Tino’s Artisan Pizza Co. — Restaurant in Neptune Township

UPDATE after the owner's response since I can't find a way to reply - I need to correct you on some points, especially this one: Just to be clear, I was not the person who yelled. I came with a friend after the first 2 ladies at our table were already seated and I had no idea what transpired before we arrived. We just happened to see 2 people we knew and asked if we could sit at their table with them. I am also a Christian and I do my best to honor my Lord & Savior and treat my neighbor as I would like to be treated, so even though I was treated so terribly for no reason, I was very respectful to everyone (I was even apologetic when I asked our server for things but she was so rude and short and it made me so uncomfortable to be treated that way). When we were told to leave, I left the table very quietly because I don't like to call attention to myself and it was quite humiliating. I wasn't happy when I learned our friend yelled but from my understanding, she was annoyed at receiving bad service, not that I approve of that behavior at all. And honestly, from the second I walked in to your restaurant on Saturday, I was treated very rudely - it really was quite disgraceful. Bad day or not, it is very bad business to allow all of your staff to treat your customers like that and your condescending attitude definitely makes me realize that you would have no intention of making it right. Very sad. Regarding my request for more balsamic & dressing - my sandwich and salad were served with so little of these, I couldn't even taste it, which is not fair. If an adequate amount was put on them, I wouldn't have needed to ask for more. You really didn't have to be condescending like I don't know how products come to be from manufacture to the table. I was also disappointed that the chicken on my sandwich did not taste or feel like fresh chicken which was unusual for this restaurant, it definitely was not what you usually serve. I've never experienced such disrespect from a business before, even if I could over look what happened on Saturday, it's obvious you cared more about defending bad behavior from your staff than trying to make it right to your customers.

ORIGINAL Review: Prior to this past Saturday, Tino's was my "go to" for the best food and service in Ocean Grove. I've been there numerous times and it was always a great experience all around. So now I'm trying to figure out what has happened to Tino's, did it change hands to a new owner (who doesn't care about quality or pleasing their customers)? On Saturday, from the moment I got there, the service was awful. The host at the front desk was so unpleasant and short when we first got there and the server, she had a disgusting attitude from the start as well for no reason that i could tell at all. And the food -- which is usually top notch fresh and "real" -- the food on Saturday was so so bad. Tasted terrible and I'm very sure the chicken was processed junk. They barely gave any dressing on my salad or balsamic on my sandwich so I asked for more and they had the nerve to charge 75 cents for each tiny cup... for something that should have been adequately on my food already. What a huge disappointment this was as there are very limited eateries in...

Note: My review is not about the food or atmosphere - only the service.

An unfortunate low point on an otherwise fun visit to Ocean Grove. My father, mother, and I wanted to eat there for dinner a few nights ago to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday and got there a few minutes 8PM. We had been told earlier that their dine-in was closed by that point and only take-out was available (I presume because closing is at 9PM). However, we were not sure whether this rule was only in place because they didn't have the staff to wait on new customers after 8PM (there were still plenty of customers who presumably had arrived before 8PM who were still eating there - inside and out), or if, in fact, the tables were closed altogether regardless of wait staff availability. So, my father asked an employee if they were fine with us ordering takeout and sitting at one of their outdoor tables on the sidewalk, but we would otherwise take care of ourselves (no wait staff needed whatsoever). The employee said she didn't know, but a second waitress (I didn't get her name, but she was Caucasian, about 20-30 years old, and had brown hair) interrupted and said "No" and said that we should sit at a nearby restaurant instead. My dad started to explain that we wouldn't need anyone to wait on us - all we needed was a place to sit down, we'd be out within half an hour, would clean up after ourselves, and we'd prefer to be at Tino's since we were hoping to order from there - but before he could fully explain all of this, the second waitress interrupted him and snapped "I don't care what you think" with a sardonic smile. We were baffled as this was fully unpromoted and the first waitress and my father had otherwise started to have a polite conversation until the second waitress joined in. We promptly left.

To give the restaurant their due credit: There's nothing wrong with saying that we can't sit at the tables - it's their restaurant and their property - and there's nothing wrong with saying "no" again to my dad's explanation, as there may of course be other reasons to not want customers to sit at their tables past 8PM. However, there's ALSO nothing wrong with him asking a simple clarifying question in case the restaurant can accommodate - it's a question, NOT a demand. And there IS something wrong with saying "I don't care what you think" in that scenario. I'm guessing the second waitress was having a bad day or has had bad experiences with customers in the past, but she should know better than to project that...

Agree with earlier comments that the food is good and the staff are friendly and helpful.

This two star review is intended for the owner - which from our experience tonight feels as if they have not run a business before.

We were told that the food would take 25 minutes to prepare for pick up. We took a short walk and hustled back to accommodate that. Then went through the ridiculous process of:

wait in line to pick up, be told it was not ready but would be a few more minutes wait in line again to pick up, be told it was not ready but would be a few more minutes wait in line again to pick up, be told it was not ready but would be a few more minutes wait in line again to pick up, be told it was not ready but would be a few more minutes

…until literally an hour had gone by and we had gone mad - along with countless other people waiting in the same line over and over and over and over again. All who said they had a similar experience of waiting 30+ minutes longer than what they were told it would take.

Just take our number and text us when the food is ready, the same as you do for reservations, and the same that every food service does for takeout.

After an hour we got our food, headed home and found we had the wrong order. One of the two pizzas we ordered was in the bag, along with three that we didn’t order. Clearly someone else’s food.

We called 3X to report this and see if we could collect our correct order, but never got through and just wound up leaving a voicemail.

Again the people are nice, the food is good, but the owner needs to put a system in place that works. Or hire someone that has the right experience to fix...