Lavinia at Home

Restaurant Type: Italian

Our Rating: 8.2

Food: 9 • Service: 8 • Décor: 8 • Atmosphere: 8 • Price: 8

72 Main Street, Madison, New Jersey. Tel.: 973-301-0024
Il Mondo Vecchio is a refreshing treat for Italian food lovers in the suburbs of New Jersey. This family-friendly—namely baby-friendly—restaurant offers delicious meals with excellent service and an attentive hostess for all-around enjoyable dining experience. While it’s not inexpensive, your taste buds will excuse the hit to your wallet. Given the quality of the food, it’s no wonder that reservations are recommended.
We shared a combination of appetizers from the classical buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes to seared scallops to ravioli with truffles. Every bite was bursting with rich flavor. For dinner, we dined on pasta, veal, fish and chicken. My favorite was their Costoletta con Carciofi e Tartufi, a boneless veal chop stuffed with Fontina cheese, prosciutto and truffles in a Marsala wine sauce with artichoke hearts. It was superb. Portions are generous and great to share if you like sampling multiple options. Their bring-your-own-bottle (BOYB) policy is also a welcome offering, offsetting some of the evening’s expense. In fact if you forgot to bring one, you can easily buy a bottle at one of the two wine stores within walking distance.

This restaurant rates a repeat visit in our opinion. Give it a try; you will most likely enjoy it too.

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Popularity: 44% [?]

Restaurant Type: American
Our Rating: 8.0
Food: 8 • Service: 8 • Décor: 8 • Atmosphere: 8 • Price: 8

Madison is a great place, both for food and drinks; it’s located at 1316 Washington St., Hoboken, NJ, Phone: 201-386-0300. The bar scene up front, spacious pub is really crowded and a separate dining room - walk through a thick curtain and arrive in a romantic dark, a bit gloomy dining room and fine if you are there for romance. For summer time they have the outdoor seating. The Madison offers a varied menu of appetizers, a raw bar, salads and upscale entrees. Food is better than you might think. They served fresh baked focaccia bread with ricotta cheese dip and olive oil. We had Spinach Dip with artichokes that make it really tasty and portion is pretty good size to share. For main courses we had Grilled Ahi Tuna (Spicy Black Beans, Yucca Fritta, Sweet Plantain Salsa), Pan Seared Striped Bass (Sesame Crusted, Soy Ginger Glaze, Edamame, Braised Bok Choy, Fried Rice) and Gaucho Steak (16 oz. Rib Eye, Lobster Butter, Creamed Spinach), side dish of Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes and all these were excellent choices. Portions were pretty good size and we had to take it home.

Service was fine, restaurant is inexpensive and I will be going back again. They validate parking in the garage on 15th and Bloomfield.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Restaurant Type: Italian restaurant
Our Rating: 8.0
Food: 8 • Service: 9 • Décor: 7 • Atmosphere: 8 • Price: 8

Very popular by locals, Andiamo is a casual Italian bistro in northeastern Bergen County, located at 23 Hardenburgh Avenue, Haworth, NJ, Tel.: 201.384.1551. We recommend that you make a reservation or get there early. We arrived on Sunday around 6:00 PM and the place was packed.
Andiamo Restaurant was established in 1990, offering a predominately Italian menu – although the executive chef has been known to blend flavors influenced by Italian, Asian and American cuisines. It’s a nice place for couples or groups, offering good food at reasonable prices. At Andiamo, we had a quiet booth and plenty of space for our baby seat (they do not allow baby strollers in the restaurant).
Portions are generous. In fact, we were full after eating their homemade bread and appetizers (Eggplant Rollatini - eggplant rolled with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses with Marinara sauce and Fried Calamari with Fra Diavolo sauce). For main courses, we had delicious Shrimp Francese over Angel Hair Pasta and Shrimp Oregano with tomatoes and spinach over basmati rice.
Everyone on the staff was very accommodating, friendly and helpful.
For customer convenience, Andiamo has two separate dining rooms. The front dining area is ideal for small private affairs. This room accommodates 15-35 people. The back dining area, or “banquet room”, is located in the rear of the restaurant. This room provides seating for 35-100 guests and opens to our outdoor deck area.

Popularity: 17% [?]

If you’re at the New Jersey Shore and are looking for a casual place to eat at the beach, you may want to try Avon Pavilion, an ocean side restaurant located in Avon By The Sea at 600 Ocean Avenue (Tel.: 732-775-1043). It’s an enjoyable place to dine with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, beach and local housing, serving seafood, pasta, chicken, steak and ribs along with some great specialty dishes. While they don’t have a liquor license, Avon Pavilion maintains a B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bottle) policy, which reduces the impact on your wallet if you plan to enjoy a bottle of wine at dinner. Its doors are open for business annually from Mother’s Day until early September.

Keep in mind that it is ocean side. If the weather is cool and windy, you may want to bring a sweater or try another establishment as they do not often roll down all of the plastic curtain shields.

In terms of food, they kick off the dining experience with their version of bruscetta, featuring a zesty mixture of tomatoes, black olives and onions with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Off of the menu, we tried one of their house specialties–Crab Cakes–for an appetizer. The generously-sized crab cakes were delicious and are also available served as a main course. The black pepper crusted tuna, sashimi-style, was also a tasty appetizer. For dinner, we had the dover sole and halibut. However, our favorite was the San Tropez shrimp, a bow-tie pasta dish with spinach, black olives and a smoky garlic flavor. The pistachio-crusted halibut was a special-of-the-day, served with a raspberry sauce and slices of strawberries provided a nice contrasting flavor. Served with our main courses, we also had a vegetable melody and a choice of saffron rice, red bliss potatoes and linguine. And while we were pretty full after our main meals, the dessert tray was too delectable to pass up. We ordered a selection of desserts. My favorite was the apple shortbread tart served with a warm caramel sauce. Yum!

Popularity: 10% [?]