We had eight in our party including three children. We lucked out because party of eight cancelled so we sat right away. The atmosphere is loud since the restaurant is small. Our waiter was attentive and knowledgeable and most importantly well spoken. Ordered a personal pizza with strawberries and spinach, which was great. My son is not a big eater for being seven but he ate all his personal pizza. Had coffee after the dinner which was very good. read more

Panico's is located in a renovated old church just outside the heart of Cape May. The interior is delightful with vaulted ceilings and magnificent windows and if you get there before dark it feels like your eating outside only better. We've been here at least a dozen times and never disappointed but last visit was the best. My b-i-l who is a serious foodie chose the grilled octopus in a light tomato sauce. He raved about this appetizer and thought it was perfectly prepared. He also went with the crab filled ravioli which he enjoyed. My sister went with the lite fare and found grilled chicken over salad was to her liking. My wife went with the mahi and she's a fishy and loved it. I went with what their signature dish, eggplant pesto. If you love pesto this dish will blow you away! read more

I would have given it four stars but mozzarella cheese is no longer the high quality it was. The margherita pizza is still tasty but not as good. And it's not cheap. $20 for a not very large pizza is pricey. The seating is too close together. They don't take reservations which is annoying. Salad was ok but nothing special. The bread was delicious though. When you start praising the bread though, you're grasping for straws a little bit. What it has going for it is that there's not too many really good pizza places in Cape May. read more

This place is great veal parm special was all perfectly cooked, sauce is not too sweet, everything tastes fresh. Kids had pizza- crispy on bottom and tasty. Meatballs are juicy and tasty too. Will definitely come back. FYI it's BYOB read more

Cool place. Nice folks who run it. Good pizza that holds up on delivery. I like the look of the old church the restaurant is in, but I prefer the takeout -- always fast and ready when you get there. read more

Amazing pizza! This restaurant was wonderful and my party of 9 could not rave more about it. We left so full and can't believe this was our first time here since we have been visiting Cape May for 5 summer. What a great surprise! The Greek options on the menu were wonderful and the Italian food and pizza were so authentic. Many reviews posted this place was loud, but I did not experience this. The place was packed and the noise level was just like any restaurant, maybe even less. The option to call ahead was very accommodating and our party of 9 was able to be seated at 530. If you choose to walk in and have to wait, and someone who called ahead possibly hours ago is seated before you, there should not be any complaints. Calling ahead is basically a same day reservation. So happy we found this place and besides the great food, just wanted to comment on those 2 posts I had seen, because they almost stopped us from visiting this restaurant. So glad I tried this out for myself instead. read more

Food was ok, overall a little too salty and a little soggy. Decor was nice, though not especially comfortable and unbelievably loud. Definitely not worth standing waiting outside on hard concrete for 45 minutes. They have a few tables where you can wait, but since it had rained, they were all wet. No one bothered to wipe them down. No need to sit anyway since the hostess said it would just be a few minutes. I mentioned to her that 45 is a lot more than a few and she defended their "policy". Did she intentionally slam the door behind me when we left? Yes, she did. read more

I visited Panico's in August of 2011. We were driving around looking for a place to eat. We took a wrong turn and passed out this old church that looked like a restaurant! We decided to check it out (see if there was a menu on the door. it did look a little fancy so we didnt want to 'go in' and end up paying too much!) They didnt have 1 on the door but the hostess let us look at a menu. There wasnt much listed on their menu. But the prices of their pizza were...ok. a tad higher than normal, but not bad that we had to leave! We also had to wait, about 35 mins. Its really nice inside, as another post said-a little loud but not awful, and the tables seemed a little close, but all was tolerable!! I love tomato and garlic pizza but they didnt have it listed. I asked the waiter if that was possible to make and he happily said of course, 'we can put whatever combination of what we have on it for you!" I was surprised they accommodated me! But very pleased. I am picky, so they brought out the pizza with chunks of garlic...and cut cherry tomatoes placed on it! I decided to just eat it....and let me tell you, it was one of the best tasting pizza's I ever had! It was a different taste/consistency than I'm used to, but enjoyed it!! I still crave it now n then and wish I could have them deliver! I do recommend Panico's!! De-lish! :) PS-as for the post I read about crying kids, I would have to say that this is not a "Family Friendly" restaurant, wouldn't recommend taking children! It's more of a classy/adult establishment with foods kids will most likely not eat!! ;) read more

Cool setting and good food. The wait was longer than expected because these people wouldnt get off the table after they paid the bill just sat there talking. We had a rather large group and we needed that big table and they knew we were waiting but they just stared talked stared and talk some more. By the time we sat down I was tuned up I was drunk food was delicious for what I can remember company was good although they lie they lie about that the bell is real we are practically rockclimbing towards the bell and we still going to get the ring great place I highly recommend it read more

The meal was great. Only issue was when we got the check I received a pen that was broken and leaked all over my hands. Our server never came back so I could ask her for a new pen, so we politely stopped one of the bus boys and asked him for one. He nicely went and I watched him search for one, without any luck. He then went up to who I assume is the owner who had been sitting at the table behind us most of the night, and asked her to borrow her pen. A pen. For me. A customer. After asking him why he needed it, she gave it to him and he brought it to me. Meanwhile I hear her behind me saying things like "why is the busboy asking me for a fucking pen" and "there are pens everywhere". Then she stopped another waiter and asked him to stop the busboy and see why he asked her for a pen. Hearing that I stopped him and explained that we asked him for the pen and he was nice enough to help a CUSTOMER out. After delivering the pen back to her she said "sorry he's just been annoying me all day." Her rudeness spoiled the whole meal and I hope he quits and finds a better place to work today. read more

We had dinner here for my husband's birthday. Had horrible experience here, I am so surprised this establishment has decent rating. First of all, the staff told us they don't allow strollers in the restaurant due to the fire hazard. We explained that our baby is too little, but decided to give it to try. After we realized that it was not going to work out, they said that it was no problem to bring the stroller in. Ok..we got seated. The waitress apparently didn't care about her performance, since we were a party of 6 and the 18% tip was automatically applied already. I ordered linguine with clams, my favorite Italian dish. I assumed (shouldn't have) that the Italian restaurant with quite high rating would serve fresh pasta, charging $19 for the dish. I live in San Francisco and have been to many Italian restaurants. The average price (in the Bay Area where the cost of living is expensive) for this dish is $16 for mussels/clams and fresh linguine. To my surprise, they served a bunch of dry pasta with 5 (FIVE) clams...are you kidding?? I asked the waitress and she said they didn't make fresh pasta there. Moreover, she called for the owner and when the lady came over, I explained the issue, asking why they charge $19 for boxed pasta and a few clams. She said it is not the food I am paying for, but for the electricity, rent and somebody else preparing my dinner (????). I think that was a strange explanation. I didn't think it was worth my patience and time to draw comparisons with other authentic Italian restaurants that do not overcharge and serve fresh pasta. (she quickly said they could switch the dish with the one with fresh pasta.) it seems like they make some pasta dishes with fresh pasta, according what she said. Well, I guess I was not lucky having ordered the linguine. I wouldn't come back here again. One star is for the issue having been resolved. read more

One thing I can say about Cape May is that there is a lot out there for the epicurean in you. Every time we go we try to eat dinner some place new. This time around we went to Panico's Bistro after the Wine festival. First off, it is located in the heart of Cape May and the area is beautiful. The restaurant is located in a old Methodist church and it is a lovely building. Now lets get down to the restaurant. We called ahead for preferred seating, not reserved seating. Basically if there is an hour wait you would be seated in probably half that time because you called ahead. Once in the decor did not disappoint. The menu has a lot to offer and it was not an easy choice. We had the Octopus for an appetizer and my Wife had the eggplant special while I ordered the crispy tilapia and shrimp. The Octopus was tasty but overdone. It was a bit tough. My wife loved the eggplant dish. I wasn't to impressed with the crispy tilapia and shrimp but it was flavorful. The shrimp alone would have been great as they were almost perfect. Overall we felt it was ok. I won't give it a failing grade because there is much more to eat that we have not tasted. I guess my pick was not the best but my wife was happy. By the way the kids enjoyed their dish. Cape May is a dry town, make sure to BYOW. I would go back and try something else. read more

If you are up for a long wait and slightly snarky hostess and bar staff, get your name down for great food and great servers. The downstairs lounge offers full or half bottles to drink although you can sit in there even if you don't buy (we had bottles with us for BYOB but this obviously does not apply to the lounge). Therefore bring some sodas and, if you want to sit outside, some bug spray as there are a lot of Mosquitos by the outside chairs, tables and benches. The server Max was awesome and the food was certainly the highlight. The hostess was a little over-worked maybe but she could have had a slightly better and more professional manner with dealing with people. At the end of the night we were the last to leave but nobody said we had limited time. Instead the staff clearing up just gave us nasty looks and then said goodnight with their backs to us as we left. The staff prevented the five stars but the food is probably worth it. read more

Really couldn't complain about anything here. My boyfriend and I were staying the weekend in Cape May, so we decided to try Panico's out after reading excellent reviews on Yelp. The way the restaurant looks is kinda different than any where I've ever been. It's really hard to explain why it's different. You just kinda have to go to find out yourself. But, there were fresh daisies and a candle on the table, which I thought was really cute. This place is nice for a dinner for a couple, but not too fancy where you have to dress up. It's BYOB, so we brought a bottle of wine, and our waiter was happy to open the wine for us and bring us wine glasses. We didn't order an appetizer. He got Eggplant Rolaltini [it was on the specials, they don't have this every night], and I got the Three Cheese Chicken. If I absolutely had to make a complaint, I'd say that their menu is misleading in that the Three Cheese Chicken ended up being Chicken Parm, when the menu described it as something different. But, once I tasted how delicious it was, I didn't care. I normally don't care about sauce. I can eat jarred sauce, homemade, all tastes the same to me. This sauce was the best I've ever had. The chicken was absolutely delicious also, and also without a doubt the BEST chicken parm I have ever had. My boyfriend also loved his meal.. he was scraping his plate at the end. Wish we ordered salads to start.. every time I saw someone order them they looked SO good. For dessert, they come by with a little display of what all the desserts look like, and it was pretty hard to choose one. They all looked amazing. We ended up getting the Tiramisu, which was very good. We both also got Cappuccinos which were delicious too. For all that we ended up spending $55, which I did not think was bad at all for a really nice dinner out. Highly recommend coming here. read more

Ruined my birthday dinner! There were 6 of us celebrating my Birthday in Cape May so we decided to go to Panicos. I had eaten there before but it had been a few years. We called the restaurant to make reservations but they said they could only put our name on call ahead and it was not busy. We got there shortly after 7pm and there was no one at the hostess stand so we sort of stood there confused for a few minutes until a hostess showed up. She did not seem very pleased to see up but seated us right away. She told one of my friends as we were sitting down to please bear with them because they were short handed. Now, we had just called 1/2 hour before so I really wish someone had told us that because we probably would have gone somewhere else but we decided to stay and hoped it worked out. Our server - Max - took a really long time to come over and greet us. I had a birthday tiara on my head the entire time and he didn't acknowledge it at all. He brought water and bread out to us after a few minutes but then he disappeared for a really long time. He had other tables that he was taking care of and they were really far away from us and we kept trying to get his attention. He finally came over to take our order and we also asked for more bread and water. At least 25 minutes had gone by since we sat down. The order on our tab says 7:56 pm and we got there at about 7:20. The appetizers took about 20 minutes to come out and in the meantime we still had not received more bread or water. We finally flagged down a server named Appie who was handling the table next to us and she got water and bread for us just as our appetizers came out. It was literally another 20-30 minutes before we got our food. We had been planning on dessert (for my birthday) and coffee but we decided to skip that because we had plans to see live entertainment and we were already running late. My husband had to actually get up and go find him to ask for our check so we could pay and leave since he was MIA again. The food was fine but nothing worth the wait. Our server never offered his apologies for the slowness of the service or for ignoring our table for half of the night. If he had offered free dessert or coffee it may have left a much better taste in everyone's mouth regarding their experience. My friends were so annoyed and I felt bad because it was my idea. :( The only person that seemed happy that we were there and who offered apologies was Appie. I did see one lady walking around talking to customers right before we left but of course she never came over to our table or we would have had quite a story for her. I doubt any of my friends will return to Panicos after such an awful experience. I had taken a break for a few years because last time the service was not great either and it was a hard sell when we are with friends who have been there before but I had hoped that it had just been a bad night but unfortunately is seems to be bad management! read more

i love to find a place like this. great feel to the place, lovely wait staff, good prices, great choices. went there twice the week of 9/1 and very consistent, great service and the people seem to care for the customer. try it ! read more

Every New Years Eve we spend several days at the Jersey shore with 25 close friends and their families. The women shop the sales in Cape May and Stone Harbor and we eat and drink. This year for New Years Eve we made a reservation for 29 people at Panico's. We were not disappointed!! Our tables were ready on time, the food was fabulous and hot, the servers were very, very attentitive and the atmosphere was very pleasant! We live on the other side of Philadelphia and no one from our party is related to anyone at Panico's. My husband and I planned this dinner and everyone in our group has been calling to say how much they enjoyed this restaurant. We all spend two weeks in June at the Jersey Shore and you can bet your house we will be visiting Panicos several times during those two weeks for more fabulous Italian Dinners! Thank you to the owners and staff for making New Years Eve 2010 so enjoyable for us. read more