Abruzzo

I was looking for a nice place to chill for the 4 hour layover. I asked when I walked in about internet access for my laptop and the host said no problem. This place is a wannabe upscale restaurant. They distract you with the iPads, chic interior design and nice music playing, before you realize… you just got played. Internet never worked on laptop, mandatory tipping for clunky self ordering process and high prices for mediocre food will keep me walking to Gate C101 area next time.

Avoid this place. Overpriced, even for an airport. Cash is not accepted, so expect to have your info collected upon card swipe and sold.
Never again.

One star for the speed of food (salad of the day) another for a decent Riesling. However, minus a star for the overly bright iPad in front of your face & the 20% mandatory tip (for not having a wait staff to take your order). I was famished and there was or much of a choice. Next time pick something up from the convenience store next door, at least you will not have to pay the 20% mandatory tip. Check out my picture for what a $ 50 dinner looks like!

The iPad app for ordering food is very clunky. It took forever for me to explore the menu. The add-​ons enticed me and I changed my mind several times which made my ordering experience take a lot longer.
A piece of paper would be easier.
Then my meal took 22 minutes to arrive. Had to wave for a waiter. Food arrives and I rushed to eat it. The meal was hot and pretty good. Finished and walked right to the gate to be boarding in group 4.
Almost cancelled my ticket to grab a sandwich instead.

Overpriced poor experience, even as airport restaurants go. The iPads are a novelty that throw advertisements and bright colors in your face the entire time. Nope, can’t turn off the screen after you order, get pummeled by useless advertisements while you eat your bland penne alla vodka and wait for a «never gonna come» refill on your iced tea. Oh, I have to do that through the app… but still tip a waiter (before I get my food, mind you). This is crap.
The food? Penne was overcooked and sauce was subpar even by Chef Boyardee standards. This sucks because I’ve just wanted a nice bowl of pasta for days now.
Overall EWR has been a crapshoot today, so keep that in mind while letting this all sink in. I’m sure if you were on a short domestic grabbing a quick meal it would be a passable experience (the iPads still irk me).

I’m writing this review as we sat here for half an hour, and our food was still nowhere in sight. We ordered a pasta dish, and a kids meal (chicken fingers). The place is not crowded at all. The waitress is a nice lady. After I looked anxiously at her, she hurried to the kitchen. When the chicken fingers finally arrived, it was really hot, which made us think it was just fried. Like I said, this place was quite empty. So I have to guess that our order was just sitting there for a long time until I started looking anxious. Both the pasta dish and the chicken finger were below average. If you are in a rush, definitely do NOT come to this place.

One of my worst and most impersonal dining experiences ever. You order from an iPad and the bring the food to your table yet they still expect at 20% tip (Methinks not). I was here for breakfast and ordered the steak and and egg sandwich. It was not ever edible. There were small chunks of steak cooked well done (not option to specify how you wanted it cooked) and an egg… The whole sandwich was a train wreck I ended up just eating the egg by itself and not touch the rest of the plate. This is an interesting concept but I prefer to interact with a human than an ipad. Will never waste my time or money here again.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten off a long flight, hungry and tired, and thought, «Y’know, before I eat, I’d like to learn to use a badly-​designed iPad app!»
No hands? Yeah. That’s what I thought.
Ordering via iPad is difficult and annoying. Having the iPads bolted to the table means you can’t see the person across from you. And the iPad is going to show you advertising. Because everyone loves watching commercials while they eat. Forcing each person at the table to order (via iPad) separately means all the food comes out at different times.
Oh, and the iPad will periodically complain that it can’t access the camera. But that’s fine, because it stops the advertising while the error message is displayed.
And it doesn’t matter what box you check for your steak. (Medium, medium-​rare, etc.) You’re getting it well done, and you’re going to like it, because the 18% tip was already charged when you ordered.
And you’re going to cut that steak with a floppy plastic picnic knife. Good luck with that. The fork will be real though, so maybe you can make some kind of prison-​style shiv out of that to cut your steak with. Or maybe just order the pasta?
This place somehow took bad food and lousy service and made it worse using iPads.

This review would be a zero star one, if I could. The service was bad, the food was bland and the iPad ordering system is a disaster.
I’m pretty tech savvy but ended up with things I ordered not arriving. Spaghetti arriving without the meatballs that were supposed to come with it. The burger was pretty tasteless. If I can’t order with the iPad system, my parents would starve here.
The tables were loaded with dirty dishes and glasses; the manager was walking right past them.
They play endless electronic music. Augh.
In the end, we ended up with a tab with the tip already on it, no way to fix it. You can adjust the tip, but after a while, it apparently just adds one on and closes the tab. For all the work I did trying to get myself fed, they should have dropped 20% on me. At least I’d have cleaned a table.
I’d say keep walking, but the whole damned airport is on the same iPad ordering system — even fast serve places. If you want to eat a Newark airport, pack your food in your carry on before you leave.
I can’t hate this place enough, but I’m going to try.
Updat

iPad ordering, done wrong. Gratuity paid up front, apparently unaware what the point of tips are (you know, for rewarding good service). Every screen on the iPads tries to upsell you with items you just decided not to get. Every. Single. Screen. Before you order. While you are selecting items (no seriously). When you are checking out. After you’ve paid. Upsell mania!
The good:
–Ambiance is very nice.
–Food quality is actually quite high quality for an airport. Kudos on that.
–Once you are done you can just walk out since you already paid up front.
The decent:
–Staff was friendly enough, dive bombing a tip for the iPads every time they passed by. («To pay together, you have to order on the same iPad!», or «You have to swipe your card for the order to go through, ok?»).
The bad:
–They put ketchup bottles on the plate, in your food. In my case, the bottle had fallen into the soft boiled egg, breaking the egg and costing the bottle in egg yolk.
–They give you metal forks, but plastic knives.
-$ 23 total for two eggs, two strips bacon, two slices toast, potatoes, and water. Basically, Michelin star restaurant prices.
If they redid the iPad to remove the ads and handle gratuity afterward (perhaps allowing you to change it to match the service), the place would earn two more stars for sure.

This rating is about right, if not lower.
Their steak is over cook and we think not the highest quality. The manager was nice enough to switch to a filet mignon (much better) from a Porthouse.
I know, air port steak. It’s Valentine, should have Unilocal,it was obvious a two star. Loud acoustics, nice servers, poor food. Now we know !
Gordon Ramsey where are you?

Well, I’m back again at this joint. Many business trips take me through EWR and on an expense account this has become a default standard.
The iPad ordering is still a mess, although it appears that direction as been given at the top to staff to give direction to customers on how to order. And when the iPads fail (and 80% of the time they do) the staff we hand key your order back in.
I really don’t understand it. OTC (the owner of this place and multiple other places in EWR that just recently opened up) seemed to have doubled down on this stupid iPad ordering idea. Everything that has opened now has an iPad. Awful; just hire humans.
Nevertheless, food quality here is way above average for an airport restaurant. That is why I keep coming back. I will take high quality food and iPad ordering than fast food garbage and no iPads.
For what it is, it’s expensive. If I was spending my own money I wouldn’t come here. Thank god for corporate cards.

On my way to Lisbon, I had an hour to kill, so thought of trying out this place. This was my first time ordering and trying out the iPad ordering service. This is definitely convenient. You don’t have to wait for a waiter and service was quick!
This place is definitely a bit expensive. Wine by glass averages at around $ 12 and entrees average $ 16. I tried the Mushroom Pizza which was pretty good. 1 star just for the Pizza. It was flavorful and no complaints here.
Service was quick and the server was very friendly and had a smiling face!

I remember when this was a seafood restaurant before Abruzzo… the décor is very nice inside. In front of each seat is an iPad where you can place your order and check flight status. My friend and I each ordered a glass of red wine and the cheese plate. The wine was blehhhh for the amount they charged for it… I could’ve easily gotten a (better!) bottle for that price :/​Nonetheless, it was a good place to hang out while we waited for our flight.

My wife and I stopped in for lunch and were a bit cautious based on some of the other reviews on Unilocal.However I’m pleased to say that we had an excellent meal, and were really glad we stopped in!
I got a marinated Eggplant sandwich that was delicious, with tangy pesto and sweet roasted peppers, covered in gooey mozzarella cheese. The bread was a bit soggy, but I didn’t think think it was necessary anyway. The sandwich came with thick cut fries that we’re crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, and wow were they hot and fresh!
The service was also great. Our waiter was super friendly, and had a good sense of humor (which I really appreciate). I’ve seen several reviews complaining about using iPads to order, and although it took a few minutes to learn the ropes, it wasn’t a problem at all. In fact, it made the ordering process nice and efficient, and prepaying means that as soon as you’re done eating you can dash out to make your flight (or to run to the bar, like we did!).
I’d definitely be up for coming back next time I’m in EWR!

My husband and I are traveling back East from Nebraska for the holidays with family. We were excited to check out the new Terminal C food at the Newark Airport and were especially looking forward to Italian.
When we saw the reviews here we almost didn’t eat here. I’m so glad we did though because the negative reviews were not our experience at all. The iPads were super simple and easy to use and you chose your tip amount, it is not set for you.
Our waiter was attentive, involved, and funny. We did not feel like we were being waited on by robots.
Now for the most important part: the food. It was really good! Was it the best food we’ve ever had? No but we’re at an airport and paying $ 11 for an eggplant sandwich and $ 13 for a Brussels sprout and butternut squash salad. They were delicious and flavorful and a million times better than standard airport fare. The food was fresh, the staff friendly, and the service prompt. We would absolutely return again.
Maybe the negative reviews so far are because these are new businesses? They’ve been open less than a month and are obviously reading reviews because we had none of the issues previous reviewers mentioned. We had a wonderful experience.

I thought Abruzzo was pretty great. My friend and I ordered on the ipad in front of us. We had the house wine ($ 10) and a plate of prosciutto ($ 9), and the portions were more than I expected for airport food and delicious too. It came with 4 slices of bread and some pickles and was very filling. The house wine wasn’t that great, but food wise, it definitely exceeded expections. Service was quick, but then again I was eating cold cuts — haha. The waiters left us alone and everything was paid on the ipad in front of you via credit card.

When consuming any kind of sit down food at an airport, expectations are automatically lowered. After whipping out my phone and taking a glance at Abruzzo’s reviews, expectations were lowered even further.
Except, it really wasn’t all that bad. Granted I only had some wine and a light snack instead of an actual meal. But in any case, I left feeling totally content. And the two glasses of pinot noir that I chugged were only partially to blame.
The servers were quick and attentive. Yes, I’m that girl who can never figure out how to swipe my card when ordering off an iPad. The server noticed right away and came over to help me out. The ambiance is very relaxing, and it’s a great place to sit, people watch and charge up appliances while waiting for a flight in the United terminal.
I absolutely loathe flying, so two glasses of red wine was the perfect precursor to the dreaded 6 and a half hour flight to SF. I was hungry and wanted to nosh and was pleased to see that instead of ordering an entire cheese platter, you could order one cheese selection for 6 dollars. The platter actually came with a ton of cheese, which was a pleasant surprise. Only thing that was kind of a bummer was that the bread was really stale and hard to eat. Two glasses of wine and a few pieces of cheese later, I left content and ready to take on a cross country flight.

I think too many people gave this place a poor rating due to the frustration with the iPad ordering system. I personally found it okay to use, the most frustrating part was scanning my boarding pass, but then everything else worked as expected.
Food was definitely above average for airport. I ordered a 10 oz. steak and charred broccoli side. The steak, sprinkled with coarse rock salt, was on the dry side, but the pesto and the roasted garlic made up for that. The arugula could have used some seasoning as I didn’t like pouring pesto in it, but it also went well with the meat. The charred broccoli was my favorite, not only was it charred well, it was also seasoned well with the addition of dried chili pepper flakes.
The waiting staff was friendly and eager to help me navigate through the iPad ordering system, and my food came quickly. The best part of the experience is perhaps the receipt was emailed to me (although I opted to use my miles so I didn’t technically pay for the meal), so I don’t have to waste another 10 minutes playing the «flag down the waitress for my check» game.
I would definitely revisit this establishment the next time I layover in EWR.

My favorite breakfast spot in EWR. I love the fact that you can sit down, order from an iPad, pay, and receive your drink and meal in a matter of minutes. Frequent travelers know that efficiency and timing are key while traveling, and this restaurant is very accommodating in that regard.
The breakfast is wonderful but I haven’t eaten here for lunch or dinner. And if you’re have a ton of United miles, you can use them to pay for your meal.