Come hungry. Portion sizes are almost comical, especially the excellent chicken parm and eggplant…read moreParmigiana. Table for 6 mid week lunch. Decor offers a taste of Italy and adds to the charm. Started with a few apps and a chicken parm for the table to share. The Carciofi alla Giudia, the classic Jewish-Roman deep fried artichokes were beautifully presented. A good bit firmer than you'd find in Rome but were still well enjoyed and recommended. Tonno salad with fresh seared tuna was plentiful and packed with flavor. Speaking of flavor the porchetta sandwich was rich and delicious. Really this is closer to a bbq pork than authentic porchetta but still recommended. The star of the show is the chicken parm and eggplant parm. The eggplant was delicate, thinly sliced melt in your mouth. Luckily you get a huge plate. Chicken parm is also excellent and HUGE. While there is $10 plate fee if sharing a main they are fine if you order several items and share all. Very generous with their shaved Parmesan if requested. Prices on the higher side but not all that bad considering the quantity. This feels more like the type of place you come to with a large group than as a couple. Unless of course you are very hungry. Service is excellent.

Are you kidding me! What a meal!! We meet some friends right off the plane. We drove to this nice…read morelittle restaurant in Montclair that was amazing! We ordered a bunch of stuff to share amongst 6 of us today. We started with the Fried Artichokes, Meatballs, and a chicken Parmigiana. Huge portion of chicken Parmigiana, very flavorful meatballs 3 in an order and the 3 very sizable fried artichokes. Joshua our waiter, was amazing and made sure we tried lots of different items from the menu. Then after we finished that, we had the beet salad, a salad with rare tuna, Eggplant Parmigiana and a pork panini. The Eggplant parm was so light and delicious! not a huge fan of fennel but the salads were delicious. The sandwich was full of flavor and made perfectly. This was a great meal at a great price.

The food at Matthew's Italian Restaurant was absolutely delicious, and the service was just as…read moreimpressive. We were arranging a repast and originally expected 16 to 18 people. Less than an hour before everyone arrived, our count jumped to 30. The Matthew couldn't have been more accommodating. When I apologized for the last-minute change and thanked him for making it work, he simply said, "The answer is never no." That kind of flexibility and customer service is rare. Everything came out on time, the food was excellent, and our family was able to spend time together without worrying about the logistics. If you're looking for great Italian food and genuinely caring service, I highly recommend Matthew's.

Try the chicken parm Try the espresso martinis…read moreTry the fried calamari Try the ceasar salad Try the berries and cream Try the dirty martinis Try the straccatella soup Try the stuffed artichoke Try the fresh pasta Try the seafood dishes Try the veal Try the Sunday Sauce!! Try everything!!!!

Service, atmosphere, food was spectacular. Waitress was…read morefriendly, attentive. Old school Italian vibes. Shrimp beep and chicken savoy was great. Clam oreganata was good, eggplant parm was cheesy, pasta was fresh

Food. Never heard of a place without meatballs when ordering spaghetti. New one on me…read more So went with shrimp...but mistake. Obviously frozen as it had various flavors mixed into it...dry and stringy Service was poor. Sat at the bar for around q0 mins until the bartender was done talking with friends only to be told no food at the bar. Service slow..for me. Fast if you are a regular. Their mistake. No music. One lone TV. I'm sure there are better dishes but the service put me off. Not coming back. Life is too short and too many other places to try. Try to get the thin blonde as she hustles If you're a regular..good for you. If you're not..try the places. It's ok

I highly recommend this place!! or a few dishes that I really like and service is really good!!!read more

The chef, Giuseppe, loves what he does and you can experience that love in his dishes. Always a…read moregreat experience here and the bar next door gives you options if you're in the mood for a cocktail or two - Giuseppe's will hand you a separate bill for your bar tab. Works for me!

Let me say right up front, I'm going to try and be as respectful as I can with my review. That…read moresaid... Came here on a Saturday night when they had entertainment (the guy from Jersey Boys, sorry I don't know his name.) 1) The JB guy shows up with a karaoke machine and does a few songs, which were nice. But then turns the mic and machine over to 2 drunked up chicks who dominated the night with their slurred off key singing, and for a good part of the time too! Um, I didn't pay for this. Which brings me to... 2) Dinners were up charged because of the "entertainment," which we don't mind. But I didn't expect to pay extra for 'drunk Saturday night karaoke.' So we quickly ate our dinners and left, which was a shame. 3) The service was good. I don't know the woman's name, but she was attentive. Likewise, the food was good (chicken dinners). Nothing great, but nice. The one thing that was really good was the ginger calamari. Will I eat here again? Maybe. But when they don't have "entertainment."

nice old school Italian vibe restaurant. came on a saturday night while they had a live band…read moreplaying. the owner is very welcoming and caring. food was pretty good but the service from the waitress was pretty slow and forgetful. other than that its a very nice place to go and pretty good food. just wish or waitress didn't forget a app order and a drink order.

Food was outstanding my wife and myself are foodies and this was one of the best restaurants we've…read morebeen to in a long time. Service was very attentive and pleasant. Will be back many times.

Terrible experience. I went on a whim with a friend who wanted to try it out. What harm right? How…read morewrong I was! The food was just awful. The meat had a funny smell ;you know that funky smell you get with old meat? Yeah, there it was. The vegetables were limp and lifeless. The service was the worst of it. We waited forever for a seat only to have the menus tossed at us as that person walked away. When a waiter finally came by, it was very 'what do you want? Stop wasting my time' attitude. Forget about questions. No no no. If you arent a regular than sucks to be you. They Clearly had favorites based on intersctions with a nearby table. When i got my meal and brought uup the fact that I asked for an ingredient to be taken off (note, not substituted, just not on the dish), the server grabs my dish harshly and mutters a racial slur. I was furious but just wanted to get through the meal without further incident. I had already decided i would never come back and I would never recommend thiis place to anyone. It was just so unpleasant, you couldnt pay me to go again. If you dontgett food poisoning from their rancid ingredients, your mood will certainly decay within a matter of minutes by being there. Avoid this place!

I checked out La Venere today with my husband and parents being it's a local spot with great…read morereviews. To start: there's a small parking lot in the back but otherwise appears to be street parking. Both of our cars found spots in the lot since we got there a touch before 5pm. When we got in there, there was only 1 table of two people occupied but we were asked if we had a reservation which we didn't have. Admittedly, it was a bit of a last minute decision to go out so it completely slipped my mind to look to see if I would be able to reserve something but it was before 5pm so I'm surprised we were met with such resistance. Luckily, they were able to take us with warning we would need to be out by 6:45. For reference we left at 6 since we only got entrees. The place itself is somewhat small and has a little covered patio which saw had some tables. It's no frills and the menu wasn't all that extensive. I swear there is more of a menu on their Slice app for takeout ordering. Bread was placed on the table as well as a water pitcher. To be honest, I didn't think the bread had much flavor and my husband and parents agreed. We were pretty hungry so we did finish it (even when bread isn't great, it's still good in my book) but we weren't offered any more than the first basket. All of our entrees came with salad which were typical pizzeria salads-not bad, not amazing. My mom and I both ordered the Chicken Avellino (chicken breast sautéed with chopped red onion, red peppers, sliced hot cherry peppers, shitake mushrooms in a white wine sauce with a touch of plum tomatoes) which came with roasted potatoes. I'm not the biggest fan of spicy but I thought I could just take off the sliced hot cherry peppers and be okay. Wow was I wrong because the entire dish had a kick to it. Even my mom who gravitates towards spicy food admitted it was hot. That said, the quality of the chicken was phenomenal. It was thin sliced and very good. My husband very much enjoyed his Scaloppini Marsala and my dad liked the Pollo Francese but did wish the sauce was a touch thicker. I will say I think the quality of the food served is very good but the portions are not plentiful. I'm guilty of always taking home and making another meal or two out of what I get out somewhere but all 4 of us cleared our plates. At a $30 price point I just wish there were larger portions.

This is our go to spot for takeout dinner - friendly staff!…read morePenne vodka and chicken parm absolutely delicious. They always add extra vodka sauce and that's that extra touch that makes this place our favorite.

Go to the restaurant minimum once a month and there's a reason…read more Quality of the food is one of the best in north jersey along that's a BYOB MUST TRY

hands down the best food in Montclair. i have been here several times and each time its always…read moregreat. i have been trying to work through the menu, but its hard not to order the lasagna, its just that good. it is always busy but never cramped or crowded. being byob is great and there is a liquor store not far away. highly recommended