Aroma di Mare — Restaurant in Ventnor City

My boyfriend, his parents, and myself went there on July 4th for dinner. We sat outside and were immediately greeted by our server. He was friendly but distracted. Half way through telling us about the specials, he stopped, walked away without any notice, and then came back a minute later. He continued talking as if he never left. It was a very odd interaction.

The restaurant is BYOB so we brought chilled white wine. Our waiter asked if we need it uncorked but never brought a bucket to keep the wine chilled. Our white wine sat on the table for the entire dinner and given how hot it was outside, it didn't stay cold very long. Given that this restaurant leans more to fine dining, it was surprise that nothing was offered to keep the wine cold. We did see other tables who had chilled wine buckets though.

We ordered an appetizer to start (burrata). The burrata itself was excellent but it was served with large tomatoes on the side which were not seasoned or that ripe. Note: The menu didnt indicate that tomatoes would be served with this appetizer. Overall, it was a very good appetizer and the reason I provided 2 stars vs 1.

Our entrees came out shortly after. I ordered the short rib tagliatelle which was very bland. It had literally no flavor at all. I tried drenching it in parm cheese to add flavor but sadly, this did not help. My boyfriend's parents ordered the crab risotto. This was bland and fishy. They both said it was the worst crab risotto they have ever eaten. My boyfriend ordered the chicken with pesto cream sauce. His chicken was cooked well but overall not a great dish.

Our waiter never came back to our after our food came out to check on us. We didnt see him again until he asked us if we wanted dessert. We decided to leave vs having dessert given how bland the food was during dinner.

Needless to say, we wont be back. Given the poor service and bland food, I wouldn't recommend...

This place is not good. First of all, my wine glass had lipstick on it and my girlfriend’s had crusted food on it. I wish that was the worst of it. Unfortunately we ordered the clams oregenato, which I have nicknamed the clams a la diarrhea for obvious reasons. The clams had not been washed with cold water to remove the sand and had clearly gone bad from sitting too long. My gf spit hers out because of the awful taste and I wished I had not choked mine down. Finally, we ordered the chicken parm and bone in veal parm. They were atrocious. Both of these dishes looked and tasted like they had been warmed up in the microwave. When I spend $55 on a bone in veal chop parm, I expect it to be crispy, not soggy. The veal parm was like a sponge, nothing crispy about it. Same with the chicken parm, which appeared to have shredded mozzarella instead of real mozzarella slices. I’d have taken a meal at Golden Corral any day over this slop. If you’re going to serve clams, make sure they’re washed and fresh. If you’re going to charge $55 for a veal parm, you damn sure better make it crispy for that price. Get some clean glasses. I wouldn’t let my cat eat here.

UPDATE: I contacted the owner because of the food poisoning to demand a refund. Although he promised to refund my credit card the next day, he never did. He also insisted there was nothing wrong with the clams and they were fresh. My gf has been having nightmares about the clams a la diarrhea and is still having stomach issues 5 days later. Because the owner did not refund my money, I am lowering the...

This place won't last the summer. Octopus appetizer was nice, a tender tentacle atop a bed of saffrony broccoli rabe. The salads were fresh, though the arugula and beet salad was possibly the most overwhelmingly oregano-heavy dish I've ever tasted, which just makes for a really weird salad. (Also, $3 charge to split a salad in the kitchen? Do they even know whom they're catering to? Laughable.) The mains are where things really began to unravel... Pasta was cooked al dente, but it was pretty flavorless. Most of it swims in watery, acidic tomato sauce. Scallops in the linguine dish were fishy and off-putting. The chicken roma was an absolute embarrassment - just a scorched, dry, tortured breast inferior to routine weeknight home cooking in every way. The risotto with crab was ably prepared, arguably the hardest thing about risotto, but there was absurdly little crab to be found. It was insulting. A lady at the adjacent table had the same complaint. The mushroom gnocchi was the only main dish we couldn't complain about. Also, for an Italian place, when 3/4 of the table orders pasta, you'd think some parm would make an appearance. Nnnnnnope. Expensive and inelegant slop. Not outright bad on the whole, but so very...