At The Jeep Store, we can’t help exploring all the options Ocean Township, New Jersey, has to offer. On this occasion, we decided to find the best Italian restaurants near Ocean Township and share them with you. However, please note that as several Italian restaurants offer high-quality, authentic Italian food near our township, we couldn’t include them all. We hope you enjoy our list.
Illiano’s Italian Restaurant
If you’re craving traditional Italian food made by natives of the boot-shaped nation, Illiano’s Italian Restaurant may be right up your alley. The restaurant has a beautiful and spacious garden that’ll remind you of the Italian countryside. Illiano’s team aims to make its customers enjoy every second of their eating experience — that’s why it has a giant menu with lots of options to choose from, no dinner etiquette, and a warm and welcoming staff ready to serve you.
This restaurant also serves as a pizza hut and pub, so you can throw birthday/promotion parties there, visit with a large group of friends, or simply take your family there. Besides the food and friendly staff, the best thing about Illiano’s is that it’s a family-owned and operated restaurant that has been around since 1997.
The menu includes penne al vodka, cheese tortellini Alfredo, lobster ravioli, minestrone, provolone salads, and cheese steak. Believe us when we say Illiano’s menu is extensive — they even have options for vegans, vegetarians, and kids and offer lots of appetizers and breakfast choices.
Piccola Italia
If you’re a long-time resident of Ocean Township, NJ, then you may have already heard about Piccola Italia, or as many food critics call it, Ocean Township’s hidden gem. This award-winning Italian restaurant has been owned and operated by the Gualtieri family for 18 years. Currently, the restaurant’s owner and the chef is Brian Gualtieri, and his wife, Carolina Gualtieri, serves as the general manager.
One of the things that make Piccola Italia stand out is that its chef has a unique take on traditional Italian cuisine. He fuses the hearty flavors of the regional styles of Italian cooking with Mediterranean flavors, resulting in innovative dishes that’ll keep you coming back for more. In fact, thanks to the bold flavors offered here, the restaurant has received the highest Zagat rating (Zagat is an organization that collects and analyzes the various restaurant ratings by diners) for several years in a row.
The restaurant is open for dining, and while reservations are not necessary, they’re highly encouraged if you want to be seated at the best table. Piccola’s policy is to seat its diners at the best seats available at the time of reservation. However, if you forget to call beforehand, bar dining is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Some delicious dishes you can order include house-made bruschetta, gorgonzola steak fries, crispy fried calamari, mustard and caper seared Atlantic salmon, Piccola Italia chicken parmesan, rigatoni, and pan-roasted shrimp. If you fancy dessert, it offers gelato, apple crumb pie, and vanilla crème brulee.
Posillipo Italian Restaurant
Established in 1929, Posillipo Italian Restaurant is one of the best options if you’re looking for an upscale atmosphere where Italian food is the main star. This restaurant has been around for quite a while and offers both dine-in and take-out options.
Reservation is not obligatory but highly recommended. They have both a menu and special daily entrees for you to choose from. Some of the available dishes are lams casino or oreganata, cocktail di gamberi, pasta e fagioli, stracciatella alla roman, rigatoni bolognese, linguine al vongole, tortellini alla Posillipo, chicken mimosa, and filetto alla griglia. If you fancy a drink, the restaurant has an impressive full-service bar where you can enjoy the best Italian wines and alcoholic drinks.
Posillipo Italian Restaurant offers a fusion of bold and hearty Italian flavors, and the restaurant itself is chic and modern, making it the perfect place to celebrate an important milestone or spice up your routine and try something totally new. Please note that on Tuesday nights, menu items are half price, so you can try more dishes for less.
Merendino’s Pizzas & Ristorante
A local favorite and one of Ocean Township’s most diverse pizza restaurants, Merendino’s Pizza & Ristorante is the perfect place to go if you’re not in the mood to cook and crave something delicious, filling, and Italian. It’s no secret that many of the best dishes in Ocean Township are served in local pizzerias, and after trying one of Merendino’s dishes, we think you’ll agree.
It offers over 20 different types of pizzas, including pizza versions of popular dishes, such as chicken Alfredo, honey bbq, buffalo wings, mozzarella cheese, alla vodka, and their own Sicilian-styled pizza. As if that’s not enough, the restaurant also offers non-pizza dishes, including a fresh mozzarella Caprese salad, rice ball vodka, mozzarella sticks, garlic knots, buffalo calamari, fried shrimp appetizers with fries, bruschetta, chicken noodle soup, antipasto salad, meatballs, calzones, subs, wraps, and strombolis.
As you can see, there’s an option for everyone, hence the restaurant’s popularity among the locals. Another good thing about this restaurant is that you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy a mouth-watering and authentic Italian dish. We recommend you first try at least four different types of pizzas and then the other dishes.
The restaurant offers dine-in, take-out, and delivery options, and you can also earn coupons to get a discount the next time you go.
And that’s a wrap — those are our favorite Italian restaurants in Ocean Township, NJ. We hope you find this post helpful, and if you’re planning on visiting any of these restaurants soon, please let us know your experience.
Here at Sea View Auto Corp, we’re committed to helping all residents of Ocean Township find the vehicle that best fits their lifestyle. If you’d like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Alternatively, if you want to pay us a visit, we’re open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and noon to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Vegan glutenfree Italian pasta by Ula Zarosa is licensed with CC BY 2.0
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