Duffinetti's Restaurant and Lounge — Restaurant in Wildwood

Fun family friendly place to enjoy food and live music. We came out to have our last night out at Cape May. Place was recommended by a local. We were not disappointed! We had reservations and were seated promptly. Yet we had to wait about 40 minutes for a server. We noticed the place was busy, so we stayed optimistic and once Tommy, our server finally made his way to our table he was on point and on task to ensure our stay was a great experience. He was working hard we could see and made sure all guests under his wings were well taken care of. Tommy sure was the powerhouse a restaurant needs for success. You can have the best fare but the wait staff is the key to make everything complete. Tommy was fun, polite, funny, knowledgeable and an all around good sport. Food. My food was great! I had the full size Gnocchi with crab meat. Good sauce with a good amount of meat. The Gnocchi though were the bomb. Fluffy like little clouds and very tasty. The wife had the pasta Primavera. It was good, but the sauce was a bit too watery. Very buttery. More like a soup. A complaint one would think is a bit odd, but the portion was too big. This bowl of pasta and veggies was even too big if I would have ordered it for just myself and I can eat like a competitive eater... Either way, the bread service is excellent! Great crusty but soft bread with the "secret sauce" dipping oil. It was so good we ordered double and got a bottle of the dipping oil to take home. Deserts: I had their Tiramisu, which I will order in every Italian place when on the menu. It was great! Wife had the Dark Chocolate Mint Truffle. Was also great, but also a giant portion. The wife had to call defeat half way through. In short. Great experience with great food, fun music, an excellent server, and plenty of people watching. Everyone in the place seemed to have a great time. It felt like walking into a party we were crashing. Not...

We weren’t impressed. I’ve heard good things about this place so we figured we would give it a shot. The experience was somewhat tainted due to the disjointed entrance and wait process. It surely leaves room for improvement. It seems like having to win the lottery rather than an explained process.

Once seated it took much prompting to get water and bread to the table. I asked 3 times over nearly a 7 / 8 minute wait. Now, as with all Italian restaurants I need to apply my bread and oil test. The bread was delicious, the crust was just right and the bread was mouthwatering. The oil was a very interesting and different take. I’m not quite sure what the mixture is but it was spot on and most importantly the oil was fresh. The smell, taste and flavor exceeded expectations.

The meal however fell a bit short. Our son had his normal chicken fingers and fries a dish that any restaurant should be able to deliver with their eyes closed. Nope. They were dry, the fries had an aftertaste and as the chicken, which was sparse was not appetizing at all. Myself I had the veal Marsala with pene. $28 bucks The veal was just okay, I mean it wasn’t bad. But the pasta wasn’t very good and cooked poorly. The sauce was way too watery so it couldn’t be truly enjoyed because it didn’t stick to the food. My wife had the broiled seafood platter $29 bucks. The flounder was a little dry, the crab cake wasn’t cooked thru and pasty. The clams tasted frozen and heated. The escarole and beans were delicious, absolutely amazing. A very innovative take on a staple dish and I would recommend it to everyone. So my overall experience was just so so. I would be fair and say we would be fine with trying the place again to see if they could do a better job. Perhaps since it’s the first week of the summer season they need some time to get things right. Good luck and have a...

We had a party of 14, so called ahead as is suggested on the website regarding large parties. We were told they could seat us at 4:30, which was perfect as we had a group headed to Atlantic City after dinner. We arrived to find that no one we talked to knew about this phone call that we made and they did not have the table ready. The hostess and a young man prepared the table quickly and we were seated. After our drink order was taken we sat quite a while with the menu, then after ordering, sat for quite a long time before bread appeared, a really long time for apps, then the salad, and then it was over an hour and a half from being seated for our entrees to arrive. The waitress, who never asked if we wanted drink refills in all this time, informed us that the hold up was the pork chop order. Um, ok, say you're sorry about it and offer us some bread or drinks while we wait? Bring out the dinners that are ready? Nope. The first meal delivered was the pork chops, then from that point it was at least 10 minutes before the rest of our group had their meals. Portion sizes were small for the price, but most in the party said their food was tasty. Some overdone pasta in the group, though. The salad dressing was delicious and the salad itself was good, but 3 family style bowls for 14 people? The waitress never checked to see if we had enough or wanted more. The ambiance was like a cave, with us having to hold our menus up toward the window to read them. Then a singer who we could barely understand because of the sound system started murdering some songs I hope never to hear again. We were trying something different, but should have stuck with Little Italy like the past 15...