Johnny Piancone’s

The eggplant rollatini is to die for. Big enough for a meal. The sauce is delicious. Great atmosphere and attentive servers. One of my favorites down the shore.

This is a hidden gem. We stumbled across this place a couple of months ago and we love it. Great appetizers, great service and great prices. People of Monmouth County, support your local businesses and give Johnny’s a try, as its a special place. Unbelievable portions and very down to earth people. Not to mention, how could it possibly be bad, we have the same first name!

Got here in time for the prix fixe. Selection was good. Plenty of choices. Ordered the chicken la nana. Loved it. Everyone ordered something different. No negatives. Service was great, food great. Would recommend.

Tim and Jen brought my girlfriend and I to Johnny’s for dinner on two occasions and I must say we loved it each time.
It’s quite cozy with a great bar selection and a busy staff that knows how to treat guests timely and respectfully.
My girlfriend and I are vegan and usually have a hard time eating out but that wasn’t a problem with this spot.
They made me an amazing meal of pasta with grilled vegetables that I finished in record time.
I would suggest this resturant to anyone who wants to be treated well and eat wonderfully made food from people who are quite wonderful too.

Real pleasent dining room as you walk into this establishment.
Started off really delicious bread.
Ordered the eggplant tower.
It was good, but needed grated cheese (which is on the table) and salt.
The eggplant is francaised warm, and the layers of mozzarella and tomato are cold. So you have hot and cold going on which is quite nice.
Main course we had chicken nono.
Francaised chicken with mozzarella and Parma ham.
Very tasty.
Potatoes very good and mixed vegetables very good
Staff very professional.
All in all I would come back.

I’ve only come here for the happy hour food and drink specials. The food is always so fresh tasting and the wine specials are great. Their sandwiches and salads are delicious. The bartenders/​waiters have always been patient and helpful. I love this place! I just wish there was more room in the bar area downstairs (where you can get the specials) so that more people could fit. I would definitely recommend Johnny Piancone’s.

I was really happy with everything and this restaurant is highly recommended for a nice Italian option at your next stay in Long Branch. The service was excellent and the waitress was very sociable, friendly, and made great recommendations. The portions are huge and I liked that I had so much food on the plate that even I couldn’t finish it all. I ordered the shrimp and calamari fra diavolo that had a little spice to it. The salads are big and meant to be shared. The dessert menu had several options and it was difficult to choose only one thing off of it. I will definitely be back on my next visit in town.

Went there on a Saturday night for dinner. We were seated right away. The service was excellence the whole night. We ordered the eggplant rollatini as an appetizer and it was delicious. I had the chicken Milanase. Both dishes were great and the portions were hugh. We had a great time and will certainly go back.

Great seafood dish in La Rosa sauce. (Cream and Tomato sauce) Huge pieces of scallops and shrimp. Waitress very inexperienced in what the menu and the restaurant offered. Couldn’t guide us through. Too bad.

Been there a few times however last visit was absolutely great. The sauce for the calamari was over the top with a lot of spice. My son had a steak that he couldn’t stop raving about. Lobster fri Diablo that again was terrific. Deserts were just «ok» which is fine by me. Service excellent and the most impressive thing to me is when you look in the kitchen you could tell one guy was clearly a chef not just a cook. The only negative thing I can say is the tables are tight and the wait staff must have bumped into my chair about 10 times which is annoying but I understand they have to maximize space. Place is great definitely will visit many times this summer.

You could miss this place if you look too fast. There is ample parking in the back lot. We got there early enough for Earlybird special and took advantage of it (my grandmother would be proud). I had Francaise and my friend had a Broccoli Rabe Pasta dish. For $ 17.95 we had soup, salad, entrée, homemade delicious dessert. My only complaint is the soup was way too salty. A few good glasses of wine made visiting this establishment a very nice evening.

Best linguine with white clams ever! I live down the street from here and get this for dinner as a treat when I’m feeling really hungry and really lazy. The best part is they serve it to go with a gigantic loaf of bread. I’ve had a few other menu items, but nothing stands out as much as the white clam sauce. Eggplant rollatini is good but spinach is unnecessary, in my opinion. The tiramisu is excellent.
They also have a great happy hour deal which I’ve never been able to make. My parents love the early bird special –old folks, amirite?
The staff is very warm and friendly. Happy this is in the neighborhood!

Looking for a great happy hour deal — you just found it. Very nice $ 5 pour of wine and $ 6 bar apps. which are good tasting and generous in size. Nice pleasant intimate bar and very friendly service provided by Kim, she is terrific… What’s not to like here?

Absolutely amazing. They have live jazz nights and the décor is perfectly friendly and very tasteful. The waiter Richard is very friendly and made great recommendation on the calamari — which is battered just right and very tender. The portions are huge and it’s definitely worth the money. It was also very nice of them to let is know before ordering and let us know that we totally can share since everything is huge. Btw the bread-​omg soooo good! It’s toasted and it’s like right from the oven or something. The veal, get the veal!!!

This place seems to be «hit or miss». I’ve been there for a private party, where the food was excellent. I was there about 6 weeks ago where it was fantastic! I was there again last night where it was disappointing.
I don’t know… maybe I was turned off when I walked past the «deli area» across from the bar, which was dark and appeared closed, yet there was an opened bag of «Spring Mix» lettuce just sitting there… to me, that borders unsanitary (and not something I would expect an owner or chef would want customers to see). Its like having opened cans of store bought soup or frozen vegetables out in the open.
The waitress didn’t know how to pour wine… after opening the bottle, and offering the cork and «a taste» to the person who ordered it, she went on to fill four glasses to the point where the bottle was emptied! ??
As for the food… the drunken clams were served with numerous bits of broken shells and 1 unopened clam. Really? An unopened clam? You’re «OK» with serving a bad clam? Where’s the quality control?
The chef abuses rosemary. In addition to broken shell bits in my drunken clams and a bad clam, biting into whole rosemary needles is gross. Chef, if you want to use rosemary, leave it whole as a bouquet garni then take it out before serving, or chop it up fine so the customer isn’t overpowered by the strong flavor of the herb if they bite into it. …it ruined the otherwise nice dish.
And I was disappointed that there was only 1 beef item (filet mignon) on the menu (including the specials).
Listen… I like this place. Chances are I’ll be back. And yes, I’d recommend it, with the caveat that its «hit or miss».

Trusted these prior Unilocal reviews at a very last minute basis because all of the other fall back places were packed. Lets all be honest the italian restaurants in this area are all pretty crap but this one takes the cake.
First of all portions are ginormous, they are actually sickening. No one needs that much food, not even the football team from Monmouth U down the block. Second the wait staff was slow and un professional. The décor was bleh typical tacky «italian» Monmouth county restaurant. The reason for my one star though is the fact that the food was so outrageous I needed to comment. My dad ordered sunday sauce and his meatballs were the size of softballs, I mean there were two and they took up the entire bowl. There was no pasta at the bottom either like about five pieces of rigatoni. This did some serious damage on his digestive system later that night.
Next onto my moms food she had gluten free pasta with shrimp and spinach, sauce was over cooked shrimp were decent and the pasta was not much to be desired. Lets just say she walked in the door when we arrived home got sick once, then got sick again about five minutes later. Believe me if you enjoy good italian food go to a the city. but if your so dazzled by monmouth county and must entertain yourself for the night and need a decent place: basil tees in the middle price and if you want awesome food spend the darn money and go to undici you will not be disappointed only your wallet will be.

Food was great. We went for the «early — bird» special, which cut the price in half basically. Small restaurant so service eas good. Only reason they didn’t get 5 stars is it was VERY loud in there.

Second time there this month, and had an amazing experience BOTH times.
We bought a place in long Branch in 2008 and I am bummed it took us this long to find this gem. I am so tired of the same food, same people in the beachfront restaurants.
Writing this review is bitter sweet for me. I want to keep this place my own little secret, but I had such a good experience that I feel they really deserve the praise.
Scott

Great Bread Great Food and Great Service… Round table… the only negative thing was that it was somewhat noisy for us to talk as some of us are getting up there and hearing is not as good as it once was.

Today I am trying their steamers. Best steamers I have ever had. Plump fabulous. I had an salad that was fab. But could not finish it.
This is located on the way home from the beach on Broadway, if you don’t know it is there, you might miss it… It is a great find.