Rella’s an Italian Tavern

We are restaurant snobs and this is our go to place for a weeknight casual dinner or to hang out and watch a band play on a weekend. We also have had them cater several parties. The food is always good and they have great specials all the time. My only complaint is that I wish they served better wine. The best wine they have is drinkable but nothing special.

Had a great evening here w friends. Nice ambiance, a decent happy hour (a few craft beer selections) & Pam makes a great dirty Martini. I had the happy hour Quesadillas with chicken that were quite good. Will have to return for dinner at a later date. Would have been very pleased if happy hour was until 7 so my working friends could join us.

A great local spot. Have been many times but had the best shrimp francese ever tonight (and it’s not even on the menu!!) The «Sunday Gravy» and the bolognese are always a sure thing. Good food. Good service.

Very good. We have lived in there area for awhile now and never heard of Rella’s until last Saturday. The places was packed but got a bar table. Excellent service, reasonable prices and very good food. The bread was to die for. I need to go back soon for the live music

This is a 3.5 review. Service was bad. Environment is OK but too dark. APPS– Artichoke franchise was incredible, calamari not so much. Everyone liked their entrees. They hands blue moon sign outside (1 of 3) but don’t have blue moon. I got the Sunday Mac which was good but it was so dark i couldn’t see which meat I was eating which weirded me out– I don’t enjoy a mystery. Overall– OK. Nice that they took reservations and honored them.

I’ve been to Rella’s a few times and really loved it. Fantastic food, attentive staff. I especially enjoyed the salmon entrée. Sunday bloody mary’s were strong! :)

Cool place. Nice cougar hangout. Good size bar. Never tried any of the food but heard its good

Food’s not great and this is the only placed I have ever sent a drink back. I’ll do tequila shots with you in a basement, pass 40s around in bars, or try whatever sad pantry cocktail you mix up but this Bloody Mary was disgusting. Avoid.

Love this new place on our Sunday evening repitoir. Such wonderful staff and attention to detail. Food has been A-​one. Give that guy Brendan a thumbs up for friendliness. Did you want to emerge fully stuffed then order a three cheese calzone. You’re going to take some home I guarantee it. Home made pasta. Yes, some nights. And you’ll be glad you ordered it. Keep up the good effort folks!

Great food and staff. Hands on owners. Great atmosphere and fun. Good specials and awesome for all ages.

If I could, I would give this place zero stars. Let me begin by saying I booked a party in their upstairs room for 15 guests. I did all my planning with their manager Lauren. Lauren told me since I was paying cash, the owner agreed to waive the tax and I would be charged 18% gratuity. The service for the party was mediocre at best. The waitress had a sour puss on her face the whole time. My guests’ glasses were always empty which was outrageous since I was paying for open bar. Those glasses should have been full. Anytime I asked the waitress a question, she looked annoyed. We had a pre-​fixed menu, which gave us the option of soup or salad. She just brought everyone a house salad without even asking anyone what they wanted. When it came time to pay, we got the bill which also was not correct. She had even charged one of the children at the party for the open bar. Also the bill stated a 20% gratuity charge. When I asked Lauren about it, she said that is what they charge. When I reminded her she had mentioned a 18% charge and she realized she could not get this one past me, she changed it. I am a very generous person. I’ve worked in hospitality before. I would be the first one to give a waitress 30% tip no questions asked, if I am provided with good service. Given service was horrible, the manager tried to switch the gratuity amount on me, the waitress was lazy and pre-​ordered our food without asking us first, I give this place 1 star at best. The parking lot was spacious and their upstairs room was private. Their are definitely way better places to eat down the shore that would appreciate your business and gratuity much more.

The food was fairly good here. The fired calamari could have been a little crispier.
The grandmas pizza was also pretty good. It has a really nice bar area to watch Sunday football with friends. The waitstaff is pretty terrible though. There was no hostess at the podium and after we walked after a bunch of people staring at us for about 5 minutes finally someone walked over and it was someone who would be our waitress. We should have just walked out for that. She wasn’t very pleasant the whole time. I may or may not come back. Definitely better restaraunts in the area.

A large group of us had dinner at Rella’s last month.
We ordered a large variety of dishes, and everyone felt their meal was very processed and not fresh. Very expensive for cheap, low quality, processed and not fresh food.
Their pizza is decent, but very thin and very expensive for what would fill someone up.
The atmosphere was very loud, to the point we couldn’t hear each other across the table.
None of us ever returned.

From our table, we heard the owner swear at one of the staff. And by swearing I mean dropped the F-​bomb. We told a waitress and she did not seem surprised.
The food was very good. Too bad the owner isn’t…

I wanted to try their pizza so badly, so I finally did. I was happy that I was able to order the margarita pizza with a whole wheat crust. I was disappointed. It was nice and thin (sort of crispy) but there was not much sauce or cheese at all. I felt like I was eating just dough. I had to even heat up sauce I had in the freezer to put on it to give it flavor.

Very good early bird specials. Best bar pies I have ever had. Good value for the money

OK, we tried it again! We came during the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. Still had no power and went out to grab a bite to eat. Beers were a little on the warm side but that was understandable considering the circumstances. I got the blue cheese burger and my husband got the french dip. Outstanding on both!!! I would definitely come back here for burgers and beer! Still want to try the pizza — someone near us got it and it looked good!

Had a great meal Osso Bucco
on a bed of mushroom rissoto. It was early so the noise level was tolerable. I will return.

I’m yawning just thinking about writing this review… ugh…Ok here goes. Came here Saturday night for dinner — from the outside it looks like a cute intimate place — WRONG! Inside is a complete circus and super loud (louder than a TGI Fridays on a weekend evening) — the dining room is oddly shaped and it kinda sucks if you’re against the wall b/​c it’s like a communal bench seat, so if your neighboring diner plops down or moves the slightest way, you feel it too. Brown construction paper on the tables on top of the tablecloth which tells you they’re too cheap and too lazy to give you fresh linens after each dining party. Wine list stunk (not alot of affordable choices and thats a shame) but the menu was decent.
One thing that really pissed me off was that the bread was rubbery and not fresh at all. It truthfully tasted exactly like reheated italian bread in the microwave after it’s gone stale (we’ve all done it!) Anyway, we decided not to order an appetizer or salads since we were starved and service was very slow, plus our server assured us that the portions were huge — WRONG again! I got the pasta with beans, escarole and sausage (which was pretty tasty) but the portion was very small and they were super stingy with the sausage (i averaged 1 sausage link sliced). I was actually still hungry after eating the entire plate. Lame. Husband got the seafood pasta which he said tasted «alright» and like my entrée, his portion was small as well. We would not go back to Rella’s.

Just opened a month ago and already off and running. Sam the owner is a hands on guy and he ensures that everything is being taken care of on site. The food which is very good if not great for this type of establishment which is tavern. The bar is just large enough as not to cramp and the bar tenders keep pace with the many drink requests.
Rella’s is a nice addition to the Jersey shore dinning and bar scene. Be sure to stop in if you are in the area.