Novelli — Restaurant in Wayne

I saw 5 stars and I saw 1 star on these reviews. My girlfriend calls me a "food bit*h"! I'm the cook in the house! I'm talking antipasto to start to zeppolis for dessert (A-Z)!!!Let me start off by saying the 1 star "Hostess" comment (older woman) is no longer on the premise. My experience started off by me parking my car at approximately 1815 hrs (6:15PM), at which time a valet parking employee kindly asked me to get in line with the 2 vehicles in front of me. Being I was a little embarrassed of my vehicle as it was not tidy (business trip night before) I asked if I could park it on my own advising him I wasn't trying to avoid a tip. The kind young man stated "Sir I appreciate your tip offer, but I'm just trying to set up the parking lot in an order of how people are coming in and if you can park over there it would be gratefully appreciated". This made me feel that this Resturaunt was really paying attention to detail from the start. I allowed the gentleman to park my vehicle and of course gave him the "please don't mind the mess" scenario. My daughter and I entered the Resturaunt and were immediately welcomed by the owners. The entrance is very neat and I was impressed by all the decanters on top of the piano (not a finger print or smudge that I can see on any). We were immediately escorted to the dinning area towards the bar, at which time I asked if we could sit opposite the bar and was advised "but of course Sir". In my line of work I love watching all around. I had an extremely comfortable chair that allowed me to swivel arroubd. My daughter ordered clams on the half and seared tuna with a few substatutions (allergies) with a comment from staff stating "we are here to make your dining experience a very enjoyable one". I ordered the oysters and pork Osso Bucco (no substatutions). While eating we engaged in a conversation with a nice couple next to us. It was a nice conversation mutually accepted by both dinner parties which it seems I may have a golf date with the gentleman as we ended up knowing mutual people we grew up with. I have to tell you..... Oysters were fantastic, clams were to. But ladies and gentleman the pork Osso Bucco was perfect! Ate it to the bone. My daughters tuna was perfectly cooked. At the end my daughter had tiramisu and I had 3 wonderful bites of it to accompany my espresso and sambucca. The Resturaunt pays attention to detail from start to finish and I will definitely return for date night. Thank you Benny for a...

Horrible experience. My boyfriend and I took his grandmother out hoping for a wonderful dinner- unfortunately we had the worst service I have ever received at a restaurant. Our waiter (did not even tell us his name) came and asked for drink orders, he took 1 of 3 drink orders and then WALKED AWAY. and he didn’t come back for 5+ minutes. We thought he went to maybe get a wine list, but did not and then when he finally came back we had to ask for the wine list which was then brought over by someone else. The food came out SO quickly. Too quickly. How can you cook and prepare three meals in less than 20 minutes??? Before our food came our waiter came to take the salad forks and reached in front of us without an excuse me. Food was brought and my meal was not very good- garlic was bitter (therefore burned) and just not great. Other meals were good. The waiter never came to ask how our meals were or if we needed anything until we were done. He never asked if anyone wanted another drink and just took our glasses. We ordered dessert and I shared a lava cake- there was no “lava.” It was just a chocolate cake with slightly warm chocolate sauce on top? That is not a lava cake and not acceptable for prices and apparent reputation of this restaurant. When we finally got the bill the waiter just threw it on our table while talking to the couple next us (whom he apparently knew and had been dotting on all evening and not even paying any attention to us) but he dropped the check with no thank you or anything. SO...

I’m not sure there are enough words to describe my gratitude for Benny and his amazing staff at Novelli! We were desperately trying to find a venue that would allow our daughter’s baptism party to begin mid-afternoon, as we had to work with a 2PM baptism time. Everyone flat out said no, except Benny!

He worked with us on time, space, seating, food, and answered all my questions in a very timely manner.

His staff took the heap of decorations we brought and made the room more beautiful than even I could have imagined or done! They were wonderful, attentive, clean, and organized! I was able to just sit down and enjoy the party while they worked their magic!

Now comes the food. When you have a large family, there’s almost always someone who complains and says they didn’t like this or that… not here!! I can’t count how many made sure to tell my husband and I how delicious the food was, how they loved everything from the warm bread to the appetizers, pasta, their meal, and dessert course!

Thank you Benny and Novelli for an amazing experience! You already know we’re customers for life, now you just have a...