Giambotta

[jim07044]

Anyone have any info on this new place in the old CGI/Zone/Steakhouse location on Route 23 South across from the Pilgrim Shopping Center (Kings)?

[Rosie]

Are they open yet?

[jim07044]

I drove past the restaurant last night (2/1/06) and saw the parking lot full and patrons entering through the front doors. They are open.

Who's going to be among the first to check this place out?

[Rosie]

I drove past the restaurant last night (2/1/06) and saw the parking lot full and patrons entering through the front doors. They are open.

Who's going to be among the first to check this place out?

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YOU are!! You live the closest!

But you'll have to wait about 3 weeks as those were waiters, runners, potential employees you saw.

[jim07044]

But you'll have to wait about 3 weeks as those were waiters, runners, potential employees you saw.

So they will be opening the week of February 20-24?

[Rosie]

But you'll have to wait about 3 weeks as those were waiters, runners, potential employees you saw.

So they will be opening the week of February 20-24?

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or the week of Feb 27.

[NJ2FLA]

Shall we place bets on how long it will last?

I remember when I went to High School it was called CGI or Cedar Grove Inn. I used to work across the street at Kings.

[ejebud]

The people who own Giambotta came in and had a few dogs. Really nice folks. There restaurant is a family style italian place similar to, but in no way trying to imitate Carmine's in the same way AHD isn't trying to imitate Rutt's Hut. We are our own gig and so to is Giambotta going to be.

Eric

[Peter Conway]

The people who own Giambotta came in and had a few dogs. Really nice folks.  There restaurant is a family style italian place similar to, but in no way trying to imitate Carmine's in the same way AHD isn't trying to imitate Rutt's Hut.  We are our own gig and so to is Giambotta going to be.

Eric

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I've been watching the place being built. I drive by on the way to work.

I will give it a try.

They must have a liquor license no? Hope they bring in some good wine.

[Susan]

Has anyone been here yet??

[hitmanoo]

Shall we place bets on how long it will last?

I remember when I went to High School it was called CGI or Cedar Grove Inn.  I used to work across the street at Kings.

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Actually, one of my patients was in the other day and told me that her cousin was opening the place. I wished her and her cousin luck, and told her that I thought the location was cursed. She laughed and agreed. Nothing ever seems to make it at that location. Hopefully Giambotta will turn it around.

[jb_973]

A quick review - my wife and I just came back from having dinner at Giambotta.

Overall it was a pretty good experience. They valet park, which, given the size of their parking lot, is not too much of a surprise. On entering the building (past a pretty sturdy wooden door), you are confronted with a set of stairs leading up to a hostess desk, and a door to the side. Unfortunately, nothing really indicates what is what, so we had a bit of a conversation up the stairs to the hostess at the top, who indicated that while the upstairs dining room had closed (we arrived a little after 9pm), we could be seated in the downstairs dining room, through the aforementioned door.

Our waiter for the night was good - very attentive (but not intrusively so), and we were quickly set up with water, crusty + focaccia bread with a side bowl of warm marinara sauce (which was possibly a little bit too sweet - a little bowl of some nice extra virgin olive oil would have been nice, though I must admit, I didn't actually ask to see if it would be available).

We ordered the Antipasto Misto for two as the appetizer - a nice selection of mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, marinated mushrooms, eggplant, baby tomatoes, prosciutto... and a couple of other things that I cannot remember! As I understand it, it is usually a mixture of six items - the contents of which change somewhat from day-to-day.

For the entries, my wife had the cheese Ravioli - a simple dish, just served in a light tomato sauce. It was a 'single' serving size - a pretty sizeable plate of six large ravioli. My wife was not disappointed!

I went for their Rigatoni 'Sunday Gravy' - a sturdy dish (again, a large portion for the single serving - they do have 'family' size plates as well) - which was pretty decent.

While there were a couple of minor rough edges, such the kitchen waiter bringing out our main courses just after we had started tucking into our antipasto (he was apprehended by our waiter before he managed to get to our table), and the fact that the table next to us had not be cleaned from the previous guests until halfway through our meal, overall it was a good experience, and I am sure we will pay it a visit again in the future. Given what I've read about previous tenants of the building being cursed (what was there before?), I think these guys have a good chance of hanging around.

Price-wise, the antipasto, two entries, two glasses of wine and a cup of cappuccino worked out to $61, including tip. And the leftovers will be more than sufficient for tomorrow's lunch!

The next Italian restaurant we will try out will probably be Bella Vita, a BYOB in West Orange, which is literally a few minutes walk from our house (and a few minutes more stagger back after a few glasses of wine!)

Jason

p.s. On a completely unrelated note, anyone know any good books for writing restaurant reviews? I am in dire need of some good adjectives

[Rosie]

Do you know how many people the family size platters will feed?

[jb_973]

Rosie,

Unfortunately none of the other diners near our table had the family size platter - however, my wife's Ravoli was served on what could have been a family size plate. If so, I would guess that the family size servings would probably be plenty for a few people (with the caveat that this is pretty much a wild guess!)

Jason

[Peter Conway]

Do you know how many people the family size platters will feed?

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The single portion could serve two, I'd say the family portions would serve 4.

We brought half of all our dishes home and it was delicious the next day.

Finally had dinner at Giambotto, they sent me a birthday gift certificate for 15 bucks, my wife, son and I went over for dinner.

We all enjoyed our dinner. It is standard Italian fare. The ingredients were all very fresh. Their wine list is good and reasonably price.

They serve tasty bread with a delicious Marinara sauce. The olive oil on the table was just fair, it was like that lite stuff.

We started with the Zucchini Fritti, Deep fried zucchini with a lemon & garlic aioli, surprisingly light and tasty, and Zuppa di Vongole, Roasted baby clams in a garlic white broth. The clams were tender and the broth was nicely seasoned.

For Entrees, Pierce had a special chicken over linguine, the pasta was delicious. I had the Veal Scallopine Abbruzzi, Veal medallions sautéed with wild mushrooms, leeks, prosciutto Diced tomatoes and herbs and Diana had Chicken Scapariello

Pan fried chicken pieces on the bone with lemon, rosemary, sausage & potatoes. Both were abundant and very tasty.

It is not Giotto, Il Forno, or Fascino. But very good nonetheless.

The single portion could serve two, I'd say the family portions would serve 4.

We brought half of all our dishes home and it was delicious the next day.

We dined in the downstairs restaurant that looks like a trattoria.

Will try the upstairs dinning room, which is fancier, one of these days.

[gia]

thanks for the review Peter!

[Peter Conway]

Just had to post this from my friend Les Albert who posted his experience at Giambotta on my blog.

I just returned from our so-called dinner at this place and lets just say that if our experience is indicative of others, I give this place a few months to live. We sat down at 5:50 pm and at 6:10 a waiter finally came to our table to take a drink order. The drinks arrived in about 5 minutes and that was the end of the good part. The appeitizers, their famous meatballs and an order of clams oreganata arrived 20 minutes later. The meatballs were served without the sauce, the clams were burnt and all bread crumbs. By the way, no bread was ever placed on the table either. It took about 1/2 hour for the ceasar salad to arrive and it was not worth the wait. Soaked in a tasteless paste with no flavor or body whatsoever. Another 30 minutes passed with no sign of our main courses. The waiter said he asked the kitchen several times what the holdup was, but there we sat, rapidly losing our appetites with so much time between courses. The tables on either side of us who sat down between 45 minutes and an hour after us were already working on their main courses. I finally called over the manager to get her assistance. I would have been better off dialing 1-800- Who-GIVES-A-Damn. She could not even look me in the face as she blantantly lied that our order went in 3 minutes before the table to our right and it was all the fault of our waiter and not her kitchen staff. She told me she was going to take it out of the poor guys pay and I would not let that happen. I told her that when it is ready, pack it to go and charge me as I could not do that to the poor waiter and I cannot believe that she could do such a thing. She walked away in a huff and I could not get out of there fast enough. Some folks may be impressed by the large servings at this place, but what good are they when they come out hours after they are ordered. With the quality of staff on-board, this place is doomed for disaster.

[jim07044]

With the quality of staff on-board, this place is doomed for disaster.

To paraphrase Danny Meyer, a restaurant can only be as good as its staff and service. One bad experience, such as the one above, can translate into a word-of-mouth disaster (especially when those experiences are posted on internet sites). And I don't chalk it up to a bad night ... that's just an excuse for poor management. Its human nature to make amateur/occassional mistakes, but a senior manager should always be accountable before a customer leaves the premises and offer both apology and some sort of compensation to encourage a return visit. Anything less is an indicator of poor management.

[tomfromwo]

Looks like gaimbotta is now closed and has or will reopen as ROME. Anyone have any information?

Edited October 3, 2008 by tomfromwo (log)

[Susan]

Looks like gaimbotta is now closed and has or will reopen as ROME. Anyone have any information?

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I think the whole name is Rome Italian Tavern. I have no other details.

[NJ2FLA]

Wow we just had our 20th high school reunion there on Labor Day weekend.

[jim07044]

I think the space is doomed for bad luck. Someone should raze it and start over with a more interesting architecture (windows! rooftop deck!) and proper parking lot. And does the area really need another italian restaurant?