Buona Sera — Restaurant in Red Bank

Let me start by saying I have eaten at this restaurant many many times and the food was normally good, now with that being said we thought it was a good idea to book our daughters 1st birthday party here. Boy was I wrong. 1st: Communication between event staff and us the customer was absolutely atrocious and basically non existent. After multiple Emails and phone calls we finally reached someone a week before the party to confirm the head count and layout of the room, we were rushed by some girl with a huge attitude who completely gave us the "yea yea yea" treatment ( a very nasty miserable one )

2nd: Upon arrival we noticed the room was not set up to how we discussed over the phone and they had the wrong head count in the kitchen so our phone call with the nasty one was useless. (They have no problem taking your money before they even send you a contract so that should of been a warning sign enough) Now with all this being said it was our little girls special day so we tried not to ruin the day and kept it moving .....That is until the food came out.

3rd: The Fried Calamari - the only flavor this had was the sour taste it left in mine and my guests mouth AWFUL Mozarella Carrozza - One big sloppy greasy flavorless mushed piece of bread swimming in oil. Not even Marinara on the side. How hard is this dish, COME ON! Pasta Pomodoro - This was another flavorless dish. Consisted of water and maybe a little ketchup possibly? EMBARRASSING The "TV dinner" Orchietta with fresh tomato, garlic, sausage and broccoli Rabe - No way was there anything in this dish besides the pastas and teeny tiny piece of sausage. Again the contents of this dish were swimming in water . NO FLAVOR (notice the pattern) "Boneless" Roasted Chicken in white wine lemon sauce- I must say the flavor was decent. Notice how I quote "boneless" . So what this Classy establishment did was take a bunch of malnourished Cornish Hens chopped them up fully BONES AND ALL chunks of skin that you could not even chew . At a 1 year olds party, that makes sense. We had guests pulling bone fragments out of there mouths at the dinner table. Gross Chicken Parm- Decent but have had better Pork Loin- Shoe Leather Even after all of this and speaking to the manager who did bring out new food that did redeem itself somewhat slightly I would absolutely never visit this establishment ever again and I hope the good general public does the same. They should be Embarrassed. Our servers were excellent (Javier and Cara) very accommodating friendly and apologetic. I must add We had a beer and wine package and noticed we were charged for espresso and cappuccino when it was suppose to be included. Again we tried to not let anything ruin our girls day but the more we sit and ponder I can't let any of you thinking of booking here make the same...

Was taken here for my. birthday dinner with family. Were seated quickly on the second story, on the balcony overlooking the first floor. We were packed in as it was the same day as a show at the theatre but everyone was nice. Drink menu was uninspired so I ordered an Old Fashioned. Syrupy, soda-y, a muddled orange slice with no peel, and too much watered down whiskey, a truly weird concoction. The waiter was a bit much, cracking odd jokes about orders and drinks. He was attentive at first but over the course of the evening got very hard to get ahold of for refills. And disappeared for nearly 20 minutes before offering desert and then 30 minutes after desert to get the bill. Mixed reviews on the food from the party. The calamari seemed to be a bit of a dud. My mozzarella in corraza was a very greasy grilled cheese sandwich with no real flavor. It was served on a good sauce but once you dipped the bread into it, the grease overwhelmed it and it didn't add anything to the food. It took me a while to settle on something to order for my entree. I found the menu unappealing, nothing original or stand out. I ordered the osso bucco special which was good, but not particularly "special." It was tender but lacked flavor. Dessert was dry. I had heard great things before going here and was surprised by how lackluster it was.

The restaurant also has a cigar room that awkwardly sat across from us on the second level with a full glass setup. When you went to the second floor bathrooms, the hallway reeked of cigar smoke. An odd choice for a restaurant.

The last thing that really soured our party was a very tacky moment. The restaurant sends around photographers to take photos of the table and charge you for a cheap frame and a print out. One of our party accidentally engaged with one of them thinking they were a waiter (ours disappeared between apps and dinner). They agreed to the photo without the group realizing it and there was a very weird few minutes where the photographer was giving orders and no one was listening but he didn't give up. We got through it and put it out of mind. A different person came and handed out the photos and mentioned the price, two people turned it down and they tried to pressure the last person to purchase. We said to just put one picture on the bill. They said no, cash now. At this moment our entrees came. We said "No thanks, if it's cash" and she motioned for the waiter to hold our meals until we paid cash for the picture. I said "No, thanks. We're done here. Please serve our meals." The picture lady walked away in a huff and from then on our quality of service was poor. Very tacky, and we were not the only table that night getting "surprised" by the picture or having meals held to force a purchase. Pretty poor. Would...

First time in the building in about 40 years. Used to go visit Neils Andersen who ran a foreign car parts business there for a decade or more after his Jaguar dealership went belly up.. Used to grab a sub at Elsies and sit in the showroom (it was originally a car dealership, as were two other corners on that intersection) eating. It was typically either very hot or very cold - Neils couldn't afford heat or AC.

We went with another couple before a show (Acoustic Alchemy - great show) at the Vogel. The show started at 8PM, so we got there at 6PM. That was at the restaurant's suggestion when we called for reservations - they asked if we were going to a show, and knew when it started (another show was starting at the Basie at 7PM) - and timed our arrival so we could dine without stress worrying if we'd be done in time for the show.

This was a bit different than sitting with Mr. Andersen. We were warmly greeted at the door by several people (owner? manager?) seated immediately (we had a reservation) and within seconds of being seated had ice-water in our glasses, and warm bread in a basket (and a small cup of very slightly garlic touched butter.)

We perused the menus, two of us getting the pork-chops (giambotta), one getting shrimp and and scallops, and one the vodka-penne. We all selected "half" orders - which were more than enough to sate our appetites. We might have gotten full orders and planned on taking some home - but I don't think it would have gone over well with security at the theater. We finished with deserts - two of them split between 4 people, and both of them were excellent.

It was ALL excellent. Good enough that a decision was made to return sometime soon for a really relaxing dinner.

Brandon was our waiter - and he was perfect. Attentive but not intrusive. I would think of something I might like, and somehow he knew I needed something and was at my side ready to make it happen. I normally never remember waiter's names - even as they're serving us - but he was good enough I remembered it 4 days later when writing this review.

Was everything perfect? Very close. The only issue we had was the noise level was rather high until the crowd eating for the 7pm show started leaving. I'm not sure what they can do about this - it is an issue in a lot of restaurants since they did away with carpet and drapes. The dining room has a hard stone floor, a hard plaster ceiling, and large expanses of glass - all reflective surfaces. Perhaps some artfully designed acoustic panels in the coffered ceiling might be a step in the right direction.

We'll be returning. We're rather curious how their steaks are given how good the rest of the menu...