For my last night in NJ, I visited the restaurant next door to the warehouse / DC that I had been supporting for 3-4 weeks. Although this was my first time inside the doors, we had takeout from here 2-3 times during hypercare, and it was always good. Seemed appropriate that I pay my respects before leaving town.
Historically, my standby dish in a mama-papa joint has been chicken or eggplant parmesan (hopefully a combo if they are flexible). Have always liked seafood but am not usually a big shrimp fan. On this trip I ventured to shrimp parmesan a couple times and found it to be quite lovely.
Gianna's started me with chianti by the glass, a small wedge salad, and shrimp parmesan with fra diavlo rather than marinara sauce. A healthy chunk of warm Italian bread with butter came out with the salad. Could not resist a slice or two! Salad was a small wedge with ample blue cheese crumbles and dressing, grape tomatoes and a sprinkling of bacon (which indeed makes everything better). Quick assessment of entre: sauce was tasty but not overly spicy, shrimp were excellent, penne pasta al dente (though, regrettably, boxed rather than homemade). Skipped dessert / coffee as there was no need to make staff linger on a slow night.
I sat at the bar and - other than a private party upstairs - had the place to myself at 8:30-9:30 on a Thursday evening. Bartender was out of work commercial real estate with an interesting accent (claimed to be Irish, I think?) Also got guidance from manager or owner - large-ish gal who claimed to have been there 20+ years. It's always a good sign when the proprietor is more robusto than panetela, methinks.
A good place, but not the kind of place I'd drive a half hour out of my way to revisit. However, if I was ever leaving a Giants or Jets game and wanted a bite to eat close by, this would certainly be on my list of places to consider.
- Rude Dante review
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