IL Gabbiano

Very nice small BYOB Italian restaurant. Aside from the fact that the indoor/​outdoor carpeting is well-​worn and needs updating, the ambiance is good. The food was excellent starting out with complimentary bruschetta and bread. The portions for the main courses are abundant and also include a side salad. The eggplant rollatini (included a side of pasta) was fabulous, and the chicken murphy was also excellent. Looking forward to our next visit!

A bit of a hidden gem, as it’s tucked away in a the corner of a strip mall, but this place is consistently great.
Couple tips:
1) It’s pretty small, so if you’re eating on a weekend night, reservations are recommended.
2) Portions are HUGE. You can easily share a main between two and still have leftovers. Keep that in mind while snacking on the bread and salad: no real need to order primi and secondi – one course is plenty!
3) The Tiramisu here is the best I’ve ever had.
4) It’s BYOB.
Prices are extremely reasonable, food is really delicious, service is very quick and attentive, décor is nice but not grand. Definitely my go-​to restaurant in the area.

Il Gabbiano for Lunch! One of the best kept secrets in the area. People forget about it because it is tucked in the back of a strip mall on South Ave. Cheap, Quality, Classic every time!
Il Gab has the white table cloth, painted wall décor that you find at many fancy Italian restaurants in NJ but the prices are unmatched! Most lunch entrees are $ 8, with the highest being $ 11 for Shrimp Parm.
Every lunch entrée comes with bread, bruschetta, and a small house salad giving it a true «dining» feel in a relatively casual environment. The dishes are classic Italian staples: veal/​shrimp Parm, penne vodka, chicken giambotta, etc. always with a couple specials (at least one fish special). If you can’t decide on one the Italian Sampler has Eggplant Rollantini, 2 Ravioli, and 2 Shrimp Parm for $ 8. Even tho it is a separate lunch menu every portion is BIG (many people take home leftovers).
IL Gab is not your local pizzeria slinging meatball subs and slices out of the case. It’s a really good traditional Italian place perfect for a lunch date or group outing. Don’t forget, BYOB. I’ve been many times and can’t wait to go back soon!

Not fancy, just good. A solid choice if you’re looking to stay in the area and don’t feel like getting too dressed up.

Had a very pleasant experience at this gem. Truly a cozy ambience as the place is not that big but the food is fantastic. Anytime in Cranford I will be back.

Amazing food –cooked and served by Italians– with great service. BYOB with no corking fee and serves gluten-​free pasta, which we didn’t see the sign for until we left, but they offered several non-​pasta dishes. We had the Pollo Natalina and the Sausage and Chicken Giambotta, both of which we shared the next night for dinner because the servings were huge. Went in a group of four and closed the place down, but they didn’t mind and kept refilling our drinks. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it – in the same shopping center as the Dunkin Donuts, beside Sushi Time 898.

Cute little BYOB. Went with a group of 4 and ordered Calamari & Stuffed Mushrooms for the table to split for apps. The calamari was so tender and cooked perfect, the stuffed Mushrooms with Crabmeat were very good Too. For Dinner my husband ordered the Chicken Giambotta and it was mostly Potatoes. I ordered the Veal Parmigiana for $ 16.95 and didn’t expect much because the price was so cheap, but when it came out, it was HUGE, enough for two people to split, and it was Delicious! I have no idea how they make money on that dish, as half of it came home for another meal. The food was excellent, but the service could have been better. There was a table of 10 behind us that our waiter kept going to and from the time we finished our dinner we waited over a half hour to order coffee, because we just couldn’t get his attention. I do recommend this place and I will be coming back.

byob.
Just wrap your own food — they didn’t include my mashed potatoes in the to-​go box. Sadly, it’s too late now. They sure managed to get every weird looking carrot in the box, but the mashed potatoes didn’t make the cut. Or maybe they were so good, the waiter saved them for himself.

Who knew! This place is a hidden gem. I decided to try it last week with a group of friends and every thing we ordered was fantastic. Everything from the appetizers to the meal was cooked perfect tasted fresh. Will definitely go back and highly recommend.

I love this place ! Its such a hidden gem in the middle of Cranford. I’m shocked that there are any bad reviews at all. The food reminds me of the traditional Sunday dinner’s at my house ! It is REAL Italian food, not ketchup with noodles. Very cozy and BYOB. There’s a liquor store right around the corner. My favorite dish is Linguine Gabbiano. The portions are quite large, so there are always leftovers. Again, great food and great atmosphere ! Its a must try.

Never again! It wasn’t even OK! Not sure why this is rated 3 ½ stars, but it was NOT good Italian cuisine!!! When a basic dish like chicken parmigiana is horrible, how could you trust anything else???

Nice little BYOB Italian place. The portions are huge for the price. Service is very friendly.
The chicken parm is enough for two and it is great. Highly recommend this entrée.

I wanted to like this place soooo much but I found it dark the chairs uncomfortable and slow, the food is ok the good parts the service are nice and is BYOB

Food was great we had the calamari and mussels for appetizer the portions were very reasonable. For main dishes we had the rigatoni a la vodka amazing huge portion creamy and delicious, chicken a la Erika was awesome, veal parm was not so good a bit greasy and too overdone. Overall a great place small but reservations were accepted. Service was fantastic.

Went there for dinner tonight with my buddy’s. I had the Chicken Parmesan with penne pasta. The food was delicious and the portions were huge. For dessert I had the Crème Brulé and it also was very good. It’s a BYOB so that’s always a plus.

This has been my go to place for quite some time now. Whenever we go in there, I see the owner/​manager on duty and he always has a genuine smile on his face and is always extremely friendly.
I’m a guy with a huge appetite and let me say this. You will not leave hungry or upset. Whenever I go I always seem to stuff myself and have left overs for lunch the next day. The portions are extremely generous, and talk about delicious!
Parking is never a problem. There is an abundance of parking and it is extremely easy to get to no matter where you live. It seems to be nestled close enough to any major highway or route, but far enough where it still has a calm soothing atmosphere. The lighting in there just sets such a great mood!
It doesn’t matter if you want a romantic night out, or are looking for a place for a gathering of multiple people, this is just one of the best hidden places in NJ you can go to.

toooooo slowwwwwww.
I know fine dining is supposed to an experience savoured over time and not just consumption of food, but waiting over an hour to get some apps is just too much. Food went down hill; the parmesan and brusceta were great — the apps decnet and entrees nahh. My app was a anti pasti which was great but as my daughter pointed out you can buy the ingredients at a deli and put them on the plate yourself! i had the special ravoli with truffle oil. Very bland! couldnt taste the truffle oil or anything else — no seasoning at all. skipped desert for a hagondas ice cream at home (see u can buy desert aswell!). Maybe try again to watch people with too much money and not enough taste eat over priced food.

Delicious food and good portion sizes. Wait service is friendly and accommodating, but host situation needs some work. Every time we’ve gone we’ve stood waiting for someone to approach us for ten or more minutes. If they are full, they will be pretty blunt about turning you away. There is no waiting for a table to open up. Luckily, the good really is delicious and fresh, and the waitstaff is eager to please. Parking is great too as it’s in a strip mall with a large lot.

I’m posting this second hand for my mother who was there recently with two friends. They had a terrible experience. There was no manager in that night so the wait staff was handling everything. She said the service was atrocious and they had a difficult time getting the waiter’s attention when they needed something. He apparently was on the phone most of the time. On top of that, two of the meals had SHRIMP in it that had GONE BAD. It TASTED bad and one of my mother’s friends ended up sick that night as a result. The only thing that the waiter did was bring out some chicken as a replacement. The restaurant did not comp the bad meals and they ended up paying full price for everything. No apologies. Nothing. This place needs a lesson on proper restaurant management. I think that is completely UNACCEPTABLE. And disgusting.

We started our dinner with the «Mozzarella e Pepper Arrastiti», described on the menu as fresh mozz and tomato with basil and roasted peppers. The cheese and the pepper were good, the tomato was tasteless. I’ll give them a pass on that because tomatoes are not in season. However, there were only a couple of teeny, tiny flecks of basil on the plate, and the dressing was plain olive oil. I did spy a solitary pepper grinder on the server’s station across the room, but it was not offered, and I couldn’t be bothered to flag down the waiter to ask.
The complimentary bread and bruschetta that other reviewers rave about was very pedestrian. I bake better Italian bread myself at home.
The «Pollo Valdostana» is a chicken breast stuffed with bits of prosciutto, peppers, mushrooms, and cheese, dipped in egg, sautéed, and topped with a sweet Merlot sauce. The egg batter was over-​browned, bordering on burnt. The sweet sauce looked unappealing, almost like blood, and did not compliment the dish.
We also had the «Chicken and Sausage Giambotta» (sautéed chicken breast nuggets, peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, and sausage), which was just OK.
While prices are reasonable, and portions are large, with the plethora of Italian restaurants around here, this place struck me as pretty mediocre. My wife, who is anything but fussy about food, said, «I wouldn’t rush back here.»