Gencarelli's Restaurant — Restaurant in Montville Township

We ate here for Valentine's Day after several people raved about the food. We ordered the beet salad, rice balls, fiocchi pasta dish, and the squid ink pasta seafood dish. The beet salad had about 2 beets in it, no exaggeration - we were very disappointed, the rice balls were okay but very salty, the fiocchi dish tasted fine, but the squid ink pasta dish was questionable from the moment it was placed in front of my husband. His words were: "This tastes off to me. It looks like the bag of mixed frozen seafood they sell at Restaurant Depot." And shortly thereafter, he told me he felt so ill that we needed to get home right away. We got my dish wrapped, paid, and left. He obviously has a bad case of food poisoning - it hasn't even been 24 hours and he is as sick as a dog.

The staff seemed friendly, so that was a plus. We have since informed the restaurant that my husband got sick from eating there, which they were apologetic about, thankfully.

I just have to say though that it is rather offputting to sit down to eat at an Italian restaurant which has a reputation for being authentic and see not one Italian person working there, serving, seating people, cooking, nothing... they were all Hispanic and spoke very broken English, if any at all. Again, not unfriendly, but not a place I would trust to eat Italian food - definitely not authentic. We are quite confused as to how people have recommended this as the best Italian food around. Had we known this was not at all the case, we would not...

Since the owner, Mike, replied to my original (rather harsh, I know) review, he has made it right! Everyone deserves a second chance! The food we ordered was absolutely delicious & I’m looking forward to now trying other things here. Mike was professional and apologized for the mishap mentioned below. This was honestly a great example of how to handle an unhappy customer. 😊😊

Previous review:

I have moved to the area and heard great things about this place. Unfortunately I will never be eating here due to the lack of customer service.

I called to place an order and first I was told there’s no minestrone soup (it’s on the menu, but that’s fine). Then I tried asking what soups were available and the individual working there didn’t even know how to pronounce one of the names of the soups. I then asked what is that? They said they didn’t know and I had to ask to speak to someone who does know. Ridiculous. I wish I had that luxury in my job to tell a customer I didn’t know something and expect that to be ok. Awful.

Then, I proceeded to order a small plain pie and was told they aren’t taking orders for pizza anymore. I called at 8:20 and they close at 9, so I understand I did call late, but seriously? Your business closes at 9, not 8:30, not 8:45, or earlier.

Unfortunately, this experience was very poor and I will never be ordering from here. It’s a shame because I was looking forward to...

Today was the first time hubby & I came here. It’s a clean and cozy restaurant. Our waiter was sweet and attentive. I drink LOTS of water and here it’s nicely chilled w/ ZERO aftertaste. If it tastes like the pipes, I’m outta there! Waiter presented us with hot focaccia rolls in a basket.😍 Super delish! Started w/Risotto balls (4) comes w/Vodka sauce. FRIGGEN YUM!! Not heavy or greasy. Coating was super light, crispy & nice & hot! I drank the leftover sauce it was SO GOOD. 🤫 Split a slice Buffalo Chicken pizza. Not heavy or overloaded w/cheese. Sooo tasty and cooked to absolute perfection. Grilled chicken & Broccoli rabe: 2 large pieces of moist, flavorful perfectly grilled Chicken. FINALLY EDIBLE BROCCOLI RABE! 👏 At Gencarelli’s it’s cooked to absolute perfection. No greasy, continuous feel like you’re going to choke pieces of rabe. Was plated beautifully w/chunks of roasted garlic. Even the stems were soft and edible, absolutely DIVINE! Finally Linguini w/shrimp Fra Diavolo. Linguine/shrimp were cooked to perfection and the sauce was super flavorful! Generous portions and great prices. We also met the owner and he was very welcoming & personable. He took the time to come over and asked if we enjoyed our meal. He also informed us on lots of their other dishes. We most definitely will be back. This is now our new...