We came during off season, so I understand not being fully staffed. However, there were only 3 tables with guests during our visit and it took 2.5 hours from the time we were seated until the time we paid our bill. Most of this time was spent waiting on the one server to circle back to us. She was a friendly and pleasant waitress, but does not have the skill to juggle tables effectively. The food was tasty. I loved the featured salad. Unfortunately they don't allow you to share entrees, which I find very odd. For an Italian restaurant, not being able to order for the table is a strange limitation. Also $30 for gnocchi is kind of crazy. The restaurant has a nice vibe. I'm sure it's lively and fun during the summer. Off season, it feels overpriced and not attentive enough to return. We also waited 20 minutes to pay our bill before we saw a "pay on your phone" option under the folded section. We then paid and left. Overall a really unfortunate experience. read more

Polpo - BRUSCHETTA and featured salads - Italian Near Me - Avalon, New Jersey

A group of us dined here on New Year's Eve and there was a limited menu with no substitutions. They had a nice enclosed porch with NYE decor and party blowers which was fun! Food was pretty good and our server was great. read more

See all

Some of the worst service I have ever experienced. My wifes birthday who is a celiac and they couldn't care less. Would rather have her die from her allergy than give her a LICK of attention. Server literally didn't come to table from beginning of apps to end of entrees. Probably an hour. Ruined our night. Just absolutely awful. Food sucked too. read more

Really I think 3.5 stars is the right rating. First I feel like they are slipping a bit. There is now a corkage fee for the BYOB. The prices are not cheap and getting higher. Our servers were still top notch. The lobster bisque has been bettter in years past. The gnocchi and the risotto are still good. I had the osso buco. I was under whelmed. The pasta seems like it was all better in years past. Honestly it just felt like a low quality pasta. The sauce was bland read more

See all

Super busy place, and for good reason! The food was delicious, no complaints at all. We were early for our 730 reservation and they immediately sat us early, and even switched us from inside to outside so we can enjoy the warm evening! I recommend sitting outside, but it does get crazy busy out there with people waiting to be sat! Highly recommend read more

We had the best time at Polpo for a friend's birthday. The food was incredible, the best items were definitely the spaghetti carbonara, the chicken Milanese, and the shrimp agli scampi. Our server, Valerie, was hilarious and had great dessert recommendations. We will definitely come back the next time we are in Avalon. Our only suggestion would be a written specials menu, we had trouble keeping all of the specials straight after they listed them all off. read more

See all

Delightful ambiance, great service by Emma, and delicious food. Love the BYOB. Average Caesar salad ($13). Pretty good special beet salad ($19). Delicious Osso Bucco ($51), Veal Fontana ($34), and Penne Vodka ($27). Highly recommend all 3 entrees. Disappointed that such an expensive restaurant feels the need to skim 3.5% from customers who use a credit card. Exactly who is paying these high bills with cash? Just raise your prices and compete that way. Credit card companies charge 1.5 to 3% so they are making money on the surcharge vs a pass through. Other restaurants, like Il Posto don't do this and are absolutely just as good. And of course they suggest you tip on the surcharge and on tax to the government. read more

Came here to what just might be the best and most reliable Italian restaurant in Stone Hatnor and Avalon. Given that the whole island seemed to be dead in the off-season and the fact that this place was full seemed to confirm my feeling we came to the right place. Most people we talked to were here a week or two early to open up their homes for the busy season. Although definitely cold out, they had tables set up outside and I could see how those looking for something more romantic or quieter would come here. It added up for the ambiance. The Maitre'd was pleasant and welcoming telling each couple how they were the most beautiful couple "even if you were there with your boss...oops". It was off-season and so although we were the second table of the evening the young lady had trouble pronouncing the specials which we helped her through. It was cute. Specials were pricey. Older couple next to me order the shrimp special and when the waiter asked kindly if he wanted to know the market price, he swallowed hard when he was told $98. Lol. We all had a nice laugh. I had the osso bucco over risotto special and started with a burrata salad. It was a lot the shank was quite large but tender and easily fell from the bone. It was all prepared welll. Wasn't exactly what I expected (being a west coast diner, i expected a smaller piece of meat and I prefer a more creamy risotto that you can eat with a spoon) but it was still tasty but very heavy. For dessert we knew we'd get the tiramisu but I wanted cold ice cream ( all 4 ice cream stores on the island were closed). The server told us the only gelato they had was vanilla which didn't satisfy my sweet tooth. I was then craving a warm espresso and wondered out loud to which the server said what's that while my dining partner added, "don't know what it is but it is on the dessert menu". We all chuckled and I asked her how it was served after learning my lesson from the special. (Some serve the hot and cold separate, some serve with a large amount of espresso and a little ice cream and others vice versa). She returned and I told her I was fussy and how I'f like it. Dessert and affogato were perfect! Although I'd order different main entree next time, the meal was as good as I expected and staff and other diners we spoke to were all beyond pleasant. Would definitely come back! read more

See all

If you want an exceptional dining experience with absolutely delicious food and service that goes above and beyond, then Polpo is where you should go! Thank you Anthony for your wonderful and enjoyable dinner and service. We will most definitely be back!!! read more

We enjoyed our dinner here very much. The waiter was attentive and helpful. The food was fantastic. Try the Caprese salad and seafood linguini. Service with a smile, delicious food, nice ambiance too. read more

See all

We had an early reservation, so we didn't run into the issues that some other reviewers had about delays in getting seated. Service was adequate. Although prices are high, the portions are a good size. The calamari and bruschetta as appetizers were tasty. The risotto scampi was a nice portion and had the same sauce as the rigatoni scampi. They don't allow sharing of plates, and to switch from one type of pasta to another in a dish saddles you with a $3.00 upcharge. The octopus dish is a whole baby octopus, so if you are on the fence about it, just be aware. We had an issue with hair in one of the pasta dishes, and after an initial attempt to pass it off on us, we pointed out that no one at the table had that color hair. Meal was taking off the bill. They do move you along quickly in order to turn tables and they like most other restaurants nowadays hit you with a 3% service charge if you're using a credit card. read more

See all

Very solid Italian spot! 10 of us enjoyed a nice group meal here. The Caesar salad, fried tomatoes and meatballs were good, as were our entrees. Between us, we had chicken Marsala, penne vodka, rigatoni scampi and several of us had the gnocchi (both types) and everything was delicious. Service and ambience were great too. The only thing that was a bit odd was the lobster bisque, which looked and tasted more like tomato bisque. It was still good though! read more

See all

No idea why the reviews are not higher, this place is fabulous. Risotto and Gnocchi are absolutely incredible. Highly recommended!

Excellent pasta! Enjoyed rigatoni tomato sauce with shrimp. The arugula salad was also very good. read more

Terrible, horribly rude people who seem to hate everybody. Do not go here. The food is cold, and the ambiance is awful because the staff acts like they are annoyed that you are there. read more

Great things are happening here. I started off my meal with a crisp byob Pale, then some delicious truffle fries. Both absolute divine. I had the gnocchi and it was fire. Definitely come here or their location in Bryn Mawr! read more

Sat outside, flies were very annoying. Dinners did not come out of the kitchen together. Requested Brussels sprout dish to exclude the cheese only, but it came out with none of the other ingredients that were in description, just plain Brussels sprouts. Don't waste your time or money. I felt sorry for the waitress, she actually gave us friendly service. read more

We hosted a girls night/family celebration for our daughter's upcoming wedding at Polpo and it was amazing! They took great care of us and the food, service and vibe was excellent. Thank you for helping us kick off the celebration with style! read more

Polpo - Ladies night dinner at Polpo! - Italian Near Me - Avalon, New Jersey

Angelo the waiter was great! He entertained us and made my Aunt's birthday! The food was very good too.

I ordered from grub hub (because that's what people do when you want your food delivered.) It never showed up and there's really no recourse thru grub hub. So I called the restaurant (because that's what the website comments on GH reflect.) They were not helpful and refused to contact GrubHub for me. I asked to speak to a manager and they refused to put one on. The second person kept interrupting me and told me I was not very classy because I told him I was going to give them a bad review and fight the charge! I actually tipped on an order I didn't get, I got charged for GH service, I had to send my child to pick up the order in another town, and my food will be very cold when it finally gets here. I also tried to impart on them that the GH website shows that Polpo delivers their own food, and I was to call the restaurant directly. They will certainly have the same issues in the future! I will NEVER go back there, either in person or order thru GH. I might even delete the GH app while I'm at it. If a business wants to continue to have customers, they should at least try to accommodate service problems. read more

Place sucks. Service sucks. Food is good but takes forever. Staff hates life except for the one Albanian server with slick back hair. He's the man. read more

The owner was rude and the food mediocre. Do not go there expecting a relaxed and fun beach vibe. They do not know the meaning of customer service. read more

Consistently delicious and very friendly service! I've only been in the office season, but they have always been VERY busy. Make sure to have a reservation! read more

We ate at Polpo on Christmas Eve and had a generally pretty nice meal. It seemed like there was one guy working the entire restaurant, so service was a bit spotty. I was super disappointed when he told us flatly that the specials displayed on the board by the door were basically not current and sorry. It wasn't a great start. But I tried to give him some grace since it was the holidays and he was clearly trying his best. So, the place is generally Italian. And the food was pretty decent. The place is BYOB like many in this area, fyi. But they did have non-alcoholic drinks like sodas. We got the arugula salad, which was exactly what it sounds like, but was fresh. I LOVE gnocchi, so it was delightful to find there are like six different gnocchis to choose from. I got the gnocchi carbonara, which was good. The sauce was creamy and unctuous. The gnocchi were good but pretty dense and also lacking that hard sear I love on gnocchi. My only real complaint was the portion size was HUGE. Two meals if not three. They could easily cut their portion sizes in half. As I said, service was a tad spotty but it's a big restaurant and our server had about six or seven tables (not to mention whatever was going on in the kitchen), so a little grace. Overall we had a really nice meal. read more

See all

Food was delicious but noise level almost ruined the meal. Everyone enjoyed their meals- salmon livornese, linguini pescatora, and fettuccini bolognese - delicious. But they really need to do something about the noise in the glassed- in space on the side. It almost ruined the dinner. And the A/C needs some help as well. We were literally shouting at each other the entire meal - something which I really don't like. Also little things like - no club soda so you are forced to purchase Pelligrino which is just not the same, no limes even though it is a BYOB, and a bread basket that looked like someone had already eaten half of it - come on now- bread is not the thing you should be skimping on - 4 thin slices for 4 people is just not a good look. Again food made up for it but it shouldn't have to. read more

This place isn't even worth a one star, I give it zero stars. Absolutely horrible. Do not go here!!!!!!!! The owner Sam is disgustingly rude and doesn't care about his customers at all. Black mold on the ceiling, STAY FAR AWAY!!!!!!!! read more

We waited an hour and 20 minutes for our main course. When we addressed this with the manager, Sam, he said there was nothing he could do about it. We asked for money off the check and he said "well that's not going to happen" and walked away. In addition to this, there was black mold on the ceiling! When we addressed this health hazard, Sam's said "yeah ok mold". read more

Angelo was incredible! Food was delicious. We had a group of 7 and were celebrating friend's birthdays. Wonderful night with girlfriends!

My first time at Polpo after being recommended to it by a friend. My group of four had a reservation for the outside patio. After 20 minutes of waiting, we were then asked to sit inside because there was no available outside seats. After being at a six person large table instead of a normal size, we were asked for our orders hastily. We waited for around 25 minutes, and then were shocked where the person said very loudly our order and simply handed us the plate in a pushful manner, almost spilling my chicken parm. The food itself was fine, nothing special. Right after we finished eating, our plates were taken from us and were given the check. It seemed that they wanted us out of there as quickly as possible, which I did not appreciate, especially for the price. Will probably not be returning in the future unfortunately. read more

waited 35+ minutes for our reservation and when we asked politely when our table would be ready there was no apology. Only a "give me a second". The servers were INCREDIBLY rude. After 35 minutes of waiting they seated us inside even though we requested outside. When I asked about our outside table, again, no apology. In an incredibly rude tone he said "there's no tables outside". How is it that you can reserve an 8:15 outside reservation online then? Don't lie to people. I don't understand how they are still in business. Don't waste your time coming here. read more

We had a less than stellar experience in a previous visit several seasons ago and haven't been back until last night. It's still early in the season so a reservation was easy to obtain. We were seated inside immediately by a friendly helpful hostess. We originally requested to be seated inside as it was a bit windy. Having been seated we requested to be seated on the outside side porch which is somewhat enclosed providing protection from the wind. No problem and we were happily reseated. Delicious bread. My wife had a flounder with crabmeat special which was beautifully presented and to her perfectly done. It contained a good filet and a surprisingly good amount of lump crabmeat with grilled asparagus. She commented that it was one of the best that she ever had. High praise. My Pollo alla Fontana was a thinly pounded breast with prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella in a very nice cognac Demi glace. It was a good sized portion and well prepared. My only 2 comments are that there was too much cheese and I didn't detect any prosciutto. But it was satisfying and delicious. We enjoyed both entrees and they were memorable. But to us, one shining star was the 1/2 portion of pasta that we requested to be served prior to our entrees. My wife chose a simple spaghetti in a red sauce and I chose the spaghetti in an olive oil and garlic dressing. We recently spent a month in Florence and enjoyed pasta every day. These 2 dishes were an excellent example of a simple sauce over a quality pasta which was done to a perfect al dente consistency. In retrospect, I would have been very happy with a full portion and a more crusty bread as my dinner. Two caveats, the flounder was $52 and the price was not quoted when the specials were presented. I asked the waiter what the price was prior to ordering and he said "in the mid $40's" . It was pricey but according to my wife was worth it but had she known the actual price before ordering would not have gotten it. Secondly, we had an early (5:30) reservation early in the season and there were few diners. In the high season it is not uncommon to see people waiting on the sidewalk for a reserved table. I cannot say if the quality of the service and food would be adversely affected. We will try it again this season. BYOB read more

Great experience, service, and food. It was very crowded for mid-February. I had seen several reviews on Yelp complaining about poor service and wait times despite having a reso, but we didn't experience any of that. Will return. read more

See all

Outstanding dinner, great atmosphere, wanted to especially thank Angelo for his conversation, attentiveness, and recommendations of items on the menu. Looking forward to dining there again! Pfeiffer read more

Trust the reviews. Takes forever to get seated for your reservation (took us about 25 minutes). Wait staff hardly speaks, which I don't mind, but forgot to take the order of someone at table and never checked in. Took over an hour to be served entrees. They forgot the bread. Food was mediocre and overpriced. When I walked out to leave, there were piles of used cups and plates in a box on the floor. Maybe their kitchen was that backed up, but still, it cool. We still had a lovely time with our group, but we'll choose somewhere else in the future. read more

Amazing service amazing Food would totally recommend!! Staff very friendly. The atmosphere was awesome.

While on a family vacation we made a reservation for 9. We were sat immediately but then ignored for 10 minutes. We had to ask our waiter 3 times to please bring our drinks out. When our food was brought out the waiter had forgotten one of our meals and claimed it was "coming right out", after another 10 minutes we asked to remove the item from the bill and he continued to blame the kitchen for taking too long. The restaurant was not very busy and we were seated in the middle of the restaurant where all of the servers walked by constantly. Our server was very rude and the only time he was attentive was when I asked for the check. Would not recommend or go back. Tip was included in our bill. read more

Even though food was very good, I felt our dinner for 11 family members was a cattle call to get in the restaurant, order up, pay a whole lot, and get out as quickly as possible. Lots of caveats; 3.5% to use a credit card (really), no plate sharing, very expensive special menu prices, and I wound up paying $15 for a small plate of pasta to go with my veal entree. Didn't love the whole expensive, very rushed experience. read more

Would not recommend for anyone with food allergies. I came in with a party with two people with Celiac Disease. One found a gluten pasta in her dish and the other got ill immediately after eating. Would recommend eating outside, as inside was too packed and loud/chaotic. It's unfortunate because the pasta and dessert were quite good. read more

Food was mediocre at best. Lettuce on the Caesar salad was not fresh as it tasted metallic. My fiancé had the veal parm; sauce was way too salty. I had the seafood risotto. Mussels were undercooked and shrimp and calamari were over cooked. I got the white sauce which clearly had chicken broth in it instead of wine. Way overpriced for the quality; I will not be going back. read more

As being invited as a guest for NYE Dinner, the area was a closed in porch decorated nicely. We sat down, and it started out nice. Then quickly was rushed to order all appetizers and entrees. Food tasted good but cold in spots. Waiter entertained other patrons with larger parties and spoke with us with dirty dishes in hand. Didn't offer us coffee or dessert menu. We needed to ask for it. Desserts came out, and we were immediately given the check. Very loud, and put in a room with large parties and gamilies with young children screaming. The cost was large enough and when you want to enjoy your meal and not feel taken care of is quite disappointing. Unfortunately, we will not be returning next year. read more