Sciortino's Harbor Lights — Restaurant in South Amboy

Sciortino’s is a tri-state area legend. Originally founded in Perth Amboy in 1934 before being forced to move to South Amboy over a land dispute with the local government in the early 2000s (they lost their original coal fired brick oven during this process, but eventually opened a second location back in Perth Amboy many years later), it is debatably the second oldest pizzeria in the state of New Jersey, and one of the 10 oldest in the United States, depending on your sources (Delucia’s in Raritan and Santillo’s in Elizabeth were both founded over 10 years before Sciortino’s as bakeries but all 3 started making pizza around the same time in between the early 30s and early 40s, while Papa’s in Robbinsville is undisputedly NJ’s oldest, founded in 1912).

My expectations were high, and to an extent they were delivered. I’m definitely not a thin crust bar pie guy, but if you are, you’d probably consider the pies at Sciortino’s to be some of the best in New Jersey, as the crust is paper thin. The pies come out well done, with the crust and rear end of the undercarriage having excellent char, which I always like. I got a half regular half supreme and a margarita, and in both cases, the sauce and cheese quality were on point. I like how they sprinkle the parmesan on top of the pizza, and the Wisconsin dairy mozzarella on the regular pie definitely had a pleasant tang to it. The sauce in my opinion is the best aspect of this pizza, you get plenty of it on the margarita and it is deliciously sweet, but not in a heavily processed and mass produced sense, but just good quality tomatoes and herbs. The mushrooms and peppers on the supreme looked and tasted jarred, a minor gripe perhaps but I definitely prefer more fresh toppings on my pizza. The homemade sausage, however, was pretty good, and if I come back in the future, I might try a pie with just the sausage. I will say for a bar style pie this thing was on the heavier and hardier side and the supreme slices had significant flop. I noticed they also do Sicilian pies which they call half trays. Perhaps that’s more up my alley compared to their thin crust round pies and I do look forward to potentially trying them in the future.

The fried calamari in lemon sauce I got as an appetizer was really good. Their menu as a whole, which I took home, looks to be full of interesting stuff to try, including a Philadelphia style Italian roast pork sandwich, which is not something you see every day in North and Central Jersey. Being not far from the ocean, I’m sure they do a good zuppa di pesce fra diavolo among other great Italian seafood dishes. Outside of the food itself, the atmosphere was great. It definitely has that old school Italian restaurant feel to it. The service was pretty good, as the waiter treated me like any regular customer and made me feel at home.

Overall, I’d give the pizza a 7 out of 10, it’s definitely a unique pizza with its own character per. say, though not my personal preferred style as I prefer a more prototypical NYC/North Jersey neo-Neapolitan style airy crust as opposed to that of a more American style bar pie, but the quality of the cheese and especially the sauce are worthy of a pizzeria of this prestige and history. I feel like that original coal fired brick oven that they had at their first location in Perth Amboy is the missing ingredient that took this pizza to another level and made it genuinely one of the best in New Jersey...

All I can really say is wow my family and myself enjoyed all the food that we ordered From the pizza to the mozzarella sticks onion rings chicken fingers everything was absolutely amazing and highly recommended restaurant overall itself very family oriented with a really cute bar I am sorry The Photo of the bar area came out kind of blurry but absolutely amazing experience the only thing I would say on the negative side Is the day that we went there it was slow and our waitress was a little bit slow herself she could’ve been a little bit more attentive to the table but other than that definitely an amazing experience I would highly recommend it love their pizza there sauce that they make for the pizza is incredible I would love to steal that recipe Also a bit of an onion ring connoisseur as silly as that sounds and I know most most onion rings are brought in A food distributor but they had some really good onion rings and the honey mustard absolutely amazing kids absolutely love their chicken fingers so the biggest chicken fingers of ever seen. One of the other things I do like about this particular restaurant is that it’s right across from the train station and you can then take the train into the city or from the city to the restaurant and enjoy some amazing pizza definitely highly recommended thank you for some amazing food and keep up the good work... if you find this review helpful in anyway or you did enjoy it please...

I tried Sciortino's for lunch. It has parking out front which is great. I came here for the pizza. We sat down in the dining area which is a nice rustic cozy room that is separate from the bar, I'd assume for noise purposes.

Got a pie that was half pepperoni meatball, half cheese. I was not disappointed. It's a thin crust pizza with a good amount of sauce, and the crust is cooked well in the brick oven. The crust underneath the main part of the pizza is a little softer likely due to the generous amount of sauce and toppings applied. The pepperoni was layered on the pizza and covered almost all the slices, which is awesome. The meatball is definitely fresh made and nice and crumbly the way I like it.

The sauce here is on the sweet side, which I love. If you are looking for tangy sauce this is not the style of pizza for you. Overall for me, the pizza is great and worth the trip. They sprinkle Parmesan on the pizza before it comes out as you can see in the pic.

I also tried their buffalo wings. They are standard lightly breaded deep fried wings. They put franks red hot buffalo sauce on them with a side of blue cheese.

If you're looking for some thin crust pizza with a very tasty sweet sauce, this is the spot for you. I highly recommend Sciortino's if you're in the...