Scala Del Nonna

“We tried the restaurant for lunch and will certainly be going back for dinner.”

“Make sure you make a reservation and is BYOB so remember to bring a bottle to enjoy with your meal.”

“My personal favorites are the ricotta cheesecake (I typically stay away from these because they're so dry, but this one isn't!”

Scala Del Nonna

Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes

Price range.

$$$ Price range $31-60

8 reviews

  1. Got a last minute table for 4 for an early dinner. After reading the reviews on here I was confident that I would have a great dinner and I was right.
    The place is beautifully decorated. We chose to sat outside since it was a beautiful evening and it was fun to people watch everyone walking by. This place is BYO, FYI.

    Now on to the food:

    Bread that was brought to the table was: bread with truffle honey butter and later a plate of crostini with a ricotta spread, garlic bread, and olives -YUM for the crostini!! I didn't have the bread or the olives.

    Appetizers:
    -beet salad special (was small but it's an appetizer)
    -lamb meatball special: OH MY GOD! So delicious! It came with 3 meatballs and I could have eaten 24 of them!

    Main course:
    -SPAGHETTI AL BOLOGNESE – spaghetti in a traditional meat sauce with fresh sage and sheep milk ricotta -friend loved it

    DENTICE MARECHIARA – braised rep snapper in a light plum tomato and saffron brodetto surrounded by clams and mussels -friend who is very picky with food raved about how delicious this dish was.

    -SALMONE CON PIGNOLI – pignoli crusted salmon in a white wine sauce with lemon sauce finished with fresh basil -this was so good!!! I loved the way all the flavors came together!

    -RICOTTA GNOCCHI CON SALSICCIA E PORCINI – homemade ricotta gnocchi with sausage and porcini mushrooms in a light tomato and basil sauce with toasted fennel seed -B/F had this so i tried some also. He loves gnocchi and he said it was the best he's ever had. I'd have to agree!

    Dessert:
    -Walnut Tarte with Vanilla Gelatto -YOU MUST GET THIS DESSERT!! It's the best thing I've ever tasted! Normally I always go for tiramisu at Italian restaurants but after reading the reviews of how great this dessert was I had to try it and I'm so glad I did!

    -Ricotta Cheesecake: very tasty and delicious but the walnut Tarte was definitely the hit at the table.

    Service was great! Our waiter was very attentive and checked on us periodically. One of the owners stopped by every table checking on everyone. I thought that was so nice.
    Found a fabulous new place in Montclair!

  2. Love this place! The decor is simple but elegant. They bring out a small appetizer plate consisting of olives, bruschetta and a creamy cheese  as you order. For appetizers the mussels and scallops are my favorite(though the scallops are a little pricy for the portion, they're delicious!). As for the main course, I can't say I've ever had something that wasn't great be it pasta, veal, risotto or chicken. The sauces the chef makes are absolutely phenomenal. Desserts are also amazing! My personal favorites are the ricotta cheesecake (I typically stay away from these because they're so dry, but this one isn't! You won't be disappointed) and the zabaglione. Furthermore it's a BYOB so what more can you ask for?

  3. With the wide variety of Italian restaurants in the area I didn't know what to expect. This place does indeed have nothing but great food.
    We had 8:45 reservations and weren't seated after 9:15. The waiter was quick and opened our wines and got us settled with menus and specials
    On to the food:

    Bread with truffle honey butter- fresh bread and the butter was sweet with subtle truffle taste.

    Plate of crostini and olives – Crostini's were crispy while some had homemade ricotta while other had caramelized onions

    Antipasti plate – nice selection of meats and cheeses along with olives and peppers.

    Shrimp over broccoli – Huge shrimp! While they had a nice taste with the broccoli rabe it was a little under seasoned for me.

    Mushroom risotto – A good amount of mushrooms just was a little gummy for me as well as a tad under seasoned as well.

    Lamb meatballs – AMAZING! Best thing by far, I could have eaten a doz!

    Fresh gnocchi – forgot what came with them but hey we're very light but just a little overdone.

    Mussels – good amount of smaller size mussels but came in a nice tomato broth which was packed with flavor which soaked the bread up nicely.

    For my main I had the double pork chip over broccoli rabe with a light cream sauce. Pork was seasoned well and super tender. Whatever preparation they have for the pork it is done the right way! Would def recommend this dish.
    I did try others plates such as the lamb chops and tagatelle and everything was good.

    The restaurant was super packed also that is a good sign that this place does something right. Service was good, food was good (few items needed just a tad bit more salt) but this was one of the better Italian restaurants I have been to in quite some time!

  4. Normally I would not look into Scala Del Nonna so early in the game, especially since it's just another Italian restaurant in Montclair, but a friend of my boyfriend and I said that she was here for a Medical dinner and the food was really good! So last night we decided to check them out. We made last minute reservations for a table at 5:30pm (opening) without difficulty.

    Here's the breakdown: Your menu is broken up into three parts: Appetizers, Pasta, and Entrees. Judging by the handwritten prices, it seems like they still have pricing issues or just never got to updating their second thought poorly designed menus. I wasn't too fond of anything under the appetizer section, since all of it looked like fillers (no meat except a shrimp option) and definitely not worth its price. So we decided pasta and entree would be our best attack. The pastas looked rather intriguing in flavor with varietal selection of shapes. The entrees were simply for protein to strive for a balanced meal.

    I chose the PAPPARDELLE CON OSSO BUCCO for my pasta dish and BRANZINO LIVORNESE for my entree. For my other half, our server had recommended the GNOCCHI and went with it, and the MAIALE AL FONO for his entree.

    The pastas: Both were entree size which the server definitely didn't fib about. My parpadelle was al dente, well seasoned, had great meat ratio, and had this little hint of orange zest that was rather surprising. My boyfriend has noticed it too in his Gnocchi which I did have a taste of too. The gnocchi was pillowy! The sage and sausage melted along with gnocchi perfectly together.

    Now Entrees. My branzino was great in flavor and perfectly cooked, but unfortunately smaller than what I had expected and poorly presented. My boyfriend's complaint for his Porkchop was that it was slightly more than medium well and on the verge of toughness and dryness. And the zucchini on each of our plates looked like they were just trying to get rid of it from their stockroom. We must have ate half of our dishes or close it when we decided that it would just be best to take it home.

    By the time the entrees had arrived, I was already satisfied, but of course I ate it, I did not care to proceed with dessert (I'm writing a head to tail review here!). I chose the CHOCOLATE PHYLLO and he, the WALNUT AND HONEY TORTE. The torte was definitely the winner of the two. It just had better flavor, better texture, better balance. My phyllo dessert was pretty but rather loose. I wasn't expecting to see huge amounts of chocolate mousse sandwich between a single layer of chocolate pastry shell. I don't know if its just me, but when I think of phyllo, I see layers upon layers of pastry and the chocolate flavor wasn't prominent enough either.

    Looking back If I were to change anything, I most certainly would have just gotten separate pasta dishes and just shared an entree, definitely not the other way around. Their absolute strength as a restaurant is pasta, followed by dessert, and service. Weaknesses are entrees (not entirely) and bread basket (i love me some good bread).

    Would I rate them as overall best Italian in Montclair? It would be premature to say since it was my first time here, but definitely top three.

    VALUE: 3.75
    AMBIANCE: 3.75
    FOOD: 4.0
    SERVICE: 4.5

  5. Full disclosure, I went to SDN for a pre fixe business occasion.  Nice interior, and the food was good.  They did a good job with the occasion.  I'm not running back because the menu seemed less than innovative.  There's no shortage of high end italian in NJ.  Here's one more.

  6. Going in I knew they owned Scaleni Fedeli so I expected a lot. It didn't disappoint.  Our server William was polite and on the spot. He constantly made sure that our party of six had everything it needed. The entire wait staff was tip top. My wife and I had the salad special and it was delicious. I had the pork chop special and it was fantastic. A generous portion of two large chops.  My wife had the snapper and loved it too. The desserts were typical but very good as well. Overall a great dining experience. We'll be back! 🙂

  7. Same owners as Scalini Fedli in Chatham or NYC, but minus the liquor license (BYO) and the Prix Fixe menu.  Consistently amazing food and top-notch service.  We have never been disappointed by a dish or experience.  A few standouts,

    – If they have Ricotta Gnocchi as a special app (they typically do), you get at least one, perhaps 2 depending on your group.  Usually is tossed in with various tomatoes (cherry, sundried) with a basil pomodoro and topped with goat cheese.

    – Lentil soup – Not my typical choice since soup bores the hell out of me, but this is no ordinary soup.  Pureed creamy lentil soup with black truffle and mini ravioli.  

    – Whatever meatball they have as an app!  We had lamb meatballs topped with fresh ricotta last night, but any meatball app they have as a special is also a must-have.  Always moist and packed with flavor.  Clearly there is a theme here to try the specials!  

    – Walnut Torte with Vanilla Gelato…Typically I never eat dessert, however, I never leave scala without eating this one.  Warm walnut buttery and flaky pastry topped with vanilla gelato is a serious home run.

  8. Without exaggeration, Scala Del Nonna offers up possibly the best of Italian cuisine I've ever had.

    7 of us met up in Montclair for my dad's birthday. The restaurant is sizable, featuring a larger dining room on the main floor and a smaller seating area upstairs. We were led upstairs to a table up against the wall (which appeared to have been covered with sections from old wine crates). The servers were quick to come by with fresh bread and olive oil (with fresh cracked pepper), and to uncork a bottle of wine (BYOB a must).

    The atmosphere was charming, but the restaurant acoustics diminished an otherwise charming dining experience, making conversation all but impossible and leaving everyone with a faint ringing in their ears. Not much management could do about it.

    Then, there's the food. Oh…the food. The menu is mostly Northern Italian, with a selection of first plates, pastas, and mains (ranging from chicken and fish to beef to pork and lamb). Choosing anything on the menu is an agonizing decision, made more difficulty by a handful of specials. We all had the same plan: individual appetizers and entrees with two dishes of pasta to share for the table. I went with a lamb meatball special and the pork chop giambotta, while the table split an order of the ricotta and sausage gnocchi and the linguine carbonara.

    Before the dishes arrived, we were treated to a complimentary plate of olives, rosemary foccacia, and toasted bread with smoked ricotta. The flavours melded well together, with the salty olives playing off the slight smokiness of the creamy ricotta.

    Be warned: portion size is ample, veering towards huge. My lamb meatball starter were three large orbs of succulent lamb, well seasoned and served with a dollop of creamy ricotta over a fantastic guanciale and roasted onion reduction. Both of my parents went with the portabella Milanese: parmigiano-breaded slices of portabella in a mushroom broth hinted with lemon and basil. It was a blast of umami and left you wanting more.

    The pasta course wasn't quite as well-executed: while the carbonara sauce was pitch-perfect, the pasta was about a minute shy of al dente. The gnocchi fared much better, with those pillow-light shreds of ricotta-infused dough served over a tomato and basil sauce rich with toasted fennel and chunks of sausage.

    Then came the main: the pork chop giambotta was a behemoth plate of two 8oz pork chops served with roasted potatoes, roasted root vegetables, garlic, and shallots in a piquant sherry sauce. It was probably the best pork chop (hell, pork *anything*) I'd ever tasted. I wound up taking more than half of it home. The lamb chop (in balsamic and au jus) and the veal limone (in lemon, garlic, and basil) were prepared with the same fanatic attention to to detail and taste. All this was followed by some shared desserts: a bittersweet flourless chocolate torte served with raspberries and pistachio gelato, and a trio of pistacho-vanilla-hazelnut gelato with some kind of thin cookie.

    Not a cheap meal, to be certain, and perhaps not totally flawless, but you will not find a better Italian meal in New Jersey (except, perhaps, at one of the other locations of the Tribeca-based Scalini Fedelli family: Scalini Fedelli in Chatham, Il Mondo Vecchio in Madison, and Porto Leggero on the waterfront in Jersey City)

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