Horrible place to work I worked for Maria years back she never paid me so I took her to court and at least 5 other people there in court sued her and I got back 1500 back in wages she was the worst owner I worked for she should go to jail the worst
Anthony P. Mozzo
About 6 years ago the food was great fantastic dinners make a restaurant and repeat business the second season was sandwiches pizza and singles dishes Lobster ravioli which was great!This past season starting June 2023 and September 2023 stop for lunch and dinner they were not open! Sign on the door "Thank you for your support patronage we are unable to service you properly due to lack of employees!"I thought it over the last time they closed and saw the same sign that It's not my place to patronize if closed! So i decided to go elware!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Melissa B.
Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. I bit into the Buffalo chicken grease wrap and thought to myself, why didn't I just get the pizza? I know it's the boardwalk and maybe you want to sit down. Get out of the sun. I get it. I promise you the food and service are not worth the tasteless grease plate you are about to order.
Anthony P. M.
The food is always good, when they first open 4 years ago it was top notch Italian pretty much regular dinners now it's mostly sandwiches or lobster ravioli which is good. Stop by a few times June and a few times in September they had a sign on the door " sorry we are not open thank you patronage we don't have enough help to properly sever you!" I'm not going to continue patronizing them if I don't know if and when they are going to be open! I had enough!
A Pett
It's a shame this place has taken a real nose dive the past couple years. Food quality and especially service is just not what it used to be. I don't know what's going on here, but something is definitely wrong, and it really shows. Do yourself a favor and skip this place.Update: There's no mistaking the place. No we weren't there today. Just like we'll not be there ever again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Gabriel Jackson
Our waitress was friendly and the general atmosphere was nice, but the restaurant has a few odd features every customer should know before sitting down. 1) They do not give free water. Odd considering this appears to be a nicer sit-down restaurant. 2) Even if you order soda, there are no free refills and the cup you get is quite small. Again, not usual at 99% of US restaurants. 3) They only allow you to tip with cash. Again, very odd and not typical.Additionally, I was shocked at the price of a salad my wife ordered off the specials menu. No price was listed, but it was a pretty simple Greek / shrimp salad. Turns out it was nearly double the cost of most items listed on the menu at $30. Would have loved to know that before getting the bill.Overall, almost all the issues with this restaurant are self-inflicted by management/ownership. They basically choose to do what 99% of other sit-down restaurants don't. When the food at a restaurant is extraordinary, owners can get away with weird rules, but this food is not that. Mediocre at best with stingy processes that are not customer friendly.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 4
Jennifer A
Skip this place. Overpriced for the quality of food. Ambiance was stressful due to owner being so condescending and insulting to patrons and staff. Never again.
Jennifer H.
Food overpriced meh. Ambiance seemed tense. Look elsewhere, many other places to choose from.
Michael Jenkins
For starters, I do go here every time I'm at the OCNJ boardwalk for breakfast, and I really do like the little cafe that overlooks the ocean.Unfortunately this time, it was not the same as before. The next few sentences are not said out of malice, but rather a reflection on what this diner used to be.The service as always was friendly, and we were seated almost immediately. Our waitress, as we had last time, greeted us with a smile and was very nice during the entire service.The menu was the same as it always was, with a few price increases, to be expected with year over year inflation. All good there too.Then go to order, and we are informed that they only have water bottles, which is also fine. What then got me in the end, was that each water bottle was charged as $3.50 each (which was not clearly conveyed to us the price of the water). This water bottle was clearly from a 24 pack of bottled water, which could not have cost more than $5 a pack. A little upsetting considering that would be over 1000% profit on water bottles, something compared to other places on the same boardwalk, would be between $1.50 and $2.00 typically.Then comes the food. Cost: $10-$17 a sandwich. A higher price for a boardwalk meal when compared to the competition. It does comes with potatoes (which are great!) or bread typically. The part that was upsetting as a recurring customer, is the amount I was given on the sandwich. Only one slice of pork roll on the sandwich with one slice of cheese and egg. Compared to the last time I was here, where I got 3 slices pork roll, 2 slices cheese, and egg.Overall the experience as the customer is at best conflicting. The service is good, but when you get the bill it feels as if you were just being squeezed for every penny, unlike how it was in prior experiences. I really do like this little diner, and hope they listen to the reviews not as attacks, but as true experiences of customers. I will see you again soon, and hope for a better experience next time!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 5
Joseph Delia
This place looked nice but the staff was as rude as you can get. I walked in off the boardwalk to place an order to go. It was a little after 4pm which means there lunch is over and dinner begins. Unfortunately there lunch menu had way better choices than there dinner menu. So 3 out of 5 things I wanted to order came from the lunch menu. I explained I would pay more for them to prepare. Two people I spoke to at first were very pleasant. An older woman that worked there, possibly the owner decided to leave involve herself in the conversation and boy did I wish she didn’t. She told me it’s too busy to prepare things off the lunch menu and I had no choice but to order from the dinner menu. Just to be clear the prices for lunch and dinner were the same so it wasn’t like I was trying to get the cheap way out. The lunch menu was simply better. Long story short. I’m told the older lady, no thank you I will find food from one of the other million restaurants on the boardwalk
This eatery caught my radar as we passed by the day before. I said to my family, I want to sit down to a nice meal in a classy restaurant. Lets go tomorrow night... and we did. I noticed it is family run and the server was very knowledgeable about the menu items - my son had fettuccine vodka... i sampled some n decided the pasta was homemade-next, my dish -penne ala panna- creamy sauce, peas, onion, prosciutto., topped wth a basil leaf. My husband had Pomodoro pasta and child enjoyed kids spaghetti' n meatball... we also had dessert- order the chocolate mousse cake , you wont be disappointed. It is to diefor.. My husband nd I shared a Lemon cream cake. I had a cappuccino which was served pipinhg hot and just the right foam. As someone once said " I shall teturn"!
Mac Osterneck
Update: The note below from the restaurant is totally erroneous and has nothing to do with me. First of all I’m not married and was in there with my kids.Second of all if the coffee refills aren’t free then they have even larger problems. And lastly ew.ewCold foodBad coffeeRude staffew
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
J Tolentino
10/10 best cafe to have breakfast or lunch. Staff is super friendly and welcoming. My experience here at this cafe will make me come back to this boardwalk
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Chris Schultz
Food was really good. U should let people tip servers on cc. I had to run to Mac bc I wasn’t comfortable venmoing. Prices good except for 3.50 for a small soda at best that didn’t get refilled was surprising.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Laureen Sobin
The food was overpriced and not very good. The seafood wasn’t fresh and the pasta wasn’t cooked well, which for a place that has a lot of pasta on their menu, should speak for itself. We won’t be going back. Edit: Your snarky and patently untrue response to my review speaks volumes. “Bitter” is an acquired taste.
Horrible place to work I worked for Maria years back she never paid me so I took her to court and at least 5 other people there in court sued her and I got back 1500 back in wages she was the worst owner I worked for she should go to jail the worst
About 6 years ago the food was great fantastic dinners make a restaurant and repeat business the second season was sandwiches pizza and singles dishes Lobster ravioli which was great!This past season starting June 2023 and September 2023 stop for lunch and dinner they were not open! Sign on the door "Thank you for your support patronage we are unable to service you properly due to lack of employees!"I thought it over the last time they closed and saw the same sign that It's not my place to patronize if closed! So i decided to go elware!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. I bit into the Buffalo chicken grease wrap and thought to myself, why didn't I just get the pizza? I know it's the boardwalk and maybe you want to sit down. Get out of the sun. I get it. I promise you the food and service are not worth the tasteless grease plate you are about to order.
The food is always good, when they first open 4 years ago it was top notch Italian pretty much regular dinners now it's mostly sandwiches or lobster ravioli which is good. Stop by a few times June and a few times in September they had a sign on the door " sorry we are not open thank you patronage we don't have enough help to properly sever you!" I'm not going to continue patronizing them if I don't know if and when they are going to be open! I had enough!
It's a shame this place has taken a real nose dive the past couple years. Food quality and especially service is just not what it used to be. I don't know what's going on here, but something is definitely wrong, and it really shows. Do yourself a favor and skip this place.Update: There's no mistaking the place. No we weren't there today. Just like we'll not be there ever again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Our waitress was friendly and the general atmosphere was nice, but the restaurant has a few odd features every customer should know before sitting down. 1) They do not give free water. Odd considering this appears to be a nicer sit-down restaurant. 2) Even if you order soda, there are no free refills and the cup you get is quite small. Again, not usual at 99% of US restaurants. 3) They only allow you to tip with cash. Again, very odd and not typical.Additionally, I was shocked at the price of a salad my wife ordered off the specials menu. No price was listed, but it was a pretty simple Greek / shrimp salad. Turns out it was nearly double the cost of most items listed on the menu at $30. Would have loved to know that before getting the bill.Overall, almost all the issues with this restaurant are self-inflicted by management/ownership. They basically choose to do what 99% of other sit-down restaurants don't. When the food at a restaurant is extraordinary, owners can get away with weird rules, but this food is not that. Mediocre at best with stingy processes that are not customer friendly.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 4
Skip this place. Overpriced for the quality of food. Ambiance was stressful due to owner being so condescending and insulting to patrons and staff. Never again.
Food overpriced meh. Ambiance seemed tense. Look elsewhere, many other places to choose from.
For starters, I do go here every time I'm at the OCNJ boardwalk for breakfast, and I really do like the little cafe that overlooks the ocean.Unfortunately this time, it was not the same as before. The next few sentences are not said out of malice, but rather a reflection on what this diner used to be.The service as always was friendly, and we were seated almost immediately. Our waitress, as we had last time, greeted us with a smile and was very nice during the entire service.The menu was the same as it always was, with a few price increases, to be expected with year over year inflation. All good there too.Then go to order, and we are informed that they only have water bottles, which is also fine. What then got me in the end, was that each water bottle was charged as $3.50 each (which was not clearly conveyed to us the price of the water). This water bottle was clearly from a 24 pack of bottled water, which could not have cost more than $5 a pack. A little upsetting considering that would be over 1000% profit on water bottles, something compared to other places on the same boardwalk, would be between $1.50 and $2.00 typically.Then comes the food. Cost: $10-$17 a sandwich. A higher price for a boardwalk meal when compared to the competition. It does comes with potatoes (which are great!) or bread typically. The part that was upsetting as a recurring customer, is the amount I was given on the sandwich. Only one slice of pork roll on the sandwich with one slice of cheese and egg. Compared to the last time I was here, where I got 3 slices pork roll, 2 slices cheese, and egg.Overall the experience as the customer is at best conflicting. The service is good, but when you get the bill it feels as if you were just being squeezed for every penny, unlike how it was in prior experiences. I really do like this little diner, and hope they listen to the reviews not as attacks, but as true experiences of customers. I will see you again soon, and hope for a better experience next time!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 5
This place looked nice but the staff was as rude as you can get. I walked in off the boardwalk to place an order to go. It was a little after 4pm which means there lunch is over and dinner begins. Unfortunately there lunch menu had way better choices than there dinner menu. So 3 out of 5 things I wanted to order came from the lunch menu. I explained I would pay more for them to prepare. Two people I spoke to at first were very pleasant. An older woman that worked there, possibly the owner decided to leave involve herself in the conversation and boy did I wish she didn’t. She told me it’s too busy to prepare things off the lunch menu and I had no choice but to order from the dinner menu. Just to be clear the prices for lunch and dinner were the same so it wasn’t like I was trying to get the cheap way out. The lunch menu was simply better. Long story short. I’m told the older lady, no thank you I will find food from one of the other million restaurants on the boardwalk
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
This eatery caught my radar as we passed by the day before. I said to my family, I want to sit down to a nice meal in a classy restaurant. Lets go tomorrow night... and we did. I noticed it is family run and the server was very knowledgeable about the menu items - my son had fettuccine vodka... i sampled some n decided the pasta was homemade-next, my dish -penne ala panna- creamy sauce, peas, onion, prosciutto., topped wth a basil leaf. My husband had Pomodoro pasta and child enjoyed kids spaghetti' n meatball... we also had dessert- order the chocolate mousse cake , you wont be disappointed. It is to diefor.. My husband nd I shared a Lemon cream cake. I had a cappuccino which was served pipinhg hot and just the right foam. As someone once said " I shall teturn"!
Update: The note below from the restaurant is totally erroneous and has nothing to do with me. First of all I’m not married and was in there with my kids.Second of all if the coffee refills aren’t free then they have even larger problems. And lastly ew.ewCold foodBad coffeeRude staffew
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
10/10 best cafe to have breakfast or lunch. Staff is super friendly and welcoming. My experience here at this cafe will make me come back to this boardwalk
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Food was really good. U should let people tip servers on cc. I had to run to Mac bc I wasn’t comfortable venmoing. Prices good except for 3.50 for a small soda at best that didn’t get refilled was surprising.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
The food was overpriced and not very good. The seafood wasn’t fresh and the pasta wasn’t cooked well, which for a place that has a lot of pasta on their menu, should speak for itself. We won’t be going back. Edit: Your snarky and patently untrue response to my review speaks volumes. “Bitter” is an acquired taste.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 3