Cioffi’s Restaurant & Pizzeria

My spouse grew up in Union and has been working there for over 35 years so Cioffi’s is well known to us. I have to say that I was very, very disappointed in the service and food at the restaurant last night. We had a reservation for five and were seated very quickly but that’s about the only thing that went smoothly. The service was terribly slow and the waiter apologized a few times but there really was no excuse for our main dishes to take over an hour to be served. When they did arrive, the chicken parm was rubbery, the penne with vodka sauce was just OK and the other dishes were passable but nothing to write home about. We don’t live in the Union area so had traveled about 40 minutes to get here and in retrospect it wasn’t worth it. I don’t know if the chef or management has changed but I won’t be going out of the way to come back here, which is really sad to say because this place used to be one of my favorite destinations for a great Italian meal.

The food is decent. Ordered for delivery took 1.5 to arrive at my place. Probably won’t be ordering from here anytime: soon.

My mom works really close to this place and she is here a lot. She loves a lot of their Italian entrees. They have great chicken parm. Great spaghetti & meat balls and I love their chicken Alfredo. They also have great pizza. When her job hosts their annual Christmas party Cioffis caters. This year they will probably ask them to host again. I love this place!!! I have yet to try their Cioffis boardwalk on Rt 22 but my mom is also there all the time. I’ll stop by one day though.

i ordered from here last week and they forgot a calamari salad…2 hours later it arrived. never ever again!!!

Way over priced. The owners nice but I guess you pay for that. It must be included the price. Foods good but not enough to pay $ 25. For lunch. Seriously a lunch special and a drink is that much.

Their pizza is so good and such!!! A good price. The owners are so nice and are there helping right along with the staff. It is a great family restaurant.

Great food & friendly staff. They also do medium size parties or events in private room which I have done and everyone is very easy to work with.

It’s EH nothing out of the ordinary. This place wouldn’t really be my first pick for lunch but it was free food lol.

I’ve been eating here on and off for awhile now and have always left happy. Mainly stick to the anti pasta, or a seafood app (or a pie for the table) and something with red sauce as an entrée so I don’t have experience with the entire menu but the chicken parm or spaghetti with meatballs are always delicious. I also enjoy their ricotta cheese cake seems homemade and very good. When the movie theater was open down the street we use to stop here before hand in the pizzeria side to grab a slice before the show. Pizza is usually pretty good. The staff is always friendly and the wait seems about normal. Atmosphere is casual but nice.

Attended a meeting here. Started off with their antipasto salad which was fresh and tasty. Next I had the penne vodka which was a little soupy but was still delicious. Lastly, for my entrée I had the eggplant rolletini which was cooked just right and was a hefty portion. I would most definitely go back here and try whatever else they have to offer.

Not only the place is terribly overpriced, the service is incredibly slow too. I Paid $ 10 for a soup and waited 30 min to get it. Never again! It was disgusting and not worth the money.

Very, very disappointed tonight. Ordered baked ziti and chicken savoy. Baked ziti was ziti marinara with microwave melted mozzarella on top… No ricotta to be found. Chicken savoy completely lacked any balsamic taste. I ended up calling them to complain (which I never do… But, it was really THAT bad) I was expecting them to at least acknowledge that the baked ziti is supposed to be made with ricotta and offer new dinners– guess I was expecting too much! The phone boy offered to «take some money off next time.» GUESS WHAT! After the 30 years that my family has been patronizing this restaurant, there won’t be a next time. Dinner tonight left a really bad taste in my mouth. What a shame!

So I had the veal parm dinner with angel hair pasta. Probably the worst I’ve had so far. For 16 – 17 $ dollars that I paid for this entrée my expectations were very high. The veal had no taste/​seasoning and it was dry and chewy. I ended up throwing half out. I gave 1 star cause the pasta wasn’t bad. Will not return.

My family has been coming here for years. They have by far the best penne vodka I have ever had. The bread is amazing, always hot and fresh. There are a lot of Italian places in Union County, but you can’t go wrong here.

Holy cow! This place tops most any Italian spot I’ve ever been to! Went with my mom and two of my boys and we all left happy and full. The portions dont appear as large as they are, but when youre getting full off of a (mostly) vegetable plate, theyre doing something right! I’ll definitely be back.

We started with a salad special that was a great deal, and delicious! I had the stuffed shells, which were perfect, tony had the shrimp (again, perfect) and tony’s mom had the chicken cacciatore, the chicken was moist and portion huge.
the prices are a little on the low end of average, and well worth the $$.
the big selling point here is the fact the place and its’ owners have been serving food forEVER! they had a place in Newark, which Tony’s mom remembers vividly. Then the moved to Union with a small pizzeria with a few tables, and grew into this nice space. The exterior is a little ho-​hum, it used to be a UPS store, but the staff is super friendly, courteous, and attentive. They have a nice full bar in front, and don’t forget to walk around and check out the pics of the family and workers from the past.
Do yourself a favor, and stop in! We were going to go to Mario’s Tutti Benne, but the staff there was rude and inattentive, so we split. This place is the opposite of that. We’ll be back, and if all goes well, this will earn on a spot on our ‘regular’ list!

A few yrs ago I took out pizza on two diff occasions & was disappointed for diff reasons both times but when groupon offered $ 70 for $ 35 I decided to take a chance on the restaurant having never tried that before & in my experience at least ½ the times combo places like this were either better in the pizza or restaurant dept.
My review will be based on if 100% came out of pocket & only for the restaurant experience.
Parking lot is small (maybe 8 cars) but there is parking on the main & side streets & in the Rite-​Aid parking lot on the next block so that shouldn’t be an issue.
Arrived at 7 yesterday (Wed nite) & it was nearly full & w/​o any noticeable specials (certainly not early bird) a good sign even if most of them are locals – if you dont Union it’s a town that’s slowly changing so it was mostly a middle aged+ crowd & several diners you could tell were repeat customers.
They give 2 types «partially» warmed bread (could have been warmed a bit longer) – the sesame was ok but the other is totally different – reminded me of a biscuit very tasty.
The waitress Shaina (sp?) said they had a full bar but were out of ingredients for the 1^st two drinks I tried to order (choc martini & brandy alexander) though she mentioned espresso martini which is almost the same thing? No drink menu so I then said gin tom collins which they had – my friend got a trop fruit martini – my drink was ok – hers was ok not real sweet as hoped but at $ 5.50 & $ 8.50 not too overpriced.
Appetizer was the Cioffi’s antipasto which was hard & spicy salami, ham, capicola, mozarella, pitted reddish olives & mixed veggies. All the meats & cheese were good & fresh – it’s a LARGE plate could easily be enough for 4 ppl.
Entrees were veal romano (on specials menu) with mozarella, mushrooms & tomatos in white wine sauce – i dont like fresh tomatos so when i asked if they could sub sundried she said sure. Friend got penne w/​vodka sauce & peas & asked to add prosciutto ($ 2.00 chg which is reasonable). Veal was very good – sauce watery looking (as opposed to marsala sauce) but very tasty with a hint of sweetness. 4 nice sized very well pounded (thin) pieces – could have used a bit more mozarella & mushrooms. Penne was pretty good – peas «mushy» like from a can – would be better to use fresh or even frozen.
We skipped desserts (on Wed Carvel is b1g1 free sundaes) which is just a few mins away.
Service was near perfect – server very friendly & you could tell likes her job (unlike several i’ve encountered over the years) & though young (maybe early 20s) was well trained.
As far as others complaining about the «dirtiness» we didnt use the bathroom so can’t remark on that & though the shades are an outdated cheap wood they didnt «look» dirty but any place you go to I guarantee if you run your fingers across any area you will find dust. The carpeted floor could have used a vacuuming but keep in mind this is a casual italian/​pizza combo place so expectations are ajusted accordingly.
So for 1 appetizer (which is really 3 – 4), 2 entrees, 2 drinks w/​tax & tip (factoring out the groupon) would have been $ 87 which is reasonable considering we both had enough leftovers for 2+ meals.
I prefer to give a detailed rating as opposed to just saying I liked it or I didn’t.
For me I rate a restaurant in 4 categories in order of importance:
Food
Service
Value
Décor/​ambience/​misc
If you’re wondering why this is the order for me I rather have great food & so-​so service than the other way around. You can always plan around a slower evening to make it just as enjoyable but not around mediocre food whether it’s fast or slow paced.
My 3^rd item I call value instead of price because based on the taste & serving portion of the item compared to similar items at other restaurants tells me if it’s a good value. For instance the best steak I’ve ever had to date runs about $ 44 but besides being delicious (a way to tell is it stands on its own w/​o adding any sauces) it is boneless & about 24oz so you get two good meals.
Food (2.0), service (1.5), value (1.0) & décor/​ambience/​misc (0.5)
I then take the # stars for each category & multiply by the # in parentheses then divide by 5 to get my final rating. If the final average is exactly ½ I’ll round up or down depending on other reviews.
So my calculations are as follows:
FOOD 4×2 = 8
SERVICE 4.5×1.5 = 6.75
VALUE 3.5×1 = 3.5
AMBIENCE/​OTHER 2.5 x .5 = 1.25
Total pts 19.5 divided by 5 = 3.9 which rounds to 4

Last night I had a great salad with fried calamari with mangos and avocado in a sweet chili sauce awesome

We had pleasant dinner here. Server was very nice and honest. We ordered fried calamari (spicy sauce), chicken masala and shrimp Parma. Overall food was good. No complaints. They give you bread basket to start, bread were soft. 2 entries we got came spaghetti with white mussel sauce (it came with 6 whole mussels). I asked the waiter if anything in deserts which were homemade or freshly made there and he told me they buy from different store, so they don’t make anything there. I thank his honesty. We had Groupon, he told us that we only spend about $ 62 so he said we did not have leave anything or run anything. Now I call server with honesty. Good place, I would definitely try back there again in the future. We might do take out next time.

This review is specifically for the pizza, although I’ve eaten meals here in the restaurant and the food is very good.
Let’s just say, I run into a lot of people who are from Bayonne here. Bayonne people are very particular about their pizza, so that tells you a little something, doesn’t it!
Regular pizza is great. Pizzas with the toppings are great, and the Sicilian is done very well here. Cioffi’s might just have THE BEST pizza in Union. If I could give a 4.5, I would