Pastora Italian Restaurante

My family really enjoyed the food here. We had eggplant parm, vegetable pizza and shrimp scampi… kids had spaghetti with meatballs. Everything was delicious. Even complimentary bread was piping hot and fresh. My father loved the eggplant parm and said would be returning back here with or without me. My pizza was very good, enjoyed every bite. Service was good too! I highly recommend this place to anyone. Very kid friendly and nice ambience.

Our office ordered a few things for lunch today and we weren’t disappointed. We got an order of penne vodka, 2 chicken caprese sandwiches and the gnocchi. All very tasty and Hot. The bread was fresh. I feel bad for those who had a bad experience, fortunately for us that wasn’t the case. We’ll be ordering again!

I took the family out for News Years Eve dinner, all 8 of us and had a very pleasant experience. The appetizers were enormous and fresh. Some of the best calamari I ever had. The hot antipasto was awesome with delicious eggplant
rollotini. Again fresh and hot. We were getting full from the fresh hot Italian bread with herbed oil and these appetizers.
Then our meals arrived. My wife having the best chicken Marsala ever and I had fruiti de mare with rossoto. Outstanding. We then pushed ourselves to have dessert. The Sicilian iris was amazing. Hot doughy goodness with cannoli cream. The hazelnut gelato fresh and tasty. Regular cannolis fresh just filled. Outstanding dinner and reasonably priced. I will give it five stars only negative is that the restaurant was not full
Just a few tables of people only 2 waiters but the service could have been better. Two young gentlemen, one we think was the owners son but we had to ask them several times for the same thing. They tried very hard to keep up but either were not experienced enough or they needed more waiter help. Despite this issue we will be coming back.

I have been eating here for over a year. The food is great, the chef always makes it the way you want. I highly recommend the garlic knots and the Venus sauce because the flavors are amazing (they aren’t on the menu). The desserts are also great and freshly made.

This place is an absolute disaster. No wonder it’s always empty. The staff is utterly incompetent.
From their website, I placed an order online. Got a confirmation. When I went to pick it up I learned that they don’t actually take online orders anymore. I was told that the website was supposed to be taken down but … incompetence.
When I asked to speak to the manager, they sent another server out to pose as the manager.
Place is so badly run. I’m sure it’ll close soon

Followup to my visit last month. Went back on a Saturday night with my wife. The service has vastly improved. A smiling hostess welcomed us at the door and promptly seated us. The waiter came over in short order and placed our order. The veal was tasty and well prepared. The pasta dish came out al dente and was really great. Even the salad was crisp and fresh. A bonus — they had a man playing piano during dinner. It was a step up from the traditional medium priced Italian pizza/​restaurant. Very classy — a nice addition. Pastora, keep up the good work!

Have ordered take out a few times the past two months and haven’t been disappointed yet. A favorite of ours is the grandma’s pie, which I hear is just becoming more popular in this area. Also have ordered salads, regular pizza and hot subs. The restaurant is new, near the Chase bank by the railroad hump bridge. It’s very nice looking inside, but we haven’t eaten in to be able to comment on the service. Noticed that they’ve started to serve gelato. We will be back for sure.

I’ve been here twice for dinner, most recently ³⁄₃₁. I would have given a 4 star rating because the food is good and I love that it is byob. If it weren’t for the constant interruptions by the wait staff I would have rated higher. Last night not one– not two but 3 people came to my table of 2 to ask «how is everything? «the same 3 people came 3 times each, interrupting our conversation. So a total of 9 times in an hour we were asked if everything was alright. Then as I’m in a conversation the server comes back and says are you finished and how about some coffee and desert? I still had half of my food on my plate! Finally I said «I know you’re doing what you’re told to do by management however, please do not come back. We will let you know if we want coffee and desert.» We finished our meal. Digested our food and talked about how annoying it was to be constantly interrupted. Then we called to one of the three to let him know that we would like espresso. Our server came back with desert menus and we politely declined as we were full. She wouldn’t take no for an answer and started spouting off deserts. A firm NO and she finally accepted. We counted a total of 12 times in 1.5 hours of dining that our conversation was broken. As a business woman I look for quiet venues to bring clients and colleagues. THIS would be my first choice, however both times I’ve been here both times the service was just too much. To management: this needs to change especially when your establishment has a handful of patrons. There is no need to have 3 people per table.

When there with my wife for Dinner, looking for possible party location.
The waiter was no help. He didn’t even know the menu. Food was eatable not worth the prices. Don’t order the special not only is the food bland but they don’t list the prices & on top of that they got the order wrong and they only had 2 people in the entire restaurant. When we got the bill we got a big surprise. I would not recommend this place at all.

Went there last night. Was not good. Advice is do not go. It’s frozen food that’s microwaved

Great place food was excellent. Enjoyed the meal brought a few friends everyone was pleased had pleasant waiter wife and I will good back for sure.

I have dined here three times, all during different times of the year and different days of the week. The first two times were fantastic, but the last time was awful.
The bread is always warm and fresh. It is served with a small bowl of olive oil and herbs. This last time, the olive oil was very salty. The soup was cold. Our meals were cold. Our meals were also incomplete. My husband and I both ordered chicken marsala. We were served the chicken, mushrooms and gravy but the pasta was nowhere to be found (at this restaurant the rest of the dish is served on a bed of pasta.) When we told our waiter about the pasta, he brought out penne vodka, which is a completely different pasta dish. We said that to him, but he told us that that is the pasta that is served with the chicken marsala.
The chef is also the owner and he really takes pride in what he creates in the kitchen. He makes the staff taste everything, so they will know more about the food. The chef had come out and said hello to us both previous times but something was «off» about this night, and we don’t think he was there. We didn’t even catch a glimpse of him. It was a Saturday night but it was early and the place wasn’t busy.
We were disappointed with the cold/​wrong food so we didn’t stay for dessert. Not sure if we will be going back. For the price, I would expect each time we went there to be great, not two out of three.

First, I recommend reading the «reviews not currently recommended» if you scroll all the way down. Last time I was here, I had to wait 2+ hours for a starter salad. The waitress also brought me the wrong food and blamed me for ordering the wrong thing. I never wanted to come back but my friend recently had a birthday dinner here and I thought I’d give it a try again.
Service — Still needs improvement. Very slow.
Veal — Bland tasting. Overcooked to my liking.
I am not returning to this restaurant and I recommend other places nearby that have better food quality and service.

Be sure to come here soon ! The veal is amazing as is the clams/​mussels dish. Portions are plentiful too! Servers are professional, very friendly, and appear to take pride in this place. Atmosphere is overall quiet and intimate.

Pizza was decent.
Sauce for chicken parm and eggplant parm extremely bland. This is New Jersey– that won’t cut it.

I only ate here once and it was for lunch but my overall impression was positive and I will definitely go back again.
I had a lunch special consisting of a grilled chicken caprese sandwich served with a bowl of lentil. My friend had a meatball sandwich with fries.
Both sandwiches were good as was the lentil soup. Service was pleasant and the dining room is actually very nice making it a good choice for a business lunch. Prices were reasonable.
I definitely need to go there again to make a more informed judgment but in the meantime, I would recommend it as a nice place to go for lunch.

We decided to try the place out since we drive by it so frequently. We had 7 people at 5pm on a Saturday. Friends told us the place was great but reading the Unilocal reviews said otherwise. Seemed like most of the negative reviews were centered around service. The waitress was pleasant but didn’t seem sure of herself. She read off the specials somewhat quickly and not in a particularly understandable fashion. She was good at keeping our water pitcher full. As for the food, I would rate it OK. I ordered a chicken Fontana which I never had but when it came it looked a lot like chicken Francesca but since I never had a fontana I didn’t say anything. When I got the check, it was indeed Francesca. The chicken was moist and well cooked and although the sauce was tasty it was way too much — swimming would be a good description. Same with a chicken masala dish just way too much sauce. My friend also ordered a pasta side dish and when we asked the waitress she blamed the cook which is a sure sign of inexperience — no blame necessary just apologize and correct the situation. The pasta Alfredo came with a wide noodle pasta unusual for us but the pasta was cooked properly. The sauce however lacked the distinct cheese flavor expected from alfredo. The linguine with clam sauce was edible but not particularly flavorful seemed to be missing garlic. The décor was pleasant with table cloths and linen napkins. Price was a tad high by a dollar or two per dish. There is a need for a neighborhood Italian restaurant that’s not a pizza parlor. At the end of the day its the food that counts so I’m hoping they can improve in that area and become successful. For a higher end restaurant they do need more experienced wait staff. I don’t plan on returning however if invited to an event I wouldn’t mind going back.

Beautiful atmosphere, delicious traditional Italian food and great service. I will be back again for sure.

this place has alot of potential due to its location, however the food is horrible the watresses have not been trained AT ALL! I went with my wife and two boys and all of our food was horrible except for the grandma pizza wouldnt recommend and the owners arent very welcoming. Not a good way to run a business hopefully they will shape up before they have to close down and the pasta was not al dente it was raw

Perhaps I’m being a little harsh seeing as this restaurant just opened, but as they say first impressions are lasting impressions.
First impression: okay ambiance (i’ve seen WAY better) and incredibly limited options. The menu itself looked tacky and could’ve been designed better, the tablecloth for the table we sat had a stain, and the waitress so nervous and under trained. This restaurant was clearly not ready to open up, and it shows. I don’t understand why a restaurant would open up before it’s staff was well trained, it’s menu fully developed, and it’s chefs up to par.
The penne alla vodka dish we first received was severely undercooked. Now I’m all for al dente but there is definitely a limit and this restaurant reached that limit. It’s ridiculous that they messed up our order, made us wait so they could fix it and still charged us $ 15 for a dish they couldn’t get right the first time!
I thought it would be a more authentic Italian restaurant in Edison. However, at first glance this restaurant disappoints. While it’s menu may be developed more and it’s staff and chefs trained better, the high prices are ridiculous and people in this area will be unwilling to pay $ 15 for penne alla vodka and $ 20 for a pie of pizza when there are millions of these types of places in the area. Granted they may not all try to be as fancy as this place, but at least their food is good, priced well, and they have well trained staff.