La Griglia
“Valet parking, great selection of wines, great food, basically a great time.”
“Their best desserts are the ice cream sandwich, chocolate peanut butter dome, pumpkin splurge, and the chocolate pretzel tart.”
“Must try: cesar salad made with fresh homemade croutons and shaved reggiano cheese, raw bar tower for two and the ahi tuna tartar appetizer.”
La Griglia
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
6 reviews
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I absolutely adore this restaurant for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the ambiance is very upscale, inviting, romantic and yet trendy at the same time, you can tell they put a lot of work into the place and they're very proud of it. This is easily one of my favorite restaurants in NJ. It's very Manhattan like and every time I go I feel like I'm dining with very important people and members of the mob, but that's another story. Anyway, the attention the staff and waiters give you truly makes you feel special. My parents have been here a bunch of times, so they happily welcomed them by first name and quickly brought out their favorite drinks. My mom can't drink, so they joked around with her and brought her a martini without the vodka to make her laugh, she loved the attention. My dad told me they invite they top patrons to a free holiday dinner every year, that's something you don't normally hear about!
Tthey have an exceptional wine menu (all from Italy) and know every bottle in and out. The food is absolutely exceptional, the fish is always fresh, and the presentation of food is always superb, you can tell there's a high level of attention to given to every dish. We started with the octopus salad special, imported burrata and the ahi tuna and salmon tartare. Everything was delicious and very fresh. The octopus salad was very light and refreshing, and burrata…you can't go wrong there, just an exceptional dish. The prices are a bit on the higher side, but I think the ambiance and quality easily justifies the prices.
Please note, they host private parties every Sunday, so the restaurant is usually closed, which is somewhat of a bummer as I've gone on Sunday before totally forgetting that they were closed.
Zoupa de pesci. Unbelievable and Service is outstanding.
I visited the Restaurant for a Baby Shower in January (2016). The place wasn't too hard to find – be mindful the parking lot is only available if you want to pay for valet parking. The place was pretty big, the event was in a private room on the second floor. The restaurant looked real upscale, I can only imagine the prices. It's definitely an Italian spot, because the coat check lady only spoke Italian. The service was okay but it was private event so I can't be too skeptic but it took forever just to get a cup of tea because the building was freezing inside, during JANUARY! The food wasn't too bad either – I would say the grilled shrimp and crab cake appetizers were the best thing they served. I tried to be different and had the salmon but it was a bit raw in the middle so my entrée wasn't too appetizing. My daughter had the steak with green beans – it was in some type of sauce but still came across a bit bland. And lastly our meal ended with dessert – obviously we had the baby shower cake but my daughter opted for the ice cream instead; Nasty couldn't even begin to describe how that supposed chocolate ice cream tasted – its must've been made with the darkest of dark chocolate, either way if a kid gives back ice cream it must be nasty!
I don't frequent Jersey so I won't be back either way but it wasn't a good first impression.
Been here many times and have had many enjoyable meals here but our most recent experience was a real disappointment. If it wasn't for our hardworking server, Kristen, I'd probably be giving this visit one star.
My favorite appetizer here is the Cajun Calamari and I was looking so forward to having it. We ordered it and when it came out, it didn't look right. It didn't taste right either. The pieces were glistening. Turns out it was drenched in oil which made it both look bad and taste bad. We sent it back and ordered something else.
Next, my wife orders the veal chop for her main course. She couldn't cut it and that's when we realized it hadn't been cooked at all (read that to mean it was cold and raw)which was kind of strange since the cheese topping had a nice brown to it. Also my Gangelli past with mushrooms was also way, way too oily. I didn't send that back but only ate a little of it and trust me, rarely to I ever leave anything over.
She did give us a complimentary dessert wine at the end of the evening but quite frankly the food was a major disappointment. I know this is a very good restaurant but they really dropped the ball for us on this particular night.
A bit pricey but the atmosphere and service was excellent and the food was good.
The waiter was very professional and friendly. The interior here is pretty nice and like the waiter, it has an old school charm. Its a pretty big place with a large upstairs with multiple rooms.
The mussels in white sauce appetizer was probably the best I've ever had. Very fresh tasting and each had a piece of almost melted sliced garlic in each shell. The sauce was great! I even wanted to take it home to make my own pasta with it but it ran out from all the bread dipping we did. $12 for 11 good sized mussels.
The truffle fries were something different and not bad. Despite how fancy this place is, they do have ketchup to eat fries with – they don't give you a heinz bottle though, they present one of those fancy tin things to pour it with.
The seafood platter (zuppa di pesci) came with a fish filet, lobster, clams, mussels and shrimp. We were able to add linguini to it for an extra 3.50. I liked that the dish wasn't overly salty and all the seafood it came with tasted fresh and portion size was not bad. That said, for the price (34+), I expected more flavor. It was kinda mild.
The red snapper filet was very fresh and not fishy. Both the crispy crust as well as the delicious buttery sauce that encircled the dish was very delicious. The fish itself was a bit flavorless unless you dipped it in the sauce with each bite. It was still a very good dish. I am just nitpicking given the price point ($28).
Kind of a disappointing experience. I had been here years ago and was very excited to come back however dinner fell short of my expectations.
We were off to a great start, I started with the stuffed crabmeat mushrooms which were really perfect and my husband had the burrata salad which was plentiful and so fresh!
However our main dishes were lacking. I was going to get the tagliatelle with shellfish yet the waitress recommended I get the zuppa de pesce instead which she said could just be made with pasta since I was in the mood for pasta. The zuppa de pesce came and it was seriously lacking in flavor extremely bland. Also there was barely any pasta at all and more importantly some of the mussels did not taste fresh and I left most of my food. My husband got the cavatelli with broccoli rab pesto and sausage which he thought was pretty good although was just a normal pesto sauce.
When the bill came I saw they charged me $5 extra just for adding a few noodles so it turns out I was up charged $11 from my original pasta choice for a mediocre dish!
Anyways other than that service was pretty good and the wine/prosecco pours pretty generous but not enough to be back!