Grandma's Meatball — Restaurant in Manasquan

We were at your restaurant on 2 separate occasions. We have heard nothing but good things. And we love Italian food so much we figured we definitely give it a try. Your places very small and surprisingly quiet which is wonderful. First time we were there; we did have a reservations for a party of 2 and you sat us right next to the bathroom door with many open tables the entire time we were there. There was still available seating, so this obviously had nothing to do with other reservations. Service was pretty good. However, I have a major complaint about the rigatoni vodka. It was so spicy my throat was on fire, and I don't mind spice, but this had so much heat there was no flavor which goes to show me that it's not a real chef doing this, or they really made a major mistake. After bringing this up to the waitress, she apologized and said, everything in the restaurant is made to order so we can adjust it for next time. Nothing to do with the time I was there. Which kind of upset me but not a problem? We said we try again because accidents do happen. We were just recently there again for a small birthday party of 12 on a Friday night. Again, the place had a few open tables when we got there at 7:00 and never filled throughout our stay. I understand when businesses slow everybody wants to leave, but the restaurant closes at 10 o'clock and by 9 o'clock, we were pretty much finished all but our dessert. They dropped the check which we paid but we did still have some bottles of wine open on the table and we were enjoying the conversations. There was nobody else in the restaurant at the time and they decided it would be a good idea to turn the lights on bright Basically telling us it's time to leave at 9:15. This is not good business end upset us all. We were not being loud or rowdy. We left more than a 20% tip (not like it should matter but was well over $100) and yet the waitress came up took the wine glasses off the table and stated “sorry the dishwasher wants to leave” so we have to take all this away. You're open till 10:00 we were going to leave very shortly we're just finishing our wine & it’s 9:15 and we were thrown out. They upset all of us trying to celebrate our dear friend’s birthday. The food was about average for the most part, slightly above average price, desserts very expensive for store bought. Needless to say, they just lost...

Very disappointed in this restaurant. Went on a Friday night at 5:30 with a friend and my 6 year old. When we arrived there were maybe 2 tables occupied and the host asked if we had a reservation. We didn't, but he was very nice and said that's not a problem and showed us to a table. From there everything felt very rushed. The waitress at first seemed cordial but wasn't very warm. Asked what we wanted to drink and threw down a basket of bread on the table. She told us the specials before even bringing us menus, which were a piece of printer paper. I barely started asking if they could make a child's size portion of pasta and I was instantly shot down with "we can't do that." Again, there were only 2 other tables so it's not like it was SO busy that they couldn't throw a little extra pasta in a pan to cook for my daughter. She asked the kitchen and I was again served with a firm "no." I was clearly frustrated and said forget it I'll just share with her. After we ordered she whipped the menus out of our hands. It took about 15 minutes to get our dishes, and the saving grace here is that the food was very good. But my pasta dish and my friend's salad were $25 each. The cost was outrageous. I understand inflation and making ends meet but not to that extreme. Lastly, our bills came with a $1 credit card processing fee. Again, understand that this is the norm now but $1? That's petty. We weren't served with a goodbye or a thank you as we left. Horrible service and an unwelcoming atmosphere. Absolutely will not be going back. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time or money. There are much better Italian restaurants up and down the coast that would gladly welcome your business and give you child-friendly...

Went last night with a friend and her daughter who is 6, have been wanting to try this place for months, asked if we had a reservation which we didn’t but the gentleman was very nice and sat us. Was told the specials, ask if we could have separate checks as I planned on doing a take out order as well. Placed order, I got a beet salad, my friend got rigatoni and went to order for daughter and asked for kids menu and was told they do not do kid portion so she split her meal with her daughter. There was no attentiveness, asked for lemon with our water n never brought, made us feel if we didn’t order a lot we should just hurry up and go. We declined dessert, never offered us coffee, more water, nothing. I declined my takeout order as we would get no bread and salads and cannot see spending 25$$ for rigatoni with nothing with it so we asked for our checks. Well it cost us 50$$ for a salad, plate of rigatoni and a bottle of water, 7$$ for water!!!! 19$$ for a salad, and to add, an additional up charge for using cr card and was rudely told I should have read this on the menu, where????and why wasn’t it pointed out???? So I could have been given the option to pay cash… I refuse to leave a tip, my friend left her6$$ I said that can be from both of us since I paid for the 7$$ bottle of water and not enough for two let alone three people. Never, never again on principal alone but it’s a shame because the food was very good, even...