12907 Long Beach Boulevard
Beach Haven Terrace, NJ 08808
One weekend this summer, my family and I made a venture out to one of the places that I used to consider one of the best to eat at in Long Beach Island. As you can probably infer from the previous sentence, I no long consider it one of the best. The main reason being I feel that they offer very average food that lacks consistency, and the best thing on their menu they do not even make. That being said, we still had a good meal and a good time. I would like to apologize for there being no pictures, but Roberto’s does not allow pictures to be taken in their dining rooms, so I could not take any.
When we arrived we were the life of the restaurant in the room that we were sitting in. That is my nice way of saying we were loud, but we do not go out to dinner very often in LBI, so we like to enjoy ourselves. My uncle loaded up on the appetizers, as he usually does, even after we told him not to, but we enjoyed the calamari, fried mozzarella and “spicy” clams
The calamari was good, but not any different than most other calamari. The fried mozzarella appetizer was the only one that I would say was actually very good. They do not serve it as sticks, but rather as a square on the plate and topped with marinara sauce. It was very crispy, the cheese was perfectly stringy, like a great mozzarella should be, and the sauce was full of flavor. The same cannot be said about the clams. There was no spice in the “spicy” clams leaving the sauce a bit bland and disappointing.
My main course was okay, but it was nothing special. I am pretty sure they do not really know how to make chicken scarpariello, but I am pretty sure the traditional sauce is a lighter brown. Mine was a deep brown color, and I did not really care for the non traditional peppers and mushrooms in the sauce. They were clumsily added to the dish, and in large chunks; they were difficult to eat. The sliced sausage and the pepperoncini were welcome additions, but did little to bring the whole dish together.
The best thing on the entire menu is the peanut butter tartufo. I have never had another dessert so good anywhere, and I am not too sure I ever will. We have been told by the owner however that they do not even make them in house, which kind of ruined the spell of the restaurant on me. However, it is still fantastic. Tartufo is an Italian dessert in which ice cream is coated in a hard candy shell, sometimes with a cherry or other item in the middle of the tartufo. This one has peanut butter in the middle, surrounded by the best peanut butter ice cream I have ever tasted, and a hard chocolate shell. If I could find out where Roberto’s orders them from, I would order myself a box to have on hand, and never go back.
Roberto’s is a place to find an ok Italian meal in Long Beach Island. I am a little spoiled when it comes to Italian restaurants because I have been to some of the best, but I am just waiting for that time that I go to Roberto’s and I walk out of there saying “Wow. That was a great meal.” I simply haven’t had that feeling yet, but I have had average food, and it is reasonably priced. You can try it if you want to, but it doesn’t get my vote, and you can definitely find better Italian food on the island. If anything, just go for dessert and try the peanut butter tartufo. Cheers!
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