Albivi — Restaurant in Millstone Township

Simply THE BEST ITALIAN Food I've ever had! In fact, personally I never really liked Italian food before I tried Albivi.

I live in Jackson, NJ and have been passing by this place many times, not really knowing what it is. One day, my husband suggested our family to go try it, and I am glad he had this amazing idea. Our family doesn't go out often, but when we do, we look for a really good experience. After all, when you pay - you expect the best from Atmosphere, Service and Food!

ATMOSPHERE. The place has beautiful warm decor - you can see that whoever designed that place, they really tried to make it special. The restaurant is subdivided in few different spaces and my favorite is where it looks like you are in Italy, somewhere on a small Piazza (plaza) - with balconies surrounding it. I also enjoyed music playing on a background.

SERVICE. Service was friendly, felt like a family. Everything was timely, from bread, to appetizers to water. Since after my 1st time, I've visited Albivi 3 more times, I can confirm that service is always top notch and always with the smile.

FOOD. For starters. The best home-baked in pizza oven bread I've had. The best fried calamari. Salads - amazing. It really all starts with ingredients - because you can just see everything is top-notch quality, from lettuce leave/ tomatoes to meats. What really sets Albivi apart - most of their things are TRULY home-made, made from scratch on premises. Not when you are told that pasta is home-made (but still likely purchased from store). Some people argue about their high prices. First of all, it's BYOB. You save a lot, if you have a party and bring your wine! Second, ingredients are highest freshest quality. Third, the food is worth that price!

My favorite - "Fettuccini Alla Panna" - oh wow! Homemade pasta (you can taste it), homemade Alfredo sauce, melting jumbo shrimp, and.. wait.. mini homemade mozzarella balls, melted into pasta! YAM!

Oh, and I've never had better pizza! My...

Disappointing. Recently moved to the area and unfortunately, Albivi was our first dining out experience. I have never seen so much brown gravy served at an establishment that describes itself as “fine dining” and “Italian.” The place was pretty crowded. Beautiful dining area. Our hopes were high. Left disappointed. Complimentary bread with garlic oil…delicious. Downhill from there. “Appetizer”. I don't know where to begin. Speidono ala Romano…sounds fancy. It was basically a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich cut in half in swimming in a brown gravy that was not accurately described in the menu. Looked unappetizing and tasted worse. Ordered the Albivi chicken namesake dish sounds safe…wrong…2 tiny thinly sliced pieces of chicken…overcooked is an understatement… could barely cut with a steak knife, flavorless and again drowning in a “reduction” that was inaccurately described in the menu...vegetables on the plate were cold. There was so much wrong I didn’t bother to complain as my evening was already ruined and frankly I’d seen/tasted enough. Husband’s food a slight step above. He had the fettuccine ala panna. The sauce was ok..but not as described. The shrimp like the chicken was flavorless. Can’t hide these things no matter how much sauce you cover it with. Service was adequate for a busy Friday night. Our waiter Brian spent some time checking himself out in the mirror next to our table..haha but he did check in once during the meal. In the end, since he asked how it was, and I wasn’t going to lie, I did let him know that although I wasn’t expecting anything (the prices were not bad if the food had been edible) but I wanted to let him know the food was not good. He said I should’ve said something earlier. He said let him know next time. Based on other reviews, maybe the lunch menu items or the pizza is good or maybe the clientele just doesn’t know what good authentic Italian food is supposed to taste like? We will not...

How do I begin to tell you how terrible my experience here was, Came in on the Sunday when it wasn't crowded Ordered the buratta appetizer and a personal pizza to start. The buratta came out fast and was very good but that's where are the positives end. The pizza took 54 minutes to arrive and we specified no pancetta because my daughter is a vegetarian so after waiting all this time the pizza comes out with the pancetta on it. The waiter says he will take it off the bill and give us another one to go on the house, because our dinners are now ready. This was fine ,now the dinners .My daughter ordered gnocchi with pesto sauce and fresh mozzarella and it was delivered to our table ice cold. I informed the waiter that her food was cold and he said he would make her a new one. I ordered veal Damaro which was supposed to consist of veal,eggplant,broccoli rabe ,sausage and mozzarella,the eggplant was not in the dish at all. Plus the mozzarella dried out overcooked and the dish was overall terrible. The waiter arrived shortly with the new dish of food for my daughter which was nothing but the same dish he took back to the kitchen and they microwaved it .It was hot on the outside and still cold on the inside and tasteless. The waiter was nice and accommodating but the food was terrible the kitchen was slow. I had heard many good things about this place and was looking forward to eating here. Maybe because it was Sunday afternoon they had a different Chef than normal? I can only surmise because this food was...