Fanucci’s Cafe & Gelato Bar

This is a great find for a small Italian BYOB. Couples and families. The owner, Maria, is so friendly and pleasant to talk with. The gelato is delicious — the homemade cookies too. The food was enjoyable. Looking forward to going back and trying other dishes.

My husband and our family went there for dinner the food is freshly mad and the staff is very friendly the prices are good as week for what you get I would highly recommend and would definitely be going back

OK… yes it’s not the best atmosphere. It’s a store front. However, if your going by the food exclusively… absolutely the best eggplant around. Seems like most places don’t get it. They tend to make this over fried, caked in batter thick heavy stuff they call eggplant. Fanucci’s gets it right. This is the way it is supposed to be. Mouth watering thinly sliced, full of flavor toped with gravy/​sauce like my grandma from Sicily used to make. Just the best. Very casual atmosphere. BYOB. Go for the food, not the setting. Will def be back. A classic place with great food. Nice folks too!

Great lunch ! Be sure to try the eggplant when you visit. Never disappointed when I come here

Very good lunch. Everything is homemade. Owner is very pleasant and really cares about the customer, service and the food. Restaurant is very clean.

Hidden Menu Item… Macaroni & Cheese is amazing! It is so good it should be added to the menu… Chicken Parm Sandwich Fra Diavolo style is my new favorite. Meatballs are always a go to item. Nice place to order for the office, too! BYOB makes your dining experience complete! I recommend this place anytime your palate is wishing for Italian!

I wish I could say something good here. I have never taken the time to write a review, but felt I had to here. The food was just ok, the service was just plain bad. Two and a half hours to have dinner in a place like this was way too long. We all ordered off their special menu for $ 25. We were four people and after waiting almost an hour for our appetizers to come we asked for some bread. They delivered two rolls (cold), I guess we were suppose to share. For half the money and twice the amount of food you should go to Carmine’s around the corner.

This rating is for the gelato and desserts, since I’ve never had anything else there. It is amazing! I would have honestly never guessed this small place would have such delicious quality desserts.
The gelato is smooth and tastes very fresh. I also got a few cannolis to go and the shells were obviously freshly fried and delicious! Possibly the best cannoli shell I’ve ever had. The filling tasted very traditional to italy.
I’ve been here twice and every single staff member has been warm, welcoming, and most importantly happy to be there.
I can’t wait to try their food.

The food here is delicious and made to order. Had a wonderful dinner here with eight people, and everyone raved about their meal. Stop by for a friendly dining experience!!!

Horrible experience. Took over 40 minutes just to get 2 chicken parm sandwiches for lunch. Sandwiches had good flavor but were 95% bread and were over priced… the lunch special of buy one sandwich get one half off was not honored either.

I hope with time, this little place will improve. They owner is very nice and takes a lot of pride in what she serves. The cozy dinning room has about 5 tables and exudes a small family experience. Speaking to the owner, this is her first experience cooking outside her home.
I think a few changes could make a world of difference. All the dishes we had could have been enhanced with spice and garlic. The food was served at room temperature not hot.
The calamari and shrimp appetizer was very good. Fresh lightly battered and pan fried to golden crispy. This dish was spiced well and had a good amount of garlic. Served in oil instead of tomato sauce.
The pasta fagioli was bland. Needs garlic, spice and oil.
The tomato sauce was very good. Needs to add a healthy amount of grated cheese and egg soaked bread to their meatballs. Needed a knife to cut them.
The eggplant Parma did not include any cheese and was served at room temperature. Liked the fact that the eggplant was hand fried without being breaded. However, it was too soaked with the oil. Probably need to fry it at a higher temperature and use canola oil not olive oil.
The orrichetti with sausage and broccoli rab was just okay. The dishy had too much oil and no spice. A combination of hot and sweet sausage would of helped as well as more spice. The broccoli rab was bland, more like regular broccoli.
The espresso was very good and the homemade biscotti served with was interesting. The sambucca cookies we had for dessert were dry and lacked flavor.

Ok, I live in Stanhope and there is no really good Italian food in the area. Yes there is Rose’s which is great but it has a diner feel. Anyway, they have been doing construction around the area where this place is for months so i never even noticed this place existed until one day I drove to see what’s going on and I saw it. I was very excited and the next night, I went here with my finance. I only went for the dessert as I wanted to get the feel of it before eating their food. We got gelato along with espresso. The Espresso was really good and the gelato was also good. Def not the best, but I enjoyed it. You can’t find noccella ice cream around anywhere so I was pleased to see they had this. We spoke to the owner who was very pleasant and nice. She was telling us that the food here is homemade and looking at the people working behind the counters, I can def see it is. We decided to come back here for dinner the next weekend. It’s hard for me to give this place a bad review based on that I can see they are really trying, but the dinner experience was def not as good as our 1^st visit. I brought a nice bottle of wine as it’s BYOB which I love. For apps we got 2 pizza’s and the Calamri. The pizzas are extra small so def get 2 of them for 2 people. The pizza was very doughy and was cooked in a conventional oven. Was it good? Yes it was good, but could have it been better, YES. I’m really not sure if I would get the pizza again. Maybe I will try it to see if anything different is done but I can def have better pizza making it at home. The Calamri? Well if I would have known it was what it was here, I def would have not ordered. It was actually a Calamri and Shrimp app. It came with 2 shrimp and 2 calamri. I’m used to getting a nice plate of calamri and not just 2 pieces. It was good but 100% had better quality at many other places. The main courses are very limited to just sandwhiches and one special they have going on that night. I got the meatball parm and my girl got the Chicken special. The bread on the meatball parm was like a rock. It was not soft and toasty like it should be. It was very hard where my gums were hurting after. The meatballs were very tasty but if it’s not on a good fresh bread then it just defeats the purpose. The chicken dish special was actually good but then I tasted the veggie sides and they were def canned or frozen for a long time. It was not fresh at all. Now to desserts… this is where this place excels… the desserts are excellent. Now to the inside… It’s a small place with only about 5 – 6 tables. which I like… I just think having some nice Italian music would make it much better and not pop hits of music that is played on the radio right now. I like this place and I think it has alot of potential. The people are very friendly and it’s good to know there is place close by that I can get a nice espresso and relax. The food is ok and I’m hoping they will keep improving. I will def come back here. I don’t want to give this place a bad review. I think the food is good and the desserts are excellent. If you are thinking about going here, just do it. I will def be back here as I know they take pride in their food and will improve in areas that need it.