Villaggio Mediterranean Grill & Brick Oven Pizza

Outstanding value, service (Wes) & food! Early bird included delicious spanakopita/​Greek salad, soup or salad, entrée and fabulous homemade cheesecake (in addition to other options.) Plenty of food! Even the dipping oil for the bread was great! Plan to return!

Five star for food quality, one star for service and time from order to getting our food. The wait staff seemed more interested in cleaning tables and setting up for the next day than in taking our order. Once our order was taken it was a painfully long time to get our food. You can bring your own wine and you will need it for the wait! On the plus side the portions are big and the food is good. The grouper is highly recommended.

The service and cleanliness were very good, unfortunately the food was not. My mother got the lasagna that was clearly previously frozen. The ricotta was very dry and granulated. My father got the tour of Italy. Again the lasagna was very obviously frozen. The chicken parmesan was nothing more than a frozen cutlet with cheese and sauce slapped on it. We were very disappointed in the meal and will not be going back.

Been there twice. Food is fine but it is over 80 degrees inside, it was so uncomfortably warm both times. Manager said he lowered to 70 and was unfriendly and apathetic. He laid into a hard working young waitress when the older waitress we had was crabby and lazy. I suggest taking it to go or go elsewhere.

A very comprehensive Menu including Spanish Portuguese specialties. Nice portions. Good Service. Reasonable prices. A find. Even on a busy Saturday night when they take and honor reservations. Delicious. Try it.

Just. Not. Good.

Visiting LBI every summer I am always up for trying new restaurants in Manahawkin and on the Island, but this is not a restaurant my friends. This is a beautifully decorated building meant to look like a restaurant. There is never a hostess at the front, I’ve seen many people turn and walk our after waiting for 10 minutes. Once you get to the «dining area» there is never a soul back there. It’s you and a server or two. It is unnerving seeing a restaurant empty for lunch but especially for dinner. A Thursday at 6 should not be empty.
While you sit in an empty restaurant waiting for your meal for 30 – 45 minutes, you wonder if you should have found your own chicken and killed it yourself and then cooked it. Once it hits an hour, you know it’s time to run. We complained, paid for our drinks and left. Never again.

Going with 5 stars for my first time there. Great friendly greeting, the hostess, most likely one of the owners, quick seating, crowded but well-​served and attended room. Nice décor for Manahawkin. Nice warm and tasty bread basket brought with drinks. This is a BYOB place, but I thought they served wines from NJ, which some places do here despite not having a liquor license.
I had the chicken francaise, nicely done, but not enough pasta to slop up the delicious sauce. 3 nicely flattened and egg battered breasts, moist and served hot with a small little variety of sauteed sweet peppers. I’m not going to fault them for less pasta than I would have liked because some joints don’t even do pasta with the francaise. Little girl had the kid’s pizza and loved it. Cathy had the spaghetti with marinara, which she enjoyed. So, great looking room, excellent service, better than the Olive Garden down the street.
Good value, our bill was $ 47 for 3 of us. Our server was excellent, had to read the specials, but there were many and NOBODY could memorize that. She was always watching our table and only came over when necessary.
So to summarize, really no negatives, I read some really bad reviews and maybe they are under new management, but I have nothing bad or remotely negative to say about this place and we will definitely be back. They have a Mediterranean menu as well, with paella and some other Spanishy offerings.
Honestly, we came here because Applebees on Rt. 72 was packed with an hour waiting time, so what the heck. That was serendipity.
I recommend this place and we are going back next week.
McKinley Ave is kind of off the beaten path, but there is ample parking and they really seem to care a ton about your experience. We felt like seasoned patrons although it was our first time.

One of the Best kept secrets in Manahawkin, NJ with really good food, great atmosphere and good service. Great foods with a nice menu choice prepared by Chef Carlos. They take pride in serving nice portions, providing friendly service and the courtesy shown by their hard working staff. This is a personal favorite for lunch and dining. They have a very good Breakfast Menu and Buffet on Sunday mornings. Recently I had an opportunity to host a Retirement Dinner Party for 65 people and was amazed with the quality of food, the good service and keen eye to detail provided by Alaina the General Manager. I’m impressed and not one who is easily satisfied. Congratulations to Chef Carlos, Alaina, Kelly and in Villageo’s Staff for a job well done. It was truly a great party and nice experience for all in attendance.

Bad service, bad food and bad management. We were 4 couples in an empty restaurant and none of us will ever return. Sorry I could not give a 0 star. Whoever gave this restaurant 3 or 4 stars must be related to the owner. Run away.

I really, really want to like this place. The décor is shockingly nice for a restaurant on a nowhere street in Manahawkin. Our server was exceedingly pleasant if somewhat overwhelmed by the whole waitress thing. Most of the pizza was quite tasty and the house salad was perfect.
But some of our utensils were dirty. And one end of one of our pizzas was burned hard black — couldn’t bite through it hard. And the non-​pizza items ranged from mediocre to nasty — the cheese steak panini was particularly disappointing. Lastly, everything from the kitchen was a little slow… and this was on a weekday lunch with only one other party in the restaurant.
In short, I would recommend trying Villaggio for pizza — so long as it wasn’t a Fri/​Sat night.

Just awful. They had a party of sorts, and we were assaulted with loud music, and a plethora of kids running around. The management should have comped the entire meal, but instead offered a paltry reduction in our bill, and even then made us wait 20 minutes to process our credit cards. Add to this a blood raw steak, ice cold corn and failing to put chimichuri sauce on the steak and we had a thoroughly disappointing meal. Scratch this restaurant from your list.

Nice place, went here for a graduation party yesterday.
The food was good, the service was pretty good. Tables were a little crowded.
The mom of the graduate had to ask them to bring the food to the kid’s table, which was a little odd, but the rest of the service was very good. We had a nice selection of dishes. Appetizers included zucchini sticks, calamari and fried ravioli. We had a nice antipasto too.
Dinner included chicken francaise, eggplant parm, penne vodka, a shrimp dish that I avoided due to allergies, roast vegetables, potatoes, etc. Nice spread.
We’re not down there very often but it was a nice place to visit and have a party.

The service was good and the place looks beautiful. The crab cake appetizer was good. However, the actual meal was not very good, they forgot to put the olives on our pizza and the onion were in chunks and almost raw. The tour of Italy was mediocre at best.

Lovely atmosphere, friendly staff, and pretty good food. A little pricey, but fantastic for special occasions. I recommend the Chicken Parmesan, really nice cut of chicken, pasta, and soup or salad.
They also give you a tasty little dish of seasoned oil and bread for free, which is a nice addition.

We have been here twice and I am not sure how to feel. the first time we went we had a great meal and good service. The second time we went I ordered the same meal and it was terrible and the waitress seemed uninterested. The jury is still out on this one.

We’ve stopped in to Villagio every now and then since it first opened +/​-​4 years ago. Decent Italian food, service, and atmosphere for the area, but not worth writing about. Stopped in with a party of 4 this past weekend for the first time in about a year and it was simply a disappointment. Nice upgrade on the menu to include some Spanish food, but poor quality food, poor service, and simply not a pleasant experience. There are plenty of other family choices for food in the area, try elsewhere.

Good food and nice atmosphere… Bring your own alcoholic beverages!
Service isn’t always consistent on slower nights…

We have gone here on several occasions for both lunch and dinner.
Very nice space. Definitely looks the part of a strong Italian restaraunt. But the food is mediocre at very best. And honestly, calling it mediocre would be a stretch .
One of the basic ways I quickly gauge the quality of an Italian restaraunt is the quality of the bread they serve prior to the meal. And as my wife has reminded me every single time we’ve gone here, I remarked «This bread is nowhere close to fresh!». Stale bread is just a precursor of what’s to come. Weve tried a variety of things from Pizza to Chicken to Pasta. And nothing is worth writing home about by any stretch.
In a very weak food market, this should be a place that shines … But sadly. It just doesn’t
Post-​script — According to sign out front they now serve Breakfast … It’s a pizza joint! What could they be serving for breakfast ??!’?

Granted we were a large party, but Easter Reservations were made well in advance.
Let me begin by saying the waitress was a sweetheart. She was very pleasant, and johnny on the spot. Although some in our party felt a bit rushed, like they wanted the table clear, I can’t attest to that but I can see the point. It’s a fine line to travel, and I’m not sure where to draw it.
the price was reasonable, I felt. A party of 8 and the bill was 225 + tip. The cooks could use a little polishing up on food preparation. A steak ordered medium came out redder than rare. Sent back and redelivered as rare, so they don’t know either the touch method nor do they have a thermometer to tell done-​ness. In addition, one in the party waited quite sometime for her plate to be delivered after everyone else was served because the cook forgot to make hers. That was a bit awkward.
I had lasagna which I felt was quite good. Wife had chicken francese which she enjoyed.
Would I go again, if others decided to I wouldn’t be averse to it, but I wouldn’t initiate. It was a pleasant enough time, but something did feel off a bit. In their defense it could have been the holiday and they didn’t get in the mood yet for work, don’t know