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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Lu Nello - Cedar Grove, NJ - Review

Sorry, this has been my first post in a while...

How do I start off with this review........? (Scratches head)......I really wanted to like this place from the get go, with so many great reviews I figured "How could we miss?"  Well I guess the perfect, yet cliché, analogy would fit here "it was a roller coaster ride."  Let me explain......we (myself, my wife, friend and his wife) called at 12:00 noon for 8:00 reservations and got them.  However, when we got there, they didn't have them but said that a table would be available shortly...about 15 to 20 min....ok, we could handle that, the roller coaster begins its decent.  45 min later we get seated with the house buying us a drink for the mishap,  coaster starts going back up.
On to dinner:
Apps- Caesar salad, spiedini, shrimp with spec and mushrooms and arugula salad.  All were on par, I had a taste of the spiedini which was done with the traditional anchovy sauce, very tasty.  I had the Caesar, tasty dressing but still disappointing. Although the dressing was homemade, there was way too much and it caused the lettuce to go limp, 0 crunch to the what is usually very hearty crunchy romaine lettuce and down we go.
Dinners - Veal with mushrooms
Veal with spinach an black truffle
Fettuccine with shrimp an mushroom art scallops
Lamb shank osso bucco
Again everyone said that their dinners were good, but not great,  some were lacking flavor, some components were cooked perfectly others were not.  I had the Lamb shank Osso bucco, which was cooked perfectly, they gave me a steak knife but never used it, good sign.  It was very tasty, but the sauce was salty, it was all I tasted in the sauce, which had a perfect consistency, the side of mashed was kind of bland and could have been a bigger portion, its mashed potatoes people not mashed gold.  With that said I believe we level off on the ride.
Deserts-Bread Pudding
Cookie monster
Sticky bun
I will tell you now the coaster goes back up, deserts were very good, delicious even.  Probably some of the best bread pudding I have had, since most mess it up royally, the sticky bun was light and the perfect balance of crunch from the nuts and sweetness from the honey, lastly, the cookie monster was good, but pales in comparison to the others,  not very cookieish, but more cakey, still nice flavors and ice cream to compliment.
Some other nice touches I forgot to mention, a cup of chicken broth to start before the bread came, unfortunately it tasted like Lipton’s cup of soup, we all thought that by the way.  After dinner a homemade ice cream cone was sent as well, which was a very nice finishing touch to the dinner, shows they really try to cater to the customer.
The final drop was when the bill came $270.00 with tip, $135.00 a couple, $67.50 per person was a little steep, especially with only 1 bought appletini.  Although anticipated, not worth it, in my eyes.
All in all the experience was, again a roller coaster ride, the place was very nicely decorated and chef seemed to be very adventurous, judging by the menu and long specials list, but fell short in some of the execution.  With that said, I do not think I would go back, I would recommend trying it and confirm your reservations as well.  This place is very "goomba", if you will, and it seems many are regulars, and if you’re not a regular, you may find yourself in my shoes.

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