Super Frat

Restaurant:  Il Giardino Sul Mare in Forked River, NJ

Address: 2 Hollywood Boulevard, Forked River NJ

Food:  Italian

Price:  Slightly Above Average

Portions:  Just right

Taste:  Amazing

Service:  Phenomenal

Atmosphere:  Very Italian

Lucky me, another family dinner at a fancy place.  Sign me up!

My family loves Italian food and it’s rare that we go anywhere else.  That’s okay by me, but my bar for Italian food has gotten higher and higher over the years.  You better have some great red sauce and bread or my family will look elsewhere.

Il Giardino Sul Mare definitely has the atmosphere right.  It’s on the water, the menu is in Italian, light live music plays in the background while waiters scurry to and fro.  And scurry they did.  Javier, our waiter, was on it.  I grew tired just watching the man rush in and out of the party room for the 20 people we had at the table.  I watched in awe as individual salads and entrees were delivered simultaneously.  I could only imagine the insanity in the kitchen.  Plus the place was jam packed when we got there!

Normally, I will get Chicken Parmesan and be done with it.  But I like it with good French Fries and Il Giardino did not offer any.  No matter, I thought it time to up my game so I instead ordered Petto di Pollo Rollatine.  This was chicken wrapped with prosciutto, mozzarella, spinach, and artichoke hearts.  This was cooked in a wine cream sauce with tortellinis and peas.  Didn’t want the peas, but there weren’t that many and the other flavors pushed them right out anyway.

This was preceded by many appetizers for the table including Caprese, Eggplant Rollatine, Fried Calamari and red mussels.  All were good and I don’t normally eat mussels or calamari.  My only nitpicking complaint was that the bread got a little dry and crunchy, but in their defense, they did have to get several baskets for the table.  It was good bread though, so who cares?

Dessert was my mom-in-law’s birthday cake.  No idea how much it all was, but entrees hovered just under and over $20.  Everything was fresh and well-prepared.  Normally complaining relatives were raving about how good the food was and believe me, these people have had a ton of Italian food over the years.  Get yourselves to Forked River folks.  You won’t regret it.

Il Giardino Sul Mare in Forked River gets 9.5 out of 10 keggers.