North Jersey/NYC restaurant help

[mbcdefg]

Can you please suggest a nice restaurant for my birthday in October?

I'd like it to be within about a half-hour's drive from the Newark area, or someplace in NYC is also OK, and no more than $75pp. BYOB would be nice but not mandatory. I'm not too picky about the cuisine but I'm not crazy about seafood. A tasting menu would be really nice but I'm not dead-set on it.

I used to pick Paisano's in Rutherford for special occasions, but they must've changed chefs or something because the food is nowhere near as good as it used to be. I was thinking of Cafe Mattise in Rutherford, but apparently some friends said that they've also gone a bit downhill. I like Taste of Portugal in Newark and Fette Sau in Brooklyn but I was hoping to try something new, and we just did Zahav in Philly for MH's birthday. How's DBGB in Manhattan? Is there anything really good in Montclair?

If our friends can join us, I'm thinking I might pick Chef Vola's in Atlantic City (two-hour drive from us), but I want to have a more local option to suggest if they can't do an overnight trip to AC.

Thanks!

[Deleted]

DGBG is good, but not my favorite.

Piccolo Angolo is fun for groups and is pretty near the PATH. It is a small, family-run (in New York! imagine that!) red sauce Italian restaurant so maybe kind of like Chef Vola's.

Libretti's in Orange is good if you want to stay closer to Newark.

This may be a bit far for you, but L&B Spumoni Garden in Brooklyn is awesome and MM does a chef's table for $40-$60 pp if you want more variety of food. www.spumonigardens.com/dining-room-menu. Awesome people-watching too -- lots of old school Brooklyn Italian-Americans in sweat suits.

[mbcdefg]

Aug 12, 2013 14:14:59 GMT -5 v said:

DGBG is good, but not my favorite.

Piccolo Angolo is fun for groups and is pretty near the PATH. It is a small, family-run (in New York! imagine that!) red sauce Italian restaurant so maybe kind of like Chef Vola's.

Libretti's in Orange is good if you want to stay closer to Newark.

This may be a bit far for you, but L&B Spumoni Garden in Brooklyn is awesome and MM does a chef's table for $40-$60 pp if you want more variety of food. www.spumonigardens.com/dining-room-menu. Awesome people-watching too -- lots of old school Brooklyn Italian-Americans in sweat suits.

Thanks! I'll bookmark all of these options.

Looking at all these menus/photos is making me so hungry. I should make chicken parm for dinner tomorrow night.

[majesty318]

Hi, I lurk but actually decided to join so I could answer this! For my birthday 4 years ago, we did the tasting menu at Boqueria in NYC. They have amazing, authentic tapas. You need a minimum of 6 people to reserve and the menu is $40/ person. When I went, they would tailor the menu to your party although their website doesn't say that they do so anymore.