Nettie's — Restaurant in Tinton Falls

VERY disappointed. Was looking forward to trying this restaurant pretty much since it opened due to the hype people have created in the Red Bank area about this place.

THE GOOD: the system they use to reserve bar-seats if you call ahead. The decor is subtle but creative and easy to appreciate.

THE BAD: For starters- the bar is in the same airspace as the rest of the restaurant with terrible acoustics all around so the noise level is beyond acceptable for a fine dining place. The food: it is subpar at best. There is this cult thing going on with these fried mushrooms - we ordered the dish because a friend recommended it as an appetizer, and we noticed everyone at the bar had them as starters too. Well, we left half of it and asked the server to throw them away, as she began wrapping them to go. They were crunchy to the point where they tore up the inside of your mouth, and you didn't taste the mushrooms only the oil soaked batter. Yuck! Then as we are trying to figure out from the extremely limited menu what to get because the meat and fish dishes do not come with sides but still expensive as hell, we settled on pasta dishes as after all it is a Spaghetti place, and we are fond of homemade pasta, so figured the dishes will be filling enough after being left high and dry from the appetizer. The pastas disappointed even more. The sizes were like a side, a child-size plate, with the pasta laid flat, not a heaping portion, served lukewarm. The cavatelli was supposed to come with "house made" sweet Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. I had to put my glasses on to see if there was any sausage on the plate, and indeed a few shreds of microscopic pieces were mixed in. There was even less broccoli, pretty much just a dusting of minced greenery could be detected. But the worse part was that the dish was so salty, after a few bites I had to put the fork down and was ready to send it back. At that point my boyfriend switched with me to avoid the confrontation, and gave me his spinach fettuccine. That dish tasted better, no overwhelming saltiness, but still small. A side dish portion at the price of a high-end restaurant's entree. The dessert menu is not even worth talking about. Pretty much a joke.

THE UGLY: The girls behind the bar had no personality, we could hardly understand some of them due to the noise and they were just going through the motions of their duties without paying much attention to individual needs. For example my boyfriend told the girl he didn't want any of my bottled mineral water, he got poured a full glass anyway. But the worst was their aprons. They were absolutely filthy, literally made you think if they had just wiped the kitchen floor with them. The one girl kept wiping her hand on her apron about every 20 seconds, then handled clean plates, glasses, food, etc. with the same hands. Gross.

I am going to make myself a ham sandwich now, and never think about going...

Oh My God! Where do I begin?? We rode down from Perth Amboy today because my wife wanted pasta for dinner and didn't want to cook. And I wanted to take a nice ride after work so didn't want to do anything franchise, mega-chain, or immediate local. So we took the trip down 35/34 to Nettie's. I had looked it up before we headed out and saw that they were closed for dine in and didn't offer deliver, but takeout was an option and we were all ok with that, figuring we'd just sit on or by the bikes and have our pasta. What I didn't anticipate was that The House Of Spaghetti is incredibly literal! Spaghetti is what they make and spaghetti is what you get. Want penne? Linguini? Macaroni? Lasagna? Ziti?..... Better go somewhere else. BUT!!! If you want to try the best spaghetti in all of New Jersey, you'd better take the trip and get to Nettie's! Knowing full well that we would need to place an online order, we rode down and were met in the parking lot by one of the cheerful staff members, who asked us if we were picking up. When I explained we still had to place our order, she told us to take our time, no hurry. But as I was getting ready to put our order through their website, a young lady came out to take our order, explaining the menu, apologizing for shortages, but was so super nice and pleasant and had a good time with us. We talked about their restaurant, talked about our motorcycles, her husband's motorcycle who came out shortly afterwards to talk motorcycles with us, and saw to us as if we were dine-in customers who were simply seated at the benches in the parking lot. Everyone was so fun and full of assistance and attention to us, it was such a nice experience just spending time in their parking lot with them. I can only imagine how amazing it will be when we can go inside! And I can't wait for that! My wife had the spaghetti Arrabiatta, our friend had the spaghetti marinara, and I had the spaghetti with meat sauce. They were out of bread, meatballs, and chicken parm and I can't help but think that it was due to demand, not lack of adequate stock or supplies. I'm certain they just sold out because people order in abundance. And rightfully so!! Such a simple dish, spaghetti. But it was cooked to perfection, sauces were flavorful and pleasant, arrabiatta was tangy with a bite but not nose sweating hot, and the meat sauce was delicious and loaded! I can't wait to get there next time Before they're wiped out so we can sample more of what they've got going on in the kitchen. If the spaghetti is any indication, the chef is a magician!! Oh, and the young lady who came out to take our order and talk with us(I'm so sorry I forgot her name) informed us that "Nettie" is the grandmother and the sauces are her original recipe. So, seriously, if you want Authentic Italian, turn your nose up at Olive Garden and go find Nettie's House...

First, I want to say that the food is good. When the meatballs are cooked through, they are delicious. Also, while the pasta dishes are tasty, they are not authentic and true to the original recipes. This place tries too hard to be an upscale, hipster spaghetti place. While they give large portions, IT IS ONLY SPAGHETTI. Not really a big deal. Their wine list is decent, but the wine is insanely overpriced. $15 for a glass of a $22 bottle of wine. Even worse is that the customer service is abysmal. Reservations are not on time, but they insist you go to the bar for drinks while you wait for your late reservation. Make sure that you are on time and don't cancel your reservation or they will charge you, but they are not prepared for you when you are on time because they overbook. Greedy. They are poorly understaffed. By now, they should know what their service limits are and not overbook reservations. They seem to just prefer to pack them in, overcharge (New York City prices- I know, I am from North Jersey), present just a decent product with poor customer service. This place is like eating at a place run by children.... I have seen lemonade stands that are better run. I used to go there often, but I am done with it. The crowd will continue to come, I'm sure, because there is nowhere else in the area and it gives the impression that it is a classic "goombah" spot. They sell spaghetti. I long for the days when it was Luigi's Pizza and dive bar. It was run more professionally.

Edit: Tania, you have it all quite wrong. You clearly have me confused with someone else and it is unprofessional to try to figure out who's writing the reviews. It was somebody else other than me who got the uncooked meatballs and complained to you about it. It was somebody else other than me who walked in without reservations. I did make reservations because your website says that "Reservations are required." But you took walk-ins and you took too many walk-ins and that's why there was a backup that you could not handle. You should stick to your own policy because that is another example of you trying to packing more customers and it's at the expense of those who make reservations. Or at the very least a poorly trained staff. If you have a manageable number of customers whom you can accommodate well, you won't run into problems like the kitchen that can't handle the volume for things like uncooked meatballs, or parties with reservations that have to wait. Everyone would end up happy in the end.

You can try to refute what I said, but I stand by everything I wrote. While I truly appreciate you trying to do the right thing with me, everything has been so disappointing there for a while, so I will just move on. I hope you can straighten things...