Homestead Inn

Had a great meal with Italian roast chicken and veal chop everything was perfect from the arugula salad to the tiramisu
The vibe of old Italian haunt and the yesteryears of Chambersburg make this one of favorite places

I love this place. It gives me comfort and joy. It’s authentic and warm. It’s closest to home cooking and is the best simple Italian around like Enzo’s in Ewing. It’s not over done. There’s no crab meat stuffed something or panko crusted other thing. You can eat great vinaigrette salads and cold or hot vegetables and long hot peppers with bread and butter and then dip it in red gravy or roast chicken sauce. You will eat too much. The Negronis Bill makes at the bar are strong and perfect. The wine isn’t the best but the chianti is fine. They have half splits of Veuve. They know you and joke with you like a cousin. It’s not cheap but worth every penny every time I go. I crave this place regularly and would cry if they upgraded it. The kitchen staff is Bangladeshi and I wish they served curry sauce cause those guys can cook. They have an open wood or coal stove to cook meat like on the street. They make a great eggplant parm when they have it or baked haddock with marinara that melts in your mouth on Fridays. Chicken and peas ! Dear friend lives for their clams casino. Love their linen table clothes and simple glasses. My GRANDMOM loved this place and they made her feel at home. Eat at the bar and meet central NJ locAls and hear the stories. Closed Tuesday’s. Great lunch place too but slow style with a lot of food like old days.

Do not rate the Homestead Inn by the interior. I don’t think they have spent a dime on the place in 30 years. Go for the food knowing this might be the last old Trenton place left.
Hot peppers and great bread and butter were on the white table clothed table when we were seated. Be sure to make a reservation because every table is filled. No menu or prices, so the waiter recites all the options. Out the window we saw the cooking staff picking fresh tomatoes. real beauties and herbs. You get to select exactly what you want in your salad; I had baby arugala, red onion, tomatoes & sharp provolone. We ordered a string bean salad to add to our salads. Delicious! The salad was perfection!
My friend had 2 perfect martinis, and I had a very good glass of merlot.
We had orders of pencil points with meat gravy. perfection again.
The entrée I had was a perfectly charcoal grilled veal chop with a side of garlic sauteed spinach. My companion had tender delicious chicken and peas.
Desserts were classic Artic peanut butter ice cream & a tartuffo. Only imperfection was my cold coffee. When I told the waiter he said they only have an urn & removed my coffee.
No matter… perfect perfect meal. Fabulous!

Went here for Father’s Day. The staff was incredibly friendly and nice. They asked how we had heard of the place, and I told them I heard about it from work — they immediately asked after the guys by name. I get a feeling they remember you, even if you’ve only been there once.
I made reservations on Tuesday for Sunday, Father’s Day. We walked in a few minutes late, a waiter passing by asked if we needed help, and I said we had reservations. He knew exactly who we were, without my uttering a single identifier, and showed us to our seats. Bread and a plate of peppers were already on the table waiting. Service was great there, very attentive. The place was full, every seat was taken, but the tables weren’t right on top of each other, so you didn’t feel like it was crowded. The décor wasn’t fancy, it was a little dark, and the floors were linoleum.
Husband started with a glass of chianti. I had a sip, twas quite tasty.
No menu, no prices, and the list wasn’t as long as I feared it would be. If you’re looking for huge variety, this isn’t the place. The kids ordered linguine with meat sauce, hubby ordered a ribeye, and I ordered the chicken cacciatore and a Primo Pencil Points to share.
The teenager LOVED his simple linguine with meat sauce. And he has no problem complaining about the slightest thing, and I didn’t hear a single negative peep. The baby was even feeding herself her little portion of linguine absconded from the adolescent’s plate. Husband rated the ribeye up there with Ruth’s Chris, high praise indeed. It was cooked perfectly to his request, and nicely seasoned, and juicy.
The house sauce, Primo, on my penne, was divine. And I don’t usually care to order pasta out since we can make it at home so easily, but it was really good. Not too acidic-​tomato, not too thick and cloying or pasty, (I don’t usually like tomato sauces for that reason) — a little on the oily side, but the whole premise of the sauce is that it’s a combination of meat sauce and garlic & oil.
Now, the chicken cacciatore… I don’t usually order chicken when I go out, because I make it inexpensively at home, and I’ve never had chicken cacciatore before, so perhaps this is how the dish is supposed to be,. but I found it a little dry with a little too much tang from the wine sauce.
We ordered desserts and coffee — the peanut butter ice cream had these little pieces of peanut butter in it — almost toffee like — the tiramisu, while not house made, looked and tasted terrific — perfectly creamy, nice espresso aromatic.
Prices were typical Italian restaurant — $ 15/​pasta, $ 17/​chicken cacciatore, $ 32/​ribeye — I put them here, because they don’t give prices with the menu, and it’s helpful to have a gauge.
Overall, I’d go again for a special occasion — the Primo pasta is totally worth it, and the waitstaff are great.

Should I describe this place as having a weird set-​up or strangely homey? Ordinarily I like places with a more «updated» ambiance but this place has some appeal and novelty. I loved all the «menu» selections– a veggie lovers dream as the salads and veggie sides provide a better selection than most any restaurant. Italian is never my first choice for a dinner out but I found this place to be just the kind of place I’d come back to again and again. If you are travelling on business a lot and sick of always feeling like you are eating «restaurant food» you will be delighted that you can have a home cooked meal in a «home».

Love this place — can’t beat the quality and freshness of the food. The steaks are amazing, sauce is amazing, sauteed broccoli rabe is awesome. It does take a minute to get used to no menu but the effort pays off.

The LAST of the old school Trenton type restaurants. No, there’s no menu and there are limited tables. No fancy cocktails but you need to understand that this place is about the atmosphere and the homestyle food. It’s the kind of place for a guys dinner or where you want to impress the future father in law. The staff will treat you like family. Go for the fantastic porterhouse, the veal chop or even the roast chicken. Go and bring your girl for a unique experience.
OLD SCHOOL dining that leaves you very content. Accept Chick and Nello’s for what it is and you will realize there is nothing like it in this State anymore. Worth a trip… a true experience.

Without a doubt the best restaurant within a 50 mile radius of Trenton, NJ. Great service, great food, great bread. Dave, Pete, Matt and Ernie are the best. Their crab cakes are the best I have ever had and their chicken cacciatori is to die for. Pasta always el dente and the special sauce is incredible. And don’t forget their string beans with the works! Yes, there is no menu or prices but that keeps the evening interesting. If you think that your check is too cheap, Dave will be happy to make an accommodating adjustment.

Went for dinner with a large group last Saturday. Had some drinks at the bar then went to eat. The «primo» sauce on the pasta is absolutely the best on earth. The porterhouse was huge and cooked perfectly. It had a little connective tissue on the strip side, but was very flavorful.
They have the most amazing tomatoes, especially for January. Red, ripe and delicious. It’s a quirky place having no menu, but it’s always warm and inviting.

One of my favorite places for many years. Classic Italian dishes that are not very complex. The ambiance is more like your grandmothers kitchen than a high end dinning establishment. And yes, you can request to eat at the large table in the kitchen if you make your reservation days in advance. There is no menu and your not told the prices upfront unless you ask. Again, it’s more like your grandma’s house — but she doesn’t charge $$$.
A few of my fav’s are the Bacalla salad, Lima Beans & Meatball’s and Roasted Chicken. For sure don’t miss the pasta with ‘special sauce’ either for your second course.
This place isn’t for everyone but it’s unique enough to try once.

Locally, Homestead Inn is better known as Chick and Nello’s. The «menu» is heavy on North Italian meat dishes and Southern pastas. I put menu in quotation marks because they actually don’t have print menus; despite the large variety of options, the servers deliver the menu in its entirety orally. Preparations are simple, fresh, and made-​to-​order. So, why the low-​ish rating? For one, prices are very high for the location and the type of food. Entrees run $ 30 – 40 for things like roast chicken. Two, the whole no-​menu thing irritates me; this is kind of a cute practice until you realize that it’s going to take five minutes of the server speed-​reading and that you won’t possibly be able to pick and choose what you really want. Lastly, the food was decent, but nothing memorable. Dessert was particularly sub-​par; we ordered the peanut butter ice cream and observed it being scooped out of a Breyer’s ice cream carton in the kitchen.
I will freely admit that I tend to review places like this a little harsher than most because I don’t like to pay premium prices for «home-​style cooking» that I can easily make myself. If you don’t cook, or you are just craving some simple, clean food, you might really enjoy a meal here. I know several people who claim this is their favorite restaurant in central NJ.