We were at your restaurant on 2 separate occasions. We have heard nothing but good things. And we love Italian food so much we figured we definitely give it a try. Your places very small and surprisingly quiet which is wonderful. First time we were there; we did have a reservations for a party of 2 and you sat us right next to the bathroom door with many open tables the entire time we were there. There was still available seating, so this obviously had nothing to do with other reservations. Service was pretty good. However, I have a major complaint about the rigatoni vodka. It was so spicy my throat was on fire, and I don't mind spice, but this had so much heat there was no flavor which goes to show me that it's not a real chef doing this, or they really made a major mistake. After bringing this up to the waitress, she apologized and said, everything in the restaurant is made to order so we can adjust it for next time. Nothing to do with the time I was there. Which kind of upset me but not a problem? We said we try again because accidents do happen. We were just recently there again for a small birthday party of 12 on a Friday night. Again, the place had a few open tables when we got there at 7:00 and never filled throughout our stay. I understand when businesses slow everybody wants to leave, but the restaurant closes at 10 o'clock and by 9 o'clock, we were pretty much finished all but our dessert. They dropped the check which we paid but we did still have some bottles of wine open on the table and we were enjoying the conversations. There was nobody else in the restaurant at the time and they decided it would be a good idea to turn the lights on bright Basically telling us it's time to leave at 9:15. This is not good business end upset us all. We were not being loud or rowdy. We left more than a 20% tip (not like it should matter but was well over $100) and yet the waitress came up took the wine glasses off the table and stated “sorry the dishwasher wants to leave” so we have to take all this away. You're open till 10:00 we were going to leave very shortly we're just finishing our wine & it’s 9:15 and we were thrown out. They upset all of us trying to celebrate our dear friend’s birthday. The food was about average for the most part, slightly above average price, desserts very expensive for store bought. Needless to say, they just lost 12 customers
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
Zarrina N
I had an absolutely delightful dining experience! The meatballs were delicious, and the chicken francaise was outstanding. The BYOW option added to the overall enjoyment, and the service was top-notch. A perfect blend of flavors and excellent service made this visit truly memorable. I highly recommend it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
RA S
Cozy atmosphere, great for a date night of family dinner. Staff is so nice. If Chef Jack D’Angelo is in the kitchen, you’re guaranteed to have such delicious entrees. And the meatballs, so amazing.BYOB, reservations
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Diane Tarabour
We went out first time - the food was delicious and the service was great - we will definitely go back
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Chad Jacobson
A reservation was not needed. However, I suggest making one. The restaurant is BYOB, but no worries because next door is a liquor store.I ordered pasta with vodka sauce, and it was very delicious. The desserts are made fresh, and I tried the tiramisu. The service was outstanding, and the meal was perfect. The restaurant is on the smaller side, which made my dining experience intimate and cozy.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Clair McCartney
We went this past Saturday to Grandma’s Meat and we were so disappointed. We have been going there for a few years now. We ordered the sampler appetizer and asked if we could have 2 Sicilian meatballs to replace the regular meatball. The waitress say She couldn’t do that. I said we always do it. She then said the new policy is NO substitutions allowed and it started 2 weeks ago! When the sampler came out the regular meatball was like the size of a baseball and the Sicilian was the size of a golf ball, which use to be larger!!! Then one person in our party ordered the eggplant parmigiana, she asked if she could have gluten free pasta instead of the regular. Answer was you have to order a whole order of the gluten free pasta, we don’t do half orders and NO substitutions! Prices went up and portions were smaller. The four of us told our friends who use to dine there and we all agreed not to go back!Parking: Lot isn’t that big. Didn’t see any spots for handicap
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Robert Knott
Food was decent, but not great. For the prices I would expect to be more impressed by the food, and certainly would expect larger portion sizes. For $33 the Veal Marsala only comes with a small serving of mashed potatoes. Flavor was good but not overly impressive. BYOB is one of the saving graces.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
O6701
food wasnot good ,clam appy had sand in sauce . shrimp scampi was all garlic no taste ,very small portions, would not go back very overpriced
Lola Torrres
I've been coming to Grandma's Meatball for years. We had my brothers Communion party there, family celebrations, and many other events. We have always looked past the fact that the staff was rude. They constantly would rush us out and make us feel like a burden. We were regulars at this restaurant, we gave the owner pieces of our Communion cake to bring home to his wife. Tonight was my last dinner home before I left for college. My dad had made a reservation on Thursday since they are very strict about reservations (even though they always have open tables and I've seen them deny people service countless amounts of times). It is now Saturday. We told them our name and they said they did not have our reservation. My dad pulled up his phone call history and there was the call to Grandma's Meatball on Thursday. They then told us they could not seat us and we had to leave. It would've been a lot better if the owner we have supported for so long was a lot nicer than he was. I didn't expect much from the lady next to him, since she's always very rude, but I was hoping he would have been more polite when handling the situation. Sadly he was incredibly rude and annoyed with us, even though his staff made the mistake. Huge disappointment. We will sadly never be back to this restaurant after years of going. Grandmas Meatball is too caught up in the summer rush to remember the families that come all year round. Do better.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
jim schmidt
Great food, great service. Grandma never disappoints!
While checking out Jersey Shore restaurant week menus we saw Grandma's did a Tuesday special. 20% off your bill if you paid in cash and bought 2 entrees. Hiding money from the IRS are we? Anyway, we normally avoid BYOB restaurants because they overcharge for their food to make up for lack of alcohol sales. Disadvantage to the non drinkers. 20% off probably makes it a wash however. Prices at the restaurant were higher than what was listed on the website. The staff was over attentive to the point of being bothersome and insincere. They pestered us to get some wine at the liquor store next door or have a soda here. Were they missing out on a corking fee? We settled on tap water they put in a bottle on the table. From time to time the server would take the bottle and unnecessarily fill our glasses up as if we couldn't do that ourselves. The bread was small but good. If you wanted more bread $2.50. Looking at the menu I asked if I could make a substitution to the $39 Fritti Di Mare Fra Diavolo and was told NO. I don't like mussels and clams. Eating internal organs of shellfish creeps, me out. A lady behind us asked for a different sauce on her entree and was also told NO. Wow. It's Grandma's Meatball so we started with the $20, four meatball sampler. Yup, 5 bucks a meatball. The classic meatball was cold as was the sauce the meatballs were sitting in. The other 3 meatballs were hot. The rice Ball I liked. The Sicilian meatball had an odd taste. The eggplant meatball tasteless. My wife's $29 chicken Marsala was terrible. The chicken was cold but the spaghetti underneath was hot. Since NO Substitutions, I reluctantly got the Chicken Parm. Same thing. The chicken was room temp, but the spaghetti was hot and I have to say, a perfect Al-dente. There's nothing special here. Obviously, there's a timing problem back in the kitchen. There's was only 3 other people in the restaurant when we ordered. 80 bucks wasted. Spanos and La Mondina so much better and better priced.
Bill Sickles
Great local BYOB with homemade pasta!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Melisa Sheldon
1. Very small portion for the price.. not worth it! 2. If a restaurant offers gluten free anything, they a. Should have it in the menu (no gf meatballs? That’s why we went!!) and b. Know how to cook it. We were hoping that they’d at least get the pasta right but my dish had pasta that was literally uncooked. I tapped it in the plate. The owner looked insulted. Really? Then she brought it back to the chef, came out and said, “The chef cut a piece with a fork. He said that’s Al dente.” My husband said “Some of it was raw, I could’ve jabbed someone with it!” No accountability nor apology offered by the waitress, chef nor owner. Take your chances if you like but that was money wasted and insult to boot. The waitress actually had the gall to ask if we’d like dessert… wha????
Lauren Dela Cruz
Very disappointed in this restaurant. Went on a Friday night at 5:30 with a friend and my 6 year old. When we arrived there were maybe 2 tables occupied and the host asked if we had a reservation. We didn't, but he was very nice and said that's not a problem and showed us to a table. From there everything felt very rushed. The waitress at first seemed cordial but wasn't very warm. Asked what we wanted to drink and threw down a basket of bread on the table. She told us the specials before even bringing us menus, which were a piece of printer paper. I barely started asking if they could make a child's size portion of pasta and I was instantly shot down with "we can't do that." Again, there were only 2 other tables so it's not like it was SO busy that they couldn't throw a little extra pasta in a pan to cook for my daughter. She asked the kitchen and I was again served with a firm "no." I was clearly frustrated and said forget it I'll just share with her. After we ordered she whipped the menus out of our hands. It took about 15 minutes to get our dishes, and the saving grace here is that the food was very good. But my pasta dish and my friend's salad were $25 each. The cost was outrageous. I understand inflation and making ends meet but not to that extreme. Lastly, our bills came with a $1 credit card processing fee. Again, understand that this is the norm now but $1? That's petty. We weren't served with a goodbye or a thank you as we left. Horrible service and an unwelcoming atmosphere. Absolutely will not be going back. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time or money. There are much better Italian restaurants up and down the coast that would gladly welcome your business and give you child-friendly food options.
laura palleschi
Went last night with a friend and her daughter who is 6, have been wanting to try this place for months, asked if we had a reservation which we didn’t but the gentleman was very nice and sat us. Was told the specials, ask if we could have separate checks as I planned on doing a take out order as well. Placed order, I got a beet salad, my friend got rigatoni and went to order for daughter and asked for kids menu and was told they do not do kid portion so she split her meal with her daughter. There was no attentiveness, asked for lemon with our water n never brought, made us feel if we didn’t order a lot we should just hurry up and go. We declined dessert, never offered us coffee, more water, nothing. I declined my takeout order as we would get no bread and salads and cannot see spending 25$$ for rigatoni with nothing with it so we asked for our checks. Well it cost us 50$$ for a salad, plate of rigatoni and a bottle of water, 7$$ for water!!!! 19$$ for a salad, and to add, an additional up charge for using cr card and was rudely told I should have read this on the menu, where????and why wasn’t it pointed out???? So I could have been given the option to pay cash… I refuse to leave a tip, my friend left her6$$ I said that can be from both of us since I paid for the 7$$ bottle of water and not enough for two let alone three people. Never, never again on principal alone but it’s a shame because the food was very good, even for a salade
We were at your restaurant on 2 separate occasions. We have heard nothing but good things. And we love Italian food so much we figured we definitely give it a try. Your places very small and surprisingly quiet which is wonderful. First time we were there; we did have a reservations for a party of 2 and you sat us right next to the bathroom door with many open tables the entire time we were there. There was still available seating, so this obviously had nothing to do with other reservations. Service was pretty good. However, I have a major complaint about the rigatoni vodka. It was so spicy my throat was on fire, and I don't mind spice, but this had so much heat there was no flavor which goes to show me that it's not a real chef doing this, or they really made a major mistake. After bringing this up to the waitress, she apologized and said, everything in the restaurant is made to order so we can adjust it for next time. Nothing to do with the time I was there. Which kind of upset me but not a problem? We said we try again because accidents do happen. We were just recently there again for a small birthday party of 12 on a Friday night. Again, the place had a few open tables when we got there at 7:00 and never filled throughout our stay. I understand when businesses slow everybody wants to leave, but the restaurant closes at 10 o'clock and by 9 o'clock, we were pretty much finished all but our dessert. They dropped the check which we paid but we did still have some bottles of wine open on the table and we were enjoying the conversations. There was nobody else in the restaurant at the time and they decided it would be a good idea to turn the lights on bright Basically telling us it's time to leave at 9:15. This is not good business end upset us all. We were not being loud or rowdy. We left more than a 20% tip (not like it should matter but was well over $100) and yet the waitress came up took the wine glasses off the table and stated “sorry the dishwasher wants to leave” so we have to take all this away. You're open till 10:00 we were going to leave very shortly we're just finishing our wine & it’s 9:15 and we were thrown out. They upset all of us trying to celebrate our dear friend’s birthday. The food was about average for the most part, slightly above average price, desserts very expensive for store bought. Needless to say, they just lost 12 customers
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 2
I had an absolutely delightful dining experience! The meatballs were delicious, and the chicken francaise was outstanding. The BYOW option added to the overall enjoyment, and the service was top-notch. A perfect blend of flavors and excellent service made this visit truly memorable. I highly recommend it!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cozy atmosphere, great for a date night of family dinner. Staff is so nice. If Chef Jack D’Angelo is in the kitchen, you’re guaranteed to have such delicious entrees. And the meatballs, so amazing.BYOB, reservations
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We went out first time - the food was delicious and the service was great - we will definitely go back
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
A reservation was not needed. However, I suggest making one. The restaurant is BYOB, but no worries because next door is a liquor store.I ordered pasta with vodka sauce, and it was very delicious. The desserts are made fresh, and I tried the tiramisu. The service was outstanding, and the meal was perfect. The restaurant is on the smaller side, which made my dining experience intimate and cozy.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
We went this past Saturday to Grandma’s Meat and we were so disappointed. We have been going there for a few years now. We ordered the sampler appetizer and asked if we could have 2 Sicilian meatballs to replace the regular meatball. The waitress say She couldn’t do that. I said we always do it. She then said the new policy is NO substitutions allowed and it started 2 weeks ago! When the sampler came out the regular meatball was like the size of a baseball and the Sicilian was the size of a golf ball, which use to be larger!!! Then one person in our party ordered the eggplant parmigiana, she asked if she could have gluten free pasta instead of the regular. Answer was you have to order a whole order of the gluten free pasta, we don’t do half orders and NO substitutions! Prices went up and portions were smaller. The four of us told our friends who use to dine there and we all agreed not to go back!Parking: Lot isn’t that big. Didn’t see any spots for handicap
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Food was decent, but not great. For the prices I would expect to be more impressed by the food, and certainly would expect larger portion sizes. For $33 the Veal Marsala only comes with a small serving of mashed potatoes. Flavor was good but not overly impressive. BYOB is one of the saving graces.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
food wasnot good ,clam appy had sand in sauce . shrimp scampi was all garlic no taste ,very small portions, would not go back very overpriced
I've been coming to Grandma's Meatball for years. We had my brothers Communion party there, family celebrations, and many other events. We have always looked past the fact that the staff was rude. They constantly would rush us out and make us feel like a burden. We were regulars at this restaurant, we gave the owner pieces of our Communion cake to bring home to his wife. Tonight was my last dinner home before I left for college. My dad had made a reservation on Thursday since they are very strict about reservations (even though they always have open tables and I've seen them deny people service countless amounts of times). It is now Saturday. We told them our name and they said they did not have our reservation. My dad pulled up his phone call history and there was the call to Grandma's Meatball on Thursday. They then told us they could not seat us and we had to leave. It would've been a lot better if the owner we have supported for so long was a lot nicer than he was. I didn't expect much from the lady next to him, since she's always very rude, but I was hoping he would have been more polite when handling the situation. Sadly he was incredibly rude and annoyed with us, even though his staff made the mistake. Huge disappointment. We will sadly never be back to this restaurant after years of going. Grandmas Meatball is too caught up in the summer rush to remember the families that come all year round. Do better.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Great food, great service. Grandma never disappoints!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
While checking out Jersey Shore restaurant week menus we saw Grandma's did a Tuesday special. 20% off your bill if you paid in cash and bought 2 entrees. Hiding money from the IRS are we? Anyway, we normally avoid BYOB restaurants because they overcharge for their food to make up for lack of alcohol sales. Disadvantage to the non drinkers. 20% off probably makes it a wash however. Prices at the restaurant were higher than what was listed on the website. The staff was over attentive to the point of being bothersome and insincere. They pestered us to get some wine at the liquor store next door or have a soda here. Were they missing out on a corking fee? We settled on tap water they put in a bottle on the table. From time to time the server would take the bottle and unnecessarily fill our glasses up as if we couldn't do that ourselves. The bread was small but good. If you wanted more bread $2.50. Looking at the menu I asked if I could make a substitution to the $39 Fritti Di Mare Fra Diavolo and was told NO. I don't like mussels and clams. Eating internal organs of shellfish creeps, me out. A lady behind us asked for a different sauce on her entree and was also told NO. Wow. It's Grandma's Meatball so we started with the $20, four meatball sampler. Yup, 5 bucks a meatball. The classic meatball was cold as was the sauce the meatballs were sitting in. The other 3 meatballs were hot. The rice Ball I liked. The Sicilian meatball had an odd taste. The eggplant meatball tasteless. My wife's $29 chicken Marsala was terrible. The chicken was cold but the spaghetti underneath was hot. Since NO Substitutions, I reluctantly got the Chicken Parm. Same thing. The chicken was room temp, but the spaghetti was hot and I have to say, a perfect Al-dente. There's nothing special here. Obviously, there's a timing problem back in the kitchen. There's was only 3 other people in the restaurant when we ordered. 80 bucks wasted. Spanos and La Mondina so much better and better priced.
Great local BYOB with homemade pasta!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
1. Very small portion for the price.. not worth it! 2. If a restaurant offers gluten free anything, they a. Should have it in the menu (no gf meatballs? That’s why we went!!) and b. Know how to cook it. We were hoping that they’d at least get the pasta right but my dish had pasta that was literally uncooked. I tapped it in the plate. The owner looked insulted. Really? Then she brought it back to the chef, came out and said, “The chef cut a piece with a fork. He said that’s Al dente.” My husband said “Some of it was raw, I could’ve jabbed someone with it!” No accountability nor apology offered by the waitress, chef nor owner. Take your chances if you like but that was money wasted and insult to boot. The waitress actually had the gall to ask if we’d like dessert… wha????
Very disappointed in this restaurant. Went on a Friday night at 5:30 with a friend and my 6 year old. When we arrived there were maybe 2 tables occupied and the host asked if we had a reservation. We didn't, but he was very nice and said that's not a problem and showed us to a table. From there everything felt very rushed. The waitress at first seemed cordial but wasn't very warm. Asked what we wanted to drink and threw down a basket of bread on the table. She told us the specials before even bringing us menus, which were a piece of printer paper. I barely started asking if they could make a child's size portion of pasta and I was instantly shot down with "we can't do that." Again, there were only 2 other tables so it's not like it was SO busy that they couldn't throw a little extra pasta in a pan to cook for my daughter. She asked the kitchen and I was again served with a firm "no." I was clearly frustrated and said forget it I'll just share with her. After we ordered she whipped the menus out of our hands. It took about 15 minutes to get our dishes, and the saving grace here is that the food was very good. But my pasta dish and my friend's salad were $25 each. The cost was outrageous. I understand inflation and making ends meet but not to that extreme. Lastly, our bills came with a $1 credit card processing fee. Again, understand that this is the norm now but $1? That's petty. We weren't served with a goodbye or a thank you as we left. Horrible service and an unwelcoming atmosphere. Absolutely will not be going back. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time or money. There are much better Italian restaurants up and down the coast that would gladly welcome your business and give you child-friendly food options.
Went last night with a friend and her daughter who is 6, have been wanting to try this place for months, asked if we had a reservation which we didn’t but the gentleman was very nice and sat us. Was told the specials, ask if we could have separate checks as I planned on doing a take out order as well. Placed order, I got a beet salad, my friend got rigatoni and went to order for daughter and asked for kids menu and was told they do not do kid portion so she split her meal with her daughter. There was no attentiveness, asked for lemon with our water n never brought, made us feel if we didn’t order a lot we should just hurry up and go. We declined dessert, never offered us coffee, more water, nothing. I declined my takeout order as we would get no bread and salads and cannot see spending 25$$ for rigatoni with nothing with it so we asked for our checks. Well it cost us 50$$ for a salad, plate of rigatoni and a bottle of water, 7$$ for water!!!! 19$$ for a salad, and to add, an additional up charge for using cr card and was rudely told I should have read this on the menu, where????and why wasn’t it pointed out???? So I could have been given the option to pay cash… I refuse to leave a tip, my friend left her6$$ I said that can be from both of us since I paid for the 7$$ bottle of water and not enough for two let alone three people. Never, never again on principal alone but it’s a shame because the food was very good, even for a salade