Patrizia's Of Red Bank — Restaurant in Red Bank

3 1/2 stars

I'm not sure if I've ever been to a place that had better service than this, so at the very least Patrizia's has a massive intangible working for them. And on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon they have tons of outdoor seating options, which in downtown Red Bank means prime pooch viewing. But none of the food I had really blew me away, and that's a fairly important quality of an Italian restaurant.

The Millennial Chum and I came here for a late lunch yesterday around 3 or 4. This was a pretty impulsive choice, based on no research and a quick perusal of the menu as we were walking by. It was pretty hopping but we had no issue requesting and obtaining a table by the sidewalk. Once again, I can't emphasize enough how good the service is - they have several staffers literally standing by at attention almost like ball boys at the US Open, ready to spring into action the minute a plate is clean or a water bottle empty. We both ordered pasta dishes, and I'm not exaggerating when I say they both showed up within probably five minutes. Clearly a place that cooks up gigantic heaps of pasta beforehand, ready to go when the situation arises, but if it tastes made-to-order/fresh, what's the downside?

The best tasting item I had was the dipping oil for the bread. It had a lot of interesting spices to it and disappeared well before the bread did. The bread itself was actually pretty dry and tasteless - at an Italian restaurant, I'm expecting that if the bread isn't warm it's fresh and crisp - and we actually left about half of the bread uneaten.

I ordered the Pappardelle Bolognese ($24ish), which was okay but not great. I don't personally like having chunks of shizzle in my sauce beyond the meat, and there were tons of carrot pieces that I wasn't thrilled to see included. Easy to eat around, but a little inconvenient. If the menu description had referenced their inclusion, I probably would have gotten something else. The rest of the sauce was fine, but not as flavorful/tasty as I expect from this dish, which is one of my favorite pasta entrees. For what it's worth, the Millennial Chum sampled it and thought it was fantastic so Patrizia's would probably benefit more from her specific review.

We also split a gelato sandwich dessert ($10), which was like a high class Chipwich, featuring chocolate chip cookies with vanilla gelato. It wasn't bad, but it was VERY obviously dug out of a freezer and was pretty hard to eat - we had to chip away at the edges like we were ice fishing or something. I actually prefer my ice cream-based desserts to be on the solid side (I can get a little riled up/stressed if the ice cream is melting and I feel like I'm on the clock) but this was definitely on the extreme end for me.

This wasn't bad by any means but overall it was underwhelming and you can easily find better Italian...

If I can give this restaurant a ZERO rating I would.... My husband decided that he wanted Italian for his birthday dinner so we decided on Patrizia of Red Bank. After noticing, it was going to be a 45 min drive I called the restaurant and asked if reservations were required for this evening. The restaurant operator stated that the restaurant is taking walk-ins at this time and reservations would not be needed, I also informed her that we were driving from far and wanted to make sure that we would still be able to dine in, she reassured me that this would not be a problem. When arriving to the restaurant at 615, I was not welcomed by the hostess who questioned my husband and I if we had any reservations. I informed her that whomever was managing the phone calls informed us that it was okay and walk-ins were welcomed. The hostess then asked us to wait to see if she can locate us a seat. In the meantime, while looking around I could see available seating in their outdoor dining area... After waiting 5 min, she comes over with a young man dressed as a server, who then proceeds to informs us that they are booked for the evening and he can "MAYBE/ POSSIBLY/ TRY TO" fit us in, but it will be about a 45 min wait. He also questioned where my husband and I drove from, which I felt that was highly unprofessional. When I told him we drove from Montclair, he suggested one of their sister stores in Holmdel. At this time, my husband and I had a displeasing feeling, but still wanted to be optimistic that the staff would still accommodate us being that were celebrating his birthday. After waiting for an hour, I decided to call back the restaurant to see what our wait time had dropped being we still had not received a call. The restaurant operator had us on hold for 5 min then returned to inform that there would be an additional wait time of 45 min to an hour, when questioned , the restaurant operator rudly interrupted me and reminded me that reservations were supposed to be made.

I was appalled by her response and informed her that I had spoken to someone around 5 pm prior to us leaving our home. This honestly put a bitter taste in our mouths being that this restaurant was highly recommended by one of my patients whom happens to be an owner of Patrizia's of Massapequa Park. I will definitely will be sharing my horrible experience with him.....

We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the owner and staff of Bombay River Modern Indian Restaurant who heard of our horrible experience and welcomed us to dine-in with no reservations while on the brink of their closing time. They truly went above beyond to make sure our evening ended in a...

We had a party there last night for my fiance's 40th birthday in the balcony section of the restaurant for 21 people. The food was great and everyone raved about it but the waiter was horrible!! We had a few people cancel and wanted to take some seats and plates away because the table was tight. The waiter told us that he would just wait until everyone got there and then move them. That didn't make any sense so the birthday girl had to do it herself. Also the ice bucket was sitting on the floor and not full with ice so we had go move it to the ledge and fill it ourselves with the water pitchers that were there. I didn't want my guests to have to get their drinks off the floor! My fiance's gluten free and he was told that. She has eaten here before without any issues. We had to remind him about her gluten free pizza that never came out. So everyone ate theirs while she waited. Next we got served the pasta course and she had ordered gluten free pasta with vodka sauce and she got gluten fee pasta with marinara sauce, so she had to wait again for this to be corrected. For dessert everyone placed their Coffee order and some people did not get theirs. By the time it was served the dessert was gone. It was just an overall bad experience with the customer service. Perhaps if the waiter stopped texting all night he would have had more time to actually wait on our guests. At the end I paid the check and he ask me if I wanted to give him more money. I looked at him like are you joking. You add 20% and after horrible service you want more money? And how rude to ask for more! Wow... Keep in mind the bill was well over a grand. I felt bad for the busboy that was helping him out who was awesome and actually did the majority of the work and fixed all the waiters mistakes. Kudos to him! And in the chaos of leaving I forgot to give him some extra money because he did a great job! I'm hoping I can stop in soon and find him and make this right. Hey management if you see this my party was on 12/01/17 at 7pm 12/07/17- Just a quick update on this. The GM Tina contacted us and apologized profusely. She was correct that we should have brought this up that night. Thank you Tina for making this right. We still agree that the food is...