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    Buona Vita

    3.6 (205 reviews)
    PriceyItalian
    Open 4:00 pm - 10:00 PM

    Buona Vita Photos

    BUONA VITA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Loud
    Intimate
    Classy
    Outdoor seating

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    Recommended Reviews - Buona Vita

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    Grilled Calamari
    Helena D.

    First time at Buono Vita. Absolutely best! Started with grilled calamari. Flavors were delightful! Ordered specials of night. Branzino with capers artichokes and lemon sauce which was flaky and delicious. Second was homemade rigatoni with shrimp scallops in a Must lick-the-plate-clean lemoncello sauce! Topped it off with lemon marscapone and teramesu. Service was impeccable! BYOB.

    Fettuccine bolognese and penne vodka. Both great but get the penne!!!
    Tara L.

    Based on one visit but everything was great! Very cute place and we had a Romantic table for two in the front. Bread was warm. Calamari was lightly breaded and very fresh. We had the fettuccine bolognese and the penne alla vodka. Both were great but the penne vodka with peas and pancetta was the standout. Remi was handling the restaurant alone tonight and you would have never known it. Great service! Walked across the street to admire the moonlight on the bay after dinner.

    Shrimp scampi-but not enough shrimp
    Van V.

    My first time here and overall we enjoyed on a Friday in late August. We were seated inside. They have outside and upstairs seating too. While it is nice they take reservations, their system needs some professional tweaking. No one gets seated at reservation time. All get lined up outside and perhaps get in 20 minutes late, screamed at by one of the family members, including young ones: "Bill, party of 4. (Louder). BILL, party of 4." Bill and friends are 40 feet away on sidewalk and finally approach. Still, I salute this family business. We were finally seated in the cheerful and noisy inside room. We had an excellent server Ola. This is BYOB which is great. The Caesar salads were so basic, but fine. The eggplant appetizer was excellent. My Flounder Francese was excellent, with a great caper, butter, wine sauce over angel hair pasta. He had the veal chop special. Chop was great but side veggies just so so. She had shrimp scampi. Good pasta and sauce but barely any shrimp, 3 or 4. She raised a concern with server and hostess who said that's how they do it. That needs improvement: double the shrimp. But overall for our first night out for a long weekend together, we felt this place was festive and good enough to make us happy. Cheers!

    Shrimp scampi
    Nikki K.

    Went here for a graduation party with many people, the upstairs was reserved for the event which was nice. However I have a few things to say but must be taken with a grain of salt as we had a party of over 30 1. The food was okay- the antipastas they provided were a nice variety and tasty! This everyone enjoyed. The salads were a little sad and lacking. The entrees were tasty and I especially enjoyed my shrimp scampi dish with a red/white sauce mix. Some of the party thought their Parms (veal and chicken) were overdone. When they brought out dessert, everyone dug right in - tasty chocolate cake, lemon cake, ice cream and cannolis were for sharing with multiple plates 2. I am not as impressed with their attitude - granted we did not rent out the entire restaurant, we did have many guests and they made it very clear that we were limited to a specific time and would not provide us with enough tables to seat all of our guests. By the end, everything felt rushed. All in all, cute place but needs improvement to host large parties.

    CALAMARI FRESCHI
    Mama H.

    It was our first time trying Buona Vita and truly a wonderful experience -- it's a BYOB, tucked right by the water. truly fun group of three couples shared their wine & even made us a drink (!), I love that our little wait to be seated just turned into a joyful moment of community. Truly a neighborhood establishment, the crowd was bustling regardless of the rainy weather. We enjoyed the appetizers and chicken parm but the highlight of the night was definitely the seafood risotto. While we were too full to enjoy dessert for ourselves, I hope the tiramisu & cheesecake we sent over were thoroughly enjoyed. Went out to seek a great meal and we left with full stomach & full heart. Thank you for a wonderful first night: 10/10!

    Lobster ravioli in vodka sauce
    Rachel M.

    My family has a house on OCNJ and this is always our favorite spot to come to. The service is fantastic and you can't go wrong with anything you order. My favorite is the lobster ravioli special in vodka sauce. It comes with shrimp and scallops. I dream about this meal!!!

    Cesar salad
    Samantha A.

    I'm glad I read some reviews before coming here and comments about poor service didn't deter me. We made reservations for 6 people on a Wednesday at 5:30 pm. We called same day around 3:15 pm (unable to make a reservation for a group of more than 4 people on Open Table). We were told it was BYOB and cash only. The cash only part was a bit confusing, but we were able to pay with credit card - one check for our entire table. Their dining room is definitely small and it was filled by 6:30 pm. I was really happy with how accommodating the staff was. One person in our party wanted a house style salad (not on the menu) and the kitchen whipped one up. A couple others asked about meatballs (not on the menu either) and they had them too! The Cesar salad was excellent, as well as the veal parmesan. But the real star of the show was the blush sauce on the lobster ravioli. I swear I could drink it!! You can get the sauce on any item really. The lobster ravioli came with 5 ravioli, shrimp, and some lump lobster. It didn't seem like a lot, but with the salad I left with a very full belly.

    Chicken parm
    Sammie D.

    We had my birthday dinner here last night, the food was phenomenal and the service was so fast! It's a really nice Italian place. These are the best gnocchi I've ever had at at a restaurant, they taste as good and fresh as when we make them from scratch at home, they are light and fluffy and perfect! The chocolate mousse cake was amazing! I can't wait to come back again!

    Caprese salad
    Jennifer S.

    On a Monday evening I went down to visit my dad in AC. He suggested we go to one of his favorite spots for dinner and made reservations for 6:45 at Buona Vita. When we arrived the dining room was pretty crowded. The hostess pushed two two-tops together and brought us over. We were served water and the waiter came over to tell us about the specials. He then did not come back for a good 25 minutes to take our order. However, it seemed as though he was running the entire dining room himself. Two of us ordered the caprese salad and my dad ordered the pear salad. We also all ordered the branzino special. Our salads came out fairly quickly. The tomatoes were super sweet and fresh in the tomato salad. I have never had branzino before but my dad recommended it so I decided I should give it a try. It took a long time for us to get our food but when we did it was very good. My only criticism is it was very salty, either from the capers or added salt. Otherwise, it was good. The condensation from the air was dripping on me throughout dinner, my water glass was never refilled, we asked for cheese and never received it, but ultimately I felt bad for our waiter. He just seemed to be working so hard and I didn't notice anyone else available to help him. My dad was disappointed and said it seemed like an off night overall. Since it was my first experience I don't have anything to compare it to unfortunately.

    Ngoc T.

    This place was delicious! We got the Bruschetta Di Pomodoro, Fettuccine Buona Vita, and the Risotto Del Mare. Everything was super flavorful and easy to eat. This place is BYOB and liquor store is down the street. Great time and great vibes. Definitely a cute place for a date night or if you would like to be a bit classy and eloquent.

    Fettuccine Buona Vita - really good and light

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    9 months ago

    Only good thing here is the service. Everything else is below average of hospitality industry standards.

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    Sunday Gravy - Chicken Parm with vodka cream sauce

    Sunday Gravy

    4.3(93 reviews)
    3.6 mi

    Sunday Gravy is a casual Italian restaurant located in the central square shopping center in…read moreLinwood. It's BYOB with plenty of parking and reservations are a must since they're always busy! You can easily book on resy.com. I've been twice now, and have enjoyed each visit. All their pastas are homemade and their dishes are very flavorful. My husband thought their chicken Parmesan was a little too salty for him with the vodka sauce, but he's sensitive to cream and has more bland of a palate than I do. I thought it was delicious. We had started off with the stuffed gnocchi appetizer. This was hands down the best gnocchi I've ever had! It was like little pillows filled with ricotta in the most scrumptious cream sauce with roasted tomatoes. We wanted to lick the plate, but used the bread to wipe it up instead haha. For my main dish, I had the shrimp scampi with the creamy rice and it was incredible! The shrimp were absolutely perfectly succulent and not overdone and rubbery. The lemon butter sauce was divine. I may opt for the linguine instead next time since I was overloaded with cream after the gnocchi, but it was delicious the next day as leftovers. Service was attentive and well timed. The restaurant is lively and not the biggest, so don't go here expecting a quiet meal. I need to try their dessert next time!

    Been trying to eat here for a while, but it's hard to get a res because it's so busy and now I see…read morewhy. I had shrimp scampi and we started with the best gnocchi ever and a great tomato and burrata salad. Service was excellent and food was delicious. Make sure to save room for dessert and it's BYOB!

    Photos
    Sunday Gravy - Had my daughter's  baby shower at Sunday Gravy and it was so Perfect , from the Chef 100% to Staff  100% to the room, it was all so Amazing

    Had my daughter's baby shower at Sunday Gravy and it was so Perfect , from the Chef 100% to Staff 100% to the room, it was all so Amazing

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    Lamberti Restaurant - Shrimp montesi

    Lamberti Restaurant

    2.8(47 reviews)
    4.0 mi

    I agree to disagree with my fellow Yelpers. There is NO WAY that Lamberti's deserves a 2.9 status…read more Y'all are craaaaaaazy. Please note: my husband and I visited here LDW weekend, Friday- to be specific. 1. Our reservation was at 7pm and we were seated right away. This is restaurant, is massive, btw. 2. The service was nearly perfect. Honestly, if anything, the dinner went too fast, but I am not going to complain. 3. If you know the area, you know what you're getting into, price wise. It's Margate, NJ- what were you expecting?! ...the worst part of the whole thing is parking. But, again, if you know the area- this typically the case. Just reserve about 10-15 minutes to find parking. We started the evening with some cocktails. I went with the Perfect Sunset, which was a take on a spicy passionfruit margarita. I don't typically opt for tequila-based beverages, but it was good! J got a dirty martini (with blue cheese olives) and thought it was perfected well. To start the meal we went with the barratta special which was accompanied by a variety of fruit, arugula, EVOO, and balsamic drizzle. It was decent. Dinner rolls are complimentary, but nothing to write home about. Most definitely not homemade. For entrees, J went with the Filet which came with roasted potatoes and seasonal veggies. Not only did we agree that the steak was cooked to perfection but it came with a delicious marsala sauce. I went with the Arrogosta pasta which was INSANEEEE! It's MP, which had me unsure, but this portion was huge in every way and packed the flavor I was looking for. This restaurant overlooks the bay and we were lucky to watch the gorgeous sunset. It's handicap accessible, and the dress code is casual. Yes, it's a loud restaurant- but as expected by how large it is. I don't care what these other people are saying, we will most definitely be returning.

    Waited 40 minutes for a table that I had reservation for. The hotess's didn't have a percentage of…read morehospitality, and were acting as if we were a burden. Once we finally sat, they acted completely blind to the fact we were waiting over half an hour for a reservation. Thankfully we were smart enough to schedule a reservation for steven cookies during our waiting time. And once we sat down, we received a text from the oyster bar, and freed up a spot for that very poor excuse of a restaurant.

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    Lamberti Restaurant - Meatball and ricotta

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    Lamberti Restaurant - B-e-a UTIFUL views! (8/30/25)

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    Caroline's By The Bay - Chimichanga

    Caroline's By The Bay

    3.1(173 reviews)
    0.6 mi
    $$

    Haven't been to Caroline's in a long time and I don't think we've ever eaten here; mostly late…read morenight for drinks and music. This time we came to see our friend playing music in the bar area. The bar was crowded for 4:00pm but we found a table which worked well for us. I went to the bar to get my wife and I some beers and the bartender served us right away. I asked if we could get menus for the table and she sent over our server. He was great. He took our order quickly and came back often to the table to see if we wanted anything else. When I read the menu before coming I knew I really wanted to try the tacos. Between my wife and I we got to try 4 types: - Tuna: This was delicious. One of the best tuna tacos I've ever had. They used a nice strip of good tuna meat and seared it with a nice spice blend. - Mahi Mahi (grilled), Mushroom, Shrimp (fried): all were very good The only reason for only four stars was the price for the tacos. Compared to other restaurants that sell tacos they run roughly a dollar more than most establishments. However the quality of the tuna in my opinion does justify the higher price.

    Second time here but this time we sat inside. They weren't that busy at 5:30pm and had no host so…read morewe grabbed a table in the back. My son and wife loved the bacon, blue burger and the surf and turf burger. I got the chicken Parm linguine and I'm thinking maybe I should've got a burger. The "Italian" sauce is way too sweet. I'm thinking too much basil. The chicken didn't taste fresh I guess. I don't know how else to describe it. Our server was super busy, but still did a really good job. Again the burgers and fries are good so I would stick with that or the Pizza or Mexican next time.

    Photos
    Caroline's By The Bay - Bar area

    Bar area

    Caroline's By The Bay - Burger with Parmesan fries

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    Buona Vita - italian - Updated May 2026

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