Novita Bistro and Lounge

First and most importantly, FREE BREAD. Need I say more? Okay, I’ll say more. Free stuff aside, the food was actually really great here. I had the Pappardelle Bolognese along with some mussels and the Montepulciano d’Arbuzzo, Visconti della Rocca (you can’t go wrong with wine from Tuscany) and all were done really well. I don’t live in the area, my team just ate here for dinner on a work trip, but this would be such a cute place for a nice date night. We sat outside and while the scenery isn’t the best, the weather we had made up for it. Great ambiance, good and prompt service, amazing food and wine… I highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this place ! Went on a Saturday night on a date with my boyfriend. We shared garlic shrimp appetizer & margherita pie. Both really good. My boyfriend is always very picky on what he eats and the servers were more than helpful for him to create a meal that he would enjoy still utilizing what the menu had. We also do not eat pork and they were very careful and helpful keeping these things out. I ordered the tagliatelle carbonara it was amazing. I had a little that night till it filled me up than finished the rest later that evening once I got home ! Those left over did not go to waste. The atmosphere was great they had a female singer and it was romantic, she gave me a Adele vibe. Would definitely return. Service superb from
All staff not just your server.

Stopped in for a nice dinner with my wife. The staff was great and very attentive and polite. We ordered drinks and some antipasti, which was very tasty. They walk around handing out fresh bread!!! I ordered the kale pizza which the waitress recommend and she nailed it. Nothing like I’d had before. It was made it with kale chips and mushrooms and an amazing sauce. Very good I recommend the pizza here. My wife had a grilled chicken panini which was also very good. All and all it was a great experience and a great environment. Almost forgot they had someone playing the piano which set the mood, very romantic.

Excellent food, excellent atmosphere, excellent service! I’ve been here twice and I had to leave some positive feedback… I visit this area several times a year and Novita will be on the restaurant list!

Amazing Italian gem found in Metuchen NJ.
The service despite closing time (10pm) was excellent! Superb!
The food delicious
Our waiter OSCAR knew his wine list and recommended rich choices!
This place is a must for Italian

I was really excited to come here based on the reviews. What a flop!
I walked in and the host was nowhere to be found until my fiancé came in 5 min later. The server came over and asked if we are ready to order drinks, mind you, we had no drink or food menus on the table. After we received the menus, he didn’t come back until 10 minutes later.
I’m gonna skip to the entrée part because the appetizers were delicious. My fiancé got the BBQ duck panini which had great flavor but not nearly enough meat for the amount of bread it was served with. (The bread was the same
as our appetizer and resembled nothing of a panini) I got the rigatoni normal. I know it’s suppose to be al dente but the pasta was so hard and chewy I had to send it back. They had no problem taking it off the bill.
I’m full at this point so I decided to skip to dessert. The server had literally no suggestions. I went with the pistachio torta which was pretty delicious.
Every time we needed something we had to flag our server down or someone else from the staff stopped by our table to check on us. He had no suggestions regarding menu options and just seemed like he’d rather be somewhere else than at the restaurant. He didn’t even tell us goodnight or have a good one after he dropped the check off.
The appetizers and dessert were good but not enough for me to explore the entrée options for those prices or risk that type of service again.

You are greated with a smile upon arrival. Service is prompt and courteous. Nice ambiance.
I particularly liked the Pappardelle Bolognese and Roasted French Cut Chicken.
Live entertainment is definitely a plus.

Looking for a special place to mark an important event like a birthday, anniversary or communion, baptism, etc? Look no further! This is the spot for you! The food is fabulous and the excellent staff can’t be beat. Give that special person in your life an extra special experience with a party at Novita. We had a party months ago that our guests are STILL talking about. We love this place for party times and anytime! Fabulous food, fantastic service and its always lots of fun! It doesn’t get better than this!!!

Expected more…
I came here on a whim, it looked intriguing and upscale. As my friends and I walked in we were brought to the «lounge» area to have our dinner, instead of the main dining area because we did not have a reservation. Service is terrible, we had to continually ask our server for more drinks, the only one who was attentive was our «bread girl,» but we didn’t come here for bread. The pizza is alright, lamb is gamey, muscles are fishy, pasta was not freshly made. For the price and atmosphere, highly not recommended — probably why I was here on a Saturday evening to night and many empty tables and seats.
My recommendation is, if you want pizza, go to Anthony’s across from Menlo Park Mall (much better taste and better service,) if you want good tasty food and awesome service… don’t come here.

My husband and I recently relocated to Metuchen and stumbled upon this restaurant… Boy are we happy we did! The food, service, and atmosphere are all wonderful and this is by far our favorite restaurant in town, not to mention our «go to» place whenever we want a delicious meal out. Try their eggplant rollatini appetizer, and the pappardelle bolognese for dinner. Both to die for!

Well let me start by saying that staff was very accommodation no reservation on a Saturday night. Then oh my goodness — the drinks were soooo amazing! We sat at bar and had full dinner and all was perfect! Highly recommend! Yum

The absolute best Italian restaurant in the region. Fantastic! The eggplant appetizer was Devine. Cooked to perfection and the cheese was incredible.
The Rigatoni Norma was amazing. Cooked perfectly… Right at the tipping point of Aldente! This Diane was bursting with flavor and had the freshest tomatoes. I can’t remember the desert name, however, it was a cross between a pudding and flan. The perfect sweet ending to an amazing meal. You have to try this place. Service was good and the staff very friendly!

We are such fans! Novita has live music, which really is nice. The food is delicious. The service is very good.
The restaurant — I believe — makes their own bread; it comes out warm out of the oven. For apps, we have tried the calamari, served with a unique sauce, the eggplant rolatini, garlic shrimp, and grilled octopus. All were very tasty.
For dinner, we tried the diavolo pizzette (very recommendable), fettuccini alfredo and linguini carbonara (homemade pastas, delicious), the chicken scarpariello and hangar steak.
The kitchen is very talented and the staff are very professional.

Came here for a great Unilocal event and vowed to come back. First service and atmosphere is on point. Live music and perfectly timed meal. I had the Smoking Turtle” cocktail. It was very tasty although slightly expensive. No rush for any part of dinner. They let us enjoy each part of dinner. Bread service was to your preference with 3 options. I recommend the crunchy Italian. The olive oil was infused with rosemary. Ahhhhh.
The eggplant rigatoni was perfection and I remembered that dish above all others. We shared the calamari. Nicely done. For dinner I had the rigatoni Norma. Loved it. Nice to offer the half portion.
We skipped dessert, but biscotti was served to us. It was delicious.

I first came to Novita through a Unilocal Elite event in the summer. The food was so good and all the workers (servers, manager) were so nice that my friends and I wanted to come back. I’m glad we did!
I had high expectations when it came to the food and those expectations were met. I am Italian so it’s hard to impress me with Italian food. I ordered the pappardelle bolognese and wow. just wow. The pasta dish was so impressive, I felt that I was eating pasta that my family had made me. The pappardelle pasta itself was cooked to perfection and the bolognese sauce had the right amount of sauce/​meat ratio. I ordered the full portion and devoured the entire bowl. I know, it’s a lot of carbs but this gal has no regrets. I was too full to order a dessert but sampled a complimentary biscotti that was brought to the table.
If you are looking for an Italian restaurant in Central Jerz you must come here. Bring a date, family, friends. they will all be impressed.

Definitely good food and nice atmosphere. I attended a Unilocal event here awhile back and my friends and I came back to give it a try. We got a reservation for 7 at 7pm on a Saturday. It was quiet at first but then as we were there a bit it ended up getting crowded. There are two sides. The one side is dining the other is the lounge. My friend reserved a table on the lounge side because supposedly there is more on the menu. They also had a piano player/​singer.
On to the food. I got the Bianca pie and it was pretty darn good! Two people got the kale and squash pie which they enjoyed, two others got pasta dishes, one got the meatball sandwich, and the last person got mussels. We all thoroughly enjoyed every bite!!!
To start they serve bread, a choice of three different kinds. They were all so fresh and delicious and you can get more if you’d like. We took a look at the dessert menu however we were too full to try anything. They do bring you out biscotti so really no need for dessert!!!
I am so glad we went back to try it out in a non Unilocal event way! They did not disappoint. The servers were nice and on top of refilling our waters. If you are looking for drinks they have a big menu of drinks.

The food here is excellent. Good sized portions served in an attractive way.
The service is very good. Our waiter was Oscar and he checked on us often.
Four Problems:
The noise level is extremely loud. There is a piano player and everyone tries to talk over the noise he is making. Also, if you go often, it’s the same guy with the same songs over and over and over again. Maybe if you go on a week night you won’t have to scream at your date to make yourself heard. They should really think about putting up a partition between the cocktail lounge and the dining room. Also, some noise absorbent fabrics and flooring would help.
The drinks. If you order a something on the rocks it comes in a large glass with a huge round ice ball. That’s all good, but the pour is only one ounce. Other places that charge top dollar give you at least twice that much. Order a specialty cocktail from the list, they are good and at least you feel like your getting your moneys worth. Or wine.
Parking. It used to be great, but they have fenced in the lot across the street to build something. The lot directly behind Novita has a huge sign that says «No Novita Parking». I find that strange. So good luck with the street parking thing.
No dress code. This looks like it should and could be a classy place, but they will let anyone in no matter how poorly dressed. A group of five came in before us without reservations wearing bluejeans and no collars. They were offered dining room or lounge and seated before us while we, with reservations, waited. Finally the waiter, Oscar, came over and seated us while the hostess fumbled around helping the people that should have never been allowed to enter.

I came here with my boss for lunch to celebrate my birthday. We try to branch out and try different restaurants in the area, and have been going to Metuchen more frequently (even though I can’t stand parking meters). We happened upon Novita after a Unilocal search, so it’s where we wound up.
We both got the lunch special, her opting for two appetizers and me opting for 1 appetizer (the kale salad) and the 30 Hour Porchetta. Let me tell you, the 30 Hour Porchetta was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a delicious, flavorful, tender piece of falling apart meat. What I got was a hunk of fat. It was seriously all fat. That’s not porchetta. Yes, there will be some — but come on. It was inedible. The salad was great — my boss had the kale salad and the eggplant rollatini and she said that was good too. The porchetta, though — what a huge disappointment.

3.5
Finally had the opportunity to try Novita for a private party. on a Sunday. Overall I would say that this place has great curb appeal, great for intimate parties, but in my opinion, because of their small kitchen, our sit down meal was nearly three hours long for a party of about 100 people.
The service was excellent. Our water glasses and bread baskets were always refilled. The food came out warm, but we definitely had to wait a good while in between courses. We were served a Caprese Salad, followed by breaded clams, and cornmeal coated calamari. A side salad was served right before our main meals. We had the option of Chicken Marsala, Tilapia, and Vodka sauce based pasta. For desserts a platter of cannolis and biscotti. The appetizers were fairly small, the salad was enjoyable, but the mains were definitely not the most fresh tasting seafood nor was their mashed potatoes. I don’t know if it was just me, but the biscotti tasted like their storage area… like a hint of wet dog I’m sorry to say. I found everything slight around the quality of Cheesecake Factory?
I’m sure the experience is much more different when they are regularly open for lunch and dinner, but again I wouldn’t advise have such a large private party here because you end up waiting super long. Everything has to come out at once which is a lot when half of the restaurant is filled.

I needed a nice restaurant to meet up with my mother for a Sunday lunch, and this place had the quiet ambiance we needed. Probably because there were only 2 other tables besides us.
The quality of food to the prices were decent. Total our bill came to about $ 33, excluding tax and tip, for a pasta, a pizza, and an appetizer. They could use some work on the quantity of pasta they give, which was on the minuscule side.
To start, they gave us some really tasty focaccia bread with salt. Definitely ask for more bread when they come around with the basket. Each table also has bowls of garlic powder, red pepper, and dried oregano to sprinkle on your food.
Rollatini di Melanzane (Grana crusted slices of eggplant, prosciutto di parma, mozzarella, tomato sauce, crema) — Not an amazing appetizer like I expected. The dish came out lukewarm, so the cheese was hard instead of oozing like I expected. I could also barely taste the proscuitto.
Sweet and Spicy Vegetarian Pizzette — More sweet than spicy because of the honey. Maybe too sweet, but I enjoyed the butternut squash and kale. Wish it had more butternut squash and garlic. Decent pizza especially for the price.
Strozzapreti (Twisted, cavatelli like pasta, lump crab meat, shiitake mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, pine nut basil pesto) — We ordered the half portion, thinking it would still be sizable, but the portion size was very tiny. That being said, every bite was delicious. The combination of ingredients was delicious, and the pasta was al dente. There was a decent amount of crab meat and dried tomatoes, but barely any shiitake mushrooms.
This is a really nice restaurant in Central Jersey. Given my parents do not like traveling to the city, this is a great alternative for someplace more upscale. I would love to come back to try their dinner menu.