Shane "Disco Stu" W.'s Profile

I have to tell you my review of Village Trattoria may be a litte distorted because I'm not from NJ. I'm actually not even from the north.  Growing up in TX will certainly affect your opinion in what really is good pizza, and I accept that.  And even though I've been in NJ for 4 years now I still find myself craving Domino's.  Now with that said Village Trattoria has to be my favorite 'traditional' pizza around.  I like my pizza to be a little thicker than the normal thin crust you'd find at a local pizzeria.  The Grandma Style pizza with pepperoni is perfect for me. It's not as thick as deep dish and has just the perfect amount of dough.  My other new favorite dish my wife recommended is their baked ziti.  I'm usually a pizza or lasagna guy when it comes to Italian food but this baked ziti is ridiculously good.  So much cheese and deliciousness in one dish!  One word of caution.  It's big!  My wife and I love it but we still spilt an order and maybe order an extra slice for variety.  

I haven't had anything bad yet so the only drawbacks to the place I've found is they don't deliver and the place tends to get a little packed at night.  There's not much room to move around so we'll usually pick up the order and eat at home.

I was pretty grossed out by this place. My wife and I had dinner here on a weekend night and the place was reasonably busy. We had lived down the street from the restaurant for nearly two years though before we felt like we had exhausted all other possibilities and decided we'd give it a chance. We'd have been happier if we had remained ignorant of how bad the place is.  The decor isn't great and the service was average at best.  But the defining quality of a restaurant, the food, was just plain bad. From my caesar salad to my chicken fettuccine alfredo I wish I had stayed home and heated up a microwave dinner rather than spending money here.  Try this place at your own risk.  I wouldn't even recommend it to someone I didn't like.

This is my first 5-star review...  and damn this place is well worth it.  Moving from Dallas to Los Angeles and finally ending up in New Jersey left a mexican food void in my life.  That was until I discovered the Qdoba only 2 miles from my house.  I'd swear they put crack in their queso cheese sauce.  So this is basically a fast food chain, but their ingredients are so good and fresh you'd never know it.  My personal favorites are the queso steak burrito, cheese quesadilla, chips and guacamole, nachos, and the fresh brownies they sometimes offer.  And one of the best parts is Qdoba serves Coca-Cola products instead of Pepsi.  

The one drawback I'd mention is it's addictive and unless you lead a highly active lifestyle you're going to gain weight if you eat it too often.  I actually put on 20 lbs. I'd directly attribute to my Qdoba habit.  I'd pick up dinner there at least twice a week and sometimes it would be three times.  I finally had to take a break when I started running to lose weight.  The people behind the counter all recognized me and knew my order by heart.  I didn't step foot in their store for 3 months and when I finally went back for a burrito they were so happy I had come back.  I don't know if that was such a good sign.

Regardless though the greatness of Qdoba can't be denied.  Go there and go often!

This place is good..!!  My wife and I have lived in the area now for 4 years and we eat at La Focaccia on a regular basis.  It's nice to have a place where the wait staff and host know you on sight and remember your name.  The food is fantastic and the atmosphere is comfortable and relaxing.  I tend to have a few different dishes I love more than others that are in consistently in my rotation.  Those are the lasagna (5 stars), tagliatelle bolognese, salmon, crab cake appetizer, and caesar salad.  My wife has a few different pasta dishes that she loves as well.  She's a vegetarian and has less of a selection, but the items on the menu she does order she will rave about.  The staff is also very helpful and will recommend different dishes if they feel something is particularly good.  We've come to trust their decisions quite a bit.  In the last 4 years I think I've only seen one new waiter in the restaurant.

And I absolutely have to recommend the chocolate cake.  Not the chocolate souffle cake, which is good too, but the triple later chocolate cake.  It's ridiculously good.  We've ordered this before while driving home from work just to pick up an after dinner dessert.  Also, they don't advertise it but you can call them and order take out.  It's not really a take out restaurant and may be a little gauche, but the locals know La Focaccia is happy to take care of their customers.

There are very few drawbacks to the restaurant, but there are a few.  They don't take reservations unless your party has 4 or more people.  Service tends to slow down after you've finished dessert and you're waiting for the bill.  Some people may not care, but I'm usually ready to leave after we've spent an hour or hour and a half at dinner.  Waiting 10-15 minutes for the check on a busy night isn't the greatest thing in the world.  I went back and forth on whether to rate this $$ or $$$.  Our bill per person is usually between 25-35 a person depending on whether we're splitting an appetizer or not.  The restaurant is BYO so be sure to bring our own wine.  I personally don't think BYO is a drawback though.  I'd much rather bring a good bottle of wine from home that cost me half as much as it would at a restaurant.

Overall La Focaccia is a great, great place and everyone should eat here...  so long as it doesn't mean I have to wait longer for a table.  Bon Appetit

The Beacon Hill cinema is a mixed bag for me.  Growing up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I'm a little spoiled/accustomed to multiplexes, stadium seating, oversized chairs, and big screens.  This cinema is none of these things, but it doesn't have to be.  It's our local movie theatre in a small town in New Jersey so the coziness of the theatre is just fine.  It's very clean and well maintained, the staff seem like they're mostly in high school, which is to say the service is about as good as it can get under the circumstances and on par with movie theatres in general, and the experience is good.  The movies I've seen there have started on time, the clientele is respectful of the movie experience (i.e. they don't gab during the movie), and the picture and sound quality are very good.

The food and candy are as pricey as anywhere else (sneak in your own if you can) as are the ticket prices.  I also don't think they do any early bird specials like AMC (i.e. extra discounts before noon).  

My biggest complaint is that Clearview serves Pepsi products instead of Coca-Cola.  Coke is my preference anyway.  Other than that it's a perfectly OK movie going experience.

I've been to Terra Sky three times now and I have to say it's great.  They've located the business on the second floor above a bank, which seems unusual but when you step out of the elevator and into the lobby you'll feel like you've entered a place of peace and relaxation.  I've only tried two of their services - massages twice and an esthetician once right before getting married.  Both services were incredible.  The staff in the lobby was pleasant when they greeted you and the masseuses and esthetician were both incredible and professional.  I signed up for a 60 minute massage each time I went, but so wished I had tried the 90 or 120 minute version instead.  It was so relaxing I didn't want to leave.

The center offered other services as well - yoga, pilates (I think), and other types of massage I didn't try.  I just went for the swedish massage rather than therapeutic, but I'd assume those would be equally as good.  

Maybe the only thing keeping this from being a 5-star review was the cost.  Don't get me wrong, they weren't more expensive than other spas in the New Jersey area.  I just think it's less expensive for the same services in other parts of the country like California.  I don't understand why that's the case but it is.  I'd definitely recommend Terra Sky to other people in the area.