly rude service, you don’t deserve any of the CASH people pay to be there. They’ll read this review and they won’t even care, because all they care about is just that: the cash. Looking back it’s now easy to see their entire schtick is all so fake and...

Probably the best pork chop I've ever had in life. And I don't even like pork chops, so that's saying a lot.

My boyfriend and I came in on a Saturday at 6 pm. Almost everything you've read is true - giant servings of pork chops that you won't be able to finish, cash only, and needing to make ressos weeks in advance. But I'm not sure about these other reviews saying that the staff was rude. They were super nice to us and made us feel like we had been going to Augustino's for years, even though it was just our first time there.

To start, they give you some bread, as well as two complimentary pieces of bruschetta with tomatoes. This was amazing. I could have just eaten a whole plate of these for dinner. We also ordered the clams casino to start, which are clams on the half shell with breadcrumbs and bacon. Can't really go wrong with anything with bacon in it.

To drink, we decided to order their $20 bottle of riesling that everyone was talking about. It was too sweet for us, but it's a pretty good value if you like sweet wine. Augustino's is not BYOB but their other bottles are pretty reasonably priced as well.

For entrees, he ordered the Breaded Pork Chops with Vinegar and Hot Peppers. This came out sizzling, as two thick pieces. I ordered their special of the day, which was a Prime Ribeye cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. This was a huge piece as well, and I was only able to finish about half of it. Entrees come with a small side of pasta in marinara sauce.

Tip - they charge $5 for sharing dishes so you might as well just order your own and take the rest home for lunch...