Spuntino St. James

My husband and I went to Spuntino’s in St. James last night for dinner.
We enjoyed our dinner but the end result was quite disappointing
My husband ordered his meal and passed on the pasta/​salad that came with it. The waitress asked him if he wanted to substitute for a vegetable (spinach) and he said yes.
We enjoyed our dinner and then the bill came. We were charged for the spinach which I was surprised by. I questioned the charge and the next thing you know, the Manager is coming over to our table.
He said and I quote: we tell our staff not to tell customers there is an upcharge on vegetables (which replace the salad/​pasta). He then proceed to tell me that he will split half the cost with me since I should know that vegetables cost more. I replied «this is our first time here» and he said ok, he would remove the charge this time but not going forward. My husband and I were quite «shocked» by the Managers Customer Service skills. My point to this is that the restaurant upcharges you on items without telling you which I find wrong.

My family has been living in Saint James for 16 years and in vain we have been looking for the perfect casual italian dining experience… last night we found it… great food, great service and atmosphere… I can go on and on… but I was born in Italy and to find Italian food in a restaurant that I actually enjoy is very hard… but at Spuntino… I found it… and I am going back tonight with my whole family…

A few friends and I came here for dinner and some drinks and it did not disappoint.
We started with some apps of mozz sticks and stuffed mushrooms. They both were soo tasty!
Well all ordered a different drink and we passed them all around. Each one was made very well, a perfect amount of booze to flavor ratio.
We decided on a pie for the table with two toppings and I myself got an individual alive with anchovies because hey, why not?!
Our pie was thin crusted, crunchy and fantastic!
Our server was very friendly, the food cake out quick, drinks were on point and the evening was a success!

Had a wonderful dinner at spuntinos tonight! Great food, great service ! My favorite was the Salisbury steak ! Can’t wait to go back, they make you feel like you ate home. Everything is homemade. 2 family members said the meatballs were as good as grandpas ! Now that’s a compliment’

Very nice place. I had a sausage roll, hubby had veal parm hero. Both very tasty. The lady behind us has some fish plate that looked delish.

The pasta is well-​cooked but the sauce and toppings were so damn salty. On every one of my group’s pastas, too. Not the best, but not the worst experience. Plus, in Stony Brook, I feel as though I have to lower my standards. Sorry, guys. This is going to be one of THOSE reviews.

Don’t really give many 5 star reviews (in fact, this is only my second), but Spuntino’s deserves it. Ate here the other night with the family and really enjoyed it.
1) Staff is excellent. Even though the place was hopping, we were quickly seated. Our waitress was very attentive and polite. She really tried to make our dining experience an enjoyable one.
2) Food was the best Italian I’ve had on Long Island so far (and I’ve eaten at all the the North Shore heavyweights). Excellent presentation, hot, and very large portions. It was absolutely delicious. Everyone in our party brought food home with them.
3) I’ve seen in other reviews others saying it’s pricy, but the prices seemed pretty much on par compared to other midscale/​upscale Italian restaurants. Definitely could taste the quality in the food
Overall, I love this place. Will be back with friends, family and co-​workers. Hope they never change

We’ve gotten takeout from Spuntino multiple times (we haven’t dined-​in there) and usually found their food very good.
We’ve enjoyed their Lasagna, Eggplant Parmigiana, Rice Balls and Brocolli Rabe (as a side dish). Their pizza was more of a mixed bag for us: The Little Neapolitan Pizzette was very good while the Grandma Pizza was quite bland.
They are our go-​to spot for Italian takeout.

This is my second time here. The food and service is consistent I had the Thai calamari, very good just enough spice and crunch. The rigatoni Gorgonzola was delicious. I brought half home
Pricier than your average pizza place. Soft drinks had free refills. I would go back.

Took the family there yesterday for a very late lunch\ early dinner. I had the eggplant parm and it was delicious. My wife and son each had pasta dishes which were also very good. The salads were excellent as well. After reading the reviews, I should have gone for the calamari!
The price was reasonable for the food we received. I wouldn’t hesitate to come back here.

Beautiful décor. Largely known for their pizza. We decided o try the lunch menu. We ordered soup and ½ sandwich. Eggplant was fried and chicken cutlet was definitely fried!
Soup was a delight to the palate. Now remember Italian food is tough bc one area of this culture cooks sauce one way another completely different Mom knows… They didn’t give us a bread basket bc we ordered at the counter but if you are seated with a waiter you will get one.

I was so thrilled and excited finally to find Candoni Pinot Grigio in St. James. One thing that is very special about this Pinot Grigio it comes from an area call Venezia DOC. Unique to the trade due to the domination of its origins. This wine is alive and friendly… Bouquet of fruits… green apples, green pears and citrus. Spuntino doesn’t shortchange their customers when it comes to a Pinot Grigio by the glass. Salute enjoy Cool looking Etruscan label Candoni Pinot Grigio. We found this one compliments all dishes.

My parents live in Dix Hills and I started frequenting the Sputinos there once they moved. Fortunately, being that my wife and I live in Smithtown, we were happy to see another Sputinos open that was much closer to us.
We love the pizzettes (good value and very tasty) and the appetizers (mozzarella fritta (?) and calamari are great). I recently tried the special calamari ranch pizzette and it was amazing. I took the other half home and was eagerly anticipating finishing it! Hopefully that gets added to the menu because, like I said, it was amazing!
Kudos to you folks… The staff is friendly and the food is excellent. Hopefully on busier days you’ll eventually have somewhere to sit down to wait (outside of the bar area). Keep it up – you guys have become our «go to» Italian restaurant in the Smithtown area.

This is in my top 5 restaurants by far! Although it is always packed and busy, the food is worth the weight! My family always gets the calamari appetizer, which is outstanding and well cooked! Also, my brother and I enjoy the pizza at spuntino very much! It is the perfect mix of cheese and tomato sauce! I plan to return to spuntino once again!

After Nicky G’s closed, we had to go out of the way to O Sole Mio to get a good pie. Now Sputino has become our regular go to place for pizza. Living in St James makes this especially convenient. The pizza is excellent but the entrees are ok and on par with what you get at most other places like this.
Michael — if you guys upped your game WRT the entrees (consider slightly thicker meat cuts and more flavor to the sauces, especially the red) and improve the beer and wine selection, I think you’d be a solid three stars and even have a shot at 4 stars. Then throw in a garlic knot pie (RIP Nicky G’s) and a Grandpa pie (pay a visit to O Sole Mio), and you’ll get 5 stars from me and more frequent visits than once a week.

I think the 2.5 star average rating is about right for Sputino. If I had the option to rate it that way, I would. But I think I have some constructive criticism for this place that may be helpful, so I’m glad to see the owners are actively checking Unilocal reviews.
My first impression is that the bar was small. Not much can be done about that, they did okay with the space and the stools were very comfortable, and it was a nice place to sit. The wine list is something that could use some work, it is very reminiscent of the type of list you’d see in your typical casual restaurant. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that there are plenty of $ 22 to $ 30 bottles to choose from, but I am typically in search of something a bit nicer than what is on the list. I think adding some medium-​level priced wines, particularly Italian blends (maybe a $ 35 to $ 45 barbera or valpolicella) would be good, and perhaps a $ 50-​$ 60 California premium cab or blend (like an Orin Swift) and maybe a $ 40-​$ 50 Long Island Red.
When we sat for dinner, we ordered a tossed salad to start. Portion was decently sized, vegetables were fresh, the dressing was explained as «italian-​style» which we figured would be EVOO and Vinegar based but instead was balsamic vinagrette (it was good either way). For an appetizer, we ordered eggplant rollatini, which I’m hyper-​critical of everywhere I go, for the $ 9.25 I think it was a bit small (compared to, say Ciro’s Kings Park where you pay a dollar more but get 3 rollatinis that are each much larger). The eggplant was a bit rubbery, which in my experience comes from being a little undercooked or perhaps from underripe eggplant. It wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had though, the sauce was good and the ricotta filling was creamy.
We ordered two pizzas, and both of which could have been great with some slight changes to how they were prepped. The Fra Diavolo — I agree with another Unilocal writer that it appears to just be a marianara sauce with crushed red pepper flakes added to it and cherry peppers for spice. Right down the road, they would buy the Fra Diavolo from Uncle G’s and use that sauce, or make their own in house. Also — either way they make it (marianara or real fra diavolo), they should strain the sauce in a cheese cloth to remove some of the moisture. The pizza was soggy in the middle and had to be fork eaten. I actually enjoyed it better as a leftover the next day, when I re-​heated it in my oven on a pizza stone and the bottom got crisped.
The other pizza was the prosciutto and arugula. Arugula is an ingredient I use in home pizza making all the time and it’s a GREAT add-​on to pizza, and my suggestion for Sputino is to add the arugula to the pizza earlier in the process so it wilts a bit. At home, I would assemble my pizza, get the meat and cheese on it immediately, and add the arugula when there is about 5 minutes of cook time left. At Sputino, our pie’s arugula was definitely added on top after removal, as was the cheese blend (except for the mozz, that was added early and melted).
In terms of service, everything was excellent. The hostess, bartender, wait staff, bussers, everybody was extremely professional and friendly. Food came out quick, the orders were correct, my glass of water was always filled.
In summary, I think Sputino is suffering a bit from an identity crisis — hanging out somewhere between casual Italian dining (which there is already plenty of on Long Island) and a trendy brick-​oven pizza spot (which we would use more of, if executed properly). The prices are certainly reasonable, the staff is great and both the food and ambiance have potential. I think I’ll give it another shot in the future to see what else they have in store for us, and I’ll re-​evaluate.

Pizza /​Trattoria– cal it 2.5 stars.
I was sort of expecting a little more from the new Spuntino in St. James but it is just another entry in the overloaded Italian restaurant market that is Long Island.
Menu is on the large size– a lot of things there so finding something for everyone should be doable. Prices are on the higher side for essentially the same thing you can get everywhere — so I have no compelling reason to come back here, to be honest.
Bartender was nice, but this is mostly a bar to capture people from leaving while waiting for a seat — so it is not a warm an inviting place to pop by for a drink — it is all about adding to the bill.
Everyone was nice enough and the food was ok– nothing so amazing that I couldn’t believe it.
Probably ok if you live in this area, but I would not make a trip to hit it.
Parking on the side.

I came here with my family on a week night. The place was empty. Long story short, we will not be coming back and we would not recommend this restaurant.
Food: We ordered caesar salad and thai calamari for apps. The salad was fine, but the calamari was not the best. We then ordered two pizzas. Margarita and a Fra Diavolo, which is a spicy pizza. The margarita was nothing special. The Fra Diavolo was just the margaita pizza with some sausage and peppers put on top. The Fra Diavolo actually reminded us of pizza from Chucky Cheese.
Service: We did not have a good experience with the service here. First we ordered wine. The food came out before the wine. The waitress totally forgot and did not even notice we had no drinks. A server handed us someone else’s takeout in the middle of the meal. Then the waitress forgot to put in the order for our second pizza, so we had to wait.
We were looking forward to the brick oven pizza, but unfortunately we were very disapointed.

There’s a lot of confusion on Spuntino vs Spuntino’s Wine Bar and Italian Tapas which is in Garden City, NY & Clifton, NJ. I, like many others, thought they were going to Spuntino’s Wine Bar and Italian Tapas of Garden City, NY’s other location, in St. James, only to be completely confused and grossly mistaken. Apparently, the Dix Hills & St. James Spuntinos aren’t affiliated with the Clifton, NJ and Garden City, NY Spuntino’s Wine Bar and Italian Tapas. Can someone please explain to me if there is any relation or not? The folks I spoke to last night at Spuntino’s restaurant in St. James weren’t even aware of a Spuntino’s in Garden City… or Clifton, NJ for that matter.
Anyhow, now that we’ve got that squared away… or not.
It’s located right on 25A and is in a fairly large space which has been habited by other Italian places in the past that haven’t done quite so well. Thus, welcome Spuntino of St. James and Dix Hills, NY. They are situated almost diagonally across the street from the incredibly famous and fabulous, Rocco’s, serving some of the best pizza and pasta around which most would agree on…
The wine selection is limited but also very fairly priced… most bottles are in the $ 20 – 30 range and most of their items on the menu (they have something for everyone, literally, and then some… due to their expansive menu), are very fairly priced.
Food:
+ Giardino (Pizette, 12″ wood fired pizza). $ 12.75 + $ 2.50 up-​charge (because I asked for the whole wheat crust to feel «Healthier»). Plum tomato sauce (I asked for their basil tomato sauce instead, which was a good swap), fresh mozzarella, brick oven roasted yellow squash, zucchini, and mushrooms with caramelized onions. This was pretty good as far as brick oven pizza goes, the crust was very thin and crispy, not overdone, the vegetables were very good and perfectly cooked, the fresh mozz was good (though I think they should put a few more slices on, it was lacking on the cheese part), the sauce was «Good» and the pizza wasn’t overly salty or overly anything, in any direction. I had put on quite a bit of chili pepper flakes and drizzled some olive oil on top… it’s a «Pizette» so it’s personal sized (fat American style) at 12″ and 6 slices as a result. All of which, I ate… it paired well with our medium + acidity Italian Sangiovese based blend. I think I would also prefer a bit more «Substance» and density to my dough/​crust, this was incredibly thin… but is probably much healthier than denser varieties.
Service:
+ It’s efficient and friendly, and in fact, might be a little too efficient. The menu is so incredibly large, you need a lot of time to decide what you want… we had to shoo the waitress away a few times since we were undecided and took quite some time to figure out what we wanted. We then realized there’s a back page to the menu LOL — My friends ordered a pasta dish and a sandwich with fries, both of which, they enjoyed.
Price:
+ It should deserve its own category because both the food and wine, are very fairly priced.
Sooooooo, here’s the deal, it’s a great place to bring your kids /​families, it gets busy early (so get there and put your name down for a table), and with food that’s «Good» but not stellar, it’s a 3.25 joint in my books. It’ll get you in and out for under $ 20 in most cases, all in.
Grana in Jamesport or the Blaze Fast Wood Fired Pizza joint in West Babylon get my votes for much, much better wood fired pizza.
THIS has been a review by Gaurav

This is a new addition to the St James area. The restaurant is located in a free standing building across from 7−11/Del Fuego. They have a rather large menu that includes brick oven pizza, and many other italian entrees.
We ordered some beers from their taps. They include Peroni, Shocktop and I think it was Sam Adams Ocktoberfest. The beer was was clean tasting and crisp as it is probably coming out of brand new lines. The tables are rather close to each other kinda like places in the city. We ordered «Arancini Al Forno» as an appetizer but it does not really lend itself well to an appetizer. It is essentially a baked dish with rice balls deeply in there so it is difficult to share.
Since this place bills itself as a «Brick oven pizza» place we got pizzas. I am pleased to say that it really is a brick oven pizza place. Plenty of places have their gas oven surrounded with a brick façade and call it brick oven. Yes all pizza ovens do have bricks in them too, but I consider brick oven pizza to be a very hot wood or coal fired oven.
So yes the pizza was brick oven style and it was OK. I must say I prefer the pizza at The Pie in Port Jefferson but this place is pretty good as well. I just think that their oven does not get as hot as the crust is not as light and crispy as places like The Pie and Pepe’s with their coal fired ovens. Small personal style pies are $ 12.75 which is more costly than The Pie, and for about 1.25 more I can get a 18″ pie at my local pizzeria.
Will be back, and a good addition to the area.