Abruzzo — Restaurant in Newark

Executive summary: Too expensive and poorly executed. Save your money and eat at the food court.

Read on below for the full experience.

Went there because it was the closest thing to being a real restaurant that was still open at the airport. I was the only customer so service and quality of food should be good, right? Felt like treating myself so, damn the prices, ordered away. Ordered the $45 bone-in, aged, 16oz. New York strip, medium rare bien sur. Two overpriced sides and a $45 bottle of red. Total - $135.

Remember, I'm the only customer so the kitchen has the time to get it right. The steak, sides, and wine arrived all around the same time. Newark ounces must be smaller than regular ounces, 10 to 12 at best. Cut into my steak with the silver coated plastic knife and fork (not their fault, airport rules) to find a perfect MEDIUM WELL steak. Cut into the steak a little more says the manager. OK. Make that WELL done.

No objections by manager, steak taken away but now I'm left with two sides and wine. Sides are eaten before new steak arrives. Having made a mistake, you just know that this time it'll be perfect. Wrong. Steak was very grilled on the outside but pushing rare, almost raw on the inside. Letting it rest a few minutes improved it. Taste wise, it was no different than a cheap supermarket steak. Sautéed kale was oily and salty and steak fries were damp. Wine met expectations.

What else can I say. Too expensive and poorly executed. Save your money and eat at...

TL;DR: Dirty, nonexistent service, cold food, out of beer. PASS.

What a joke this place is! Where do I start? You must order yourself online; nobody comes to your table. Then you must pay AND TIP before you’ve received any service whatsoever, which sucks because there is no service. If and when they bring your food that will be the last time you see a server. After I ordered somebody wandered out and said they were out of every beer except one. Welp… no choice but to go with that since I already paid right? Next my kids’ chicken tenders and cold, limp, disgusting fries came out. No, they do not have BBQ sauce or honey mustard for those chicken tenders. Just ketchup. The kids finished eating long before I got my burger, which I had to get up and ask for, twice, because nobody here seems to know what the hell is going on. The “servers” were very quick to explain to me how it wasn’t their fault, which was so helpful. Also: you must get your own water (no extra charge for the hair and other mysterious junk in it) and get your own silverware. This place has basically the same level of service as a McDonald’s, only the food is five times as expensive and McDonald’s has hot fries and isn’t covered in grime.

This is one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been to, in or out...

This is possibly the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. In an almost empty restaurant I had to wait nearly 40 minutes for my food. In an upscale restaurant, especially at an airport, this is just completely unacceptable. There were about 10 “wait” staff and it seemed that all of them were just standing around doing nothing, while one cook presumably cooked the food. Nobody ever checked on me once. After 20 minutes I had to stand at the bar and quite forcefully verbally ask for an update on my food. I was told 5 minutes but then had to wait an additional 20 minutes. I finally had to stand at the bar again for several minutes and then quite forcefully verbally ask for my food to-go. It’s painful to eat food on an airplane, but even more so when you arrived at the airport early and had plenty of time to sit and relax and enjoy your food in the terminal. Did I mention that you have to pre-pay your tip when you order your food with a QR code at the table? It’s no wonder that the “wait” staff have no incentive to provide service. You’ve already given them a tip before they do a thing. I wish I had time to stand in front of the restaurant all day long and just point people to all of the negative Google and Yelp reviews and save...