Il Forno a Legna — Restaurant in Rahway

I have been patronizing this restaurant for a few years. I've never had any complaints until this past Valentine's Day. We ordered food for delivery, we weren't given an amount over the phone and part of the order was incorrect. When the delivery driver(female) handed me the food, she told me that the food had been paid for already. I called in the order and I knew that I hadn't paid for the food so I was honest with her and told her that it hadn't been paid. She called her supervisor and she was given the amount for the order which was $45. I attempted to hand her $100 bill and she told me that the drivers weren't allowed to carry money for change. Besides the $100 bill, I also had (2) $20 bills and (6) singles on my person. I had $46 which would pay for the order but would only be $1 left for the tip. I always tip personnel for their services so I asked my niece for $4 so it would be at least $5 as a tip. As I held the food, I handed her the money. I thought I had placed the $100 in my pocket but to my surprise, once I went upstairs and took the money out of my pocket, it was a $20 bill instead. At first, I thought to myself, that young lady looked homely and desperate so I should take it as a loss. Then I said to myself, "Don't judge a book by it's cover, maybe she's a honest and sincere individual such as myself". I immediately called the restaurant and spoke to the young man who had initially taken my order over the phone and explained the whole situation to him. He said that he would check with her upon her return to the restaurant. Long story short, he didn't call me with any results so I called the next morning. Mind you, I didn't expect them to replace the money and I took full responsibility for the mishap. I just thought that maybe the young lady had an ounce of honesty in her body and she would return the money. The next morning, I spoke to a man by the name of Robert. Once I explained everything to him, he immediately had the supervisor that was on duty the evening of the incident to call me back. Thank you, Robert! That supervisor was Juan. Juan told me that the young lady told him that she received $50 which was (2) $20 bills and 10 singles. He proceeded to tell me that he believed her, he checked her funds and there was no evidence of $100 bill in the stash, he added that she doesn't need to steal because she comes from money, she works two jobs and he knows her family. Juan, you sound like an idiot! If she so called came from money then she wouldn't be working "2" jobs. How dare you extol her character and exaggerate her innocence. On top of the fact that you so claimed to check her funds. It's not hard to go to a store and break a $100 bill to make change, DUH! Obviously, Juan lacks logical thinking and he needs to be retrained. You should have kept it professional and told me that you investigated the incident and there was no evidence of the $100 bill. If you colluded with her, you both will lose triple the amount you have stolen. Nothing good will come your way, God doesn't like ugly!!! The food and service isn't grand for me to continue to patronize this establishment that lacks high ethical standards and quality customer service. I would rather spend my hard earned money at Michelino's(Rahway), Pasquale's(Linden) or Glendale...

I have given this place so many tries. tonight was the first time I ordered in probably two years. But I see the 4.7 and I think maybe they got a new cook or maybe they stepped up their hospitality. From dining in to taking out, they never meet my expectations. I stopped going into the restaurant two years ago because the service is so freaking bad and the servers can have two tables and still not come to your table for 20 minutes. They’re also not polite throughout the course of your meal. Back in the day when they started the servers were annoyingly attentive like there’s no happy Medium in this place so I just stopped going inside the restaurant. Waiting for close to an hour for food that doesn’t satisfy me completely is not worth my time.

I’ve gotten sick from the seafood appetizer in the past. (Clams/shrimp) The food is apart. I’m Italian and I don’t think my grandmother would ever serve this food on the table.

The meatballs are good. You got three big meatballs for $12 so I guess that’s pretty good too.

The pizza is good.

I ordered takeout tonight. I got the meatballs (The sauce was hot, but the meatballs were not which was kind of weird), the pizza (lukewarm) , and the Cobb salad. The Cobb salad is supposed to have bacon on it instead I think it’s pancetta and it was fatty and not what I expected at all. Usually on a Cobb salad you get crispy bacon not fatty disgusting meat that I threw in the garbage. It came with chicken that I would’ve preferred to be grilled over fried and the chicken was not good. It was thin and hard and the breading fell off. Because they put the chicken on the salad while the chicken was hot And because they put the meatballs w sauce on top of the salad in the package, the salad was warm and soggy as well. They were very cheap on the salad to the point that I cut up my own Romaine lettuce and added it to it and I definitely would’ve preferred more lettuce versus all the bad meat that was on the salad. I have nothing good to say about the Cobb salad. My mother ate some of it and said it was weird and she didn’t like it so needless to say I made her her own salad after. Why in the world would I order take out to only have to make my own salad and warm up the food, even though I paid a nice amount for a free night of cooking and cleaning the dishes. I probably waited about 45 minutes for the order to come. I ordered it off of Uber eats which does not allow you to track the package for this business.

I could’ve sworn I left a review for them a couple years ago, but it magically is not on this review so I’m leaving another one. Especially because I tried them out again today and they failed my expectations for a normal salad.

Someone on here said they don’t know how this business got a 4.7 and I have to wholeheartedly agree that there is no way that this restaurant is a 4.7. It falls short on good service, and it falls short on quality food.

I didn’t post pictures of the salad because I had to enhance it and take out the soggy pieces of lettuce.

I would say to the restaurant to do better, but they’ve been in business for all these years and because some fool is putting beautiful reviews, they’re never going to do better. Tonight was my final order...

Il Forno a Legna was a pleasant surprise. Our son lives in Rahway, when we take him out for dinner, we usually hit the local diner. For this visit I was in the mood for Italian, my son said that he was hearing good things about Il Forno, so off we went. The restaurant is on a corner on Main Street in Rahway, which is definitely an urban setting. At dinner time, street parking is practically non existent and their rather small rear parking lot also wasn't happening. On the other hand, right across the side street, there's a multi level parking garage and it's only $3. We probably spent $4 in gasoline going around the block, praying that someone would pull out of a spot. Unless there's a spot staring at you, just use the garage. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted, and seated, immediately. Since this was our first visit, we didn't know that it's BYOB, so we went with water and soft drinks. The atmosphere is definitely eclectic. Very interesting and pleasant... urban, Italian, etc. The wait staff is spot on, sort of what we're used to in 5 star restaurants. For starters we ordered the Mussels Il Forno and the Calamari (Fried Galama). The Mussels were plentiful, easily enough for sharing, their slightly spicy sauce is perfect. Their fried calamari is also done to perfection, not swimming in oil. My only issue was that there was only one tentacle, I love my fried tentacles. On the other hand, some places have zero tentacles. Our three entrées were the Pollo Martini, the Pollo Marsala, and I ordered the Pollo Scarpariello. The portion sizes are large enough that you'll be asking for take home boxes, especially if you had appetizers. My wife's chicken martini was great, the parmesan crust was very interesting. My son had the chicken marsala, perfection. I had the chicken scarpariello. This dish was done well, and I realize that everyone does things differently, but when I prepare my chicken scarp, I try to have equal amounts of chicken and sausage. Il Forno puts the focus on the chicken, and less on the sausage. Either way, the dish was fine, next time I'll just ask for extra sausage. At the end of the day, put Il Forno a Legna on your bucket list, you won't be disappointed. One last thought, when we were leaving, I noticed that they have two additional locations. Their Raritan location is only ten minutes from our town in Hillsborough. We'll probably be...