Gaetano’s

Despite making a reservation for this restaurant I was told there was a thirty minute wait when I arrived. Immediately left. If someone makes a reservation well in advance you should have the capacity to honor it. Terrible.

While the food may have been decent, the service was horrendous. After 30 minutes of being seated, no one came to the table with water, bread, or to introduce themselves. I had to flag someone down for water. A good 30 minutes after that, I had to request service & was informed that no server was assigned to my table; hence the wait. I remained patient and understanding, assuming this would have been the biggest hiccup. I ordered my appetizer, which came out fairly quick. I placed my dinner order, and waited a good hour. Mind you, it was about 10 at night at this point. My reservations were for 8:15. I grew impatient as my hunger and annoyance grew. No manager came over until later that night, and when he did, he first seemed understanding and offered us dessert or coffee. Mind you, we hadn’t gotten our food yet. A little after 10, I was served my food. At this point, I was so perturbed, I didn’t even want it. The manager changed his entire attitude and demeanor once I expressed my frustration. He became less than understanding and a bit rude. I asked for another manager, and he informed me that the owner Tony (from my recollection) wouldn’t come to my table. Completely unprofessional. How can you run a business with that attitude. Needless to say, I will not be returning, nor will I be recommending this place of business to anyone.

Mediocre-​at-​best food and poor service. Many years ago this place was a decent enough option for Italian in red bank, but whatever has happened since has disqualified it from consideration when the mood strikes. Not sure if the owners got too caught up in trying to sell canned goods in the «grocery» section or if it was something else that caused them to give up and run it into the ground but either way it’s a shame.
The last time we went, the service was way beyond slow, the entrees didn’t come out as ordered, and then we had to wait even longer for what turned out to be bland, overcooked pasta and even blander, soggy pizza.
Speaking of which, it seems the same ownership has just bought a venerable pizza institution down the street which probably means very bad news for what used to be a great pizza option in town. Unless he stays far away from the kitchen.

Ate here the other night and was extremely happy with all aspects of my experience. I ordered one of the specials of the day — black and red homemade pasta special with shrimp and cherry peppers. It was really delicious.
My friends also greatly enjoyed their pasta dishes. Absolutely no complaints in the food department.
They also has a nice wine selection — however they do you allow you to BYOB! That’s a great plus.
Service here was excellent. My party of 3 was waited upon in a very professional manner. They didn’t hang over us like some places do. We were given the space we needed to relax, yet the server was there when we needed him.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Gaetano’s to anyone looking for a good Italian dinner in Red Bank.

Came here with friends. The place was packed, and they were understaffed. I asked the waiter for a recommendation and he recommended the most expensive thing on the menu — some lobster special. I’m usually very skeptical of places when servers do this, but I was in the mood for lobster so I ordered it. We waited over an hour for our food and my lobster was overcooked. Pretty disappointing experience overall.

A «go-​to» spot with solid food and nice people. The chilly air of a rainy day was nicely deflected by the Tortellini Chicken soup. It was served up piping hot and flavored nicely with shredded fennel and chicken. Delicious on a gloomy day. Everything else was very good right up to the fabulous Zabaglione. Our gracious waiter Scott even brought us more lady fingers to add to it. But the best part was yet to come. We absent mindedly left our credit card on the table upon leaving. That was because we were enjoying a lovely conversation with Scott and happened to mention that we would be taking a walk after we left and stopping at the Arcade around the corner. We had just got inside from the rain and started playing pinball and in walks the Manager of Gaetano’s, whose name we think was Mike, bringing us our credit card that we had left behind. The hospitality was just amazing!!! And right around the holiday season. Great friendly staff is always a plus to go along with the wonderful food.

We had dinner last night before attending a show in town. Food was average. Two out of five were happy with their main course. Took very long time to get our food and way to long to get the check. Probably ok for kids as there was s large group next to us that were so out of control. One of our party who is a regular gluten free Unilocaled had to yell at one of the kids for Mohegan phones on iPad. Parents were oblivious to the kids as they were all seated at far end of the table. We had to run to get to the theater on time. Very long painful dinner, would not return.

Ok gave Gaetano’s a second chance. We sat in the secondary dinning room where it felt like cafeteria style. Extremely noisy with unbehaved children, which is not the restaurants fault, however why stick 5 adults in the middle of this circus? Made the room even louder because we had to speak loud to hear each other. Kid behind us was blasting a game on his ipad. Felt bad for a young couple sitting next to us as they clearly were not happy. The service was beyond slow. I had the salmon off the gluten free menu which was very flavorful, perfectly cooked and enjoyable. 2 others at the table had a pasta dish with Bolognese sauce. They agreed the pasta was a bit pasty and had no flavor. There are so much better Italian places in Red Bank whose food is much more consistent with better service. Sadly, We will not be returning again

Really not a fan. Food was pricey and sub-​par. Camari was OK, not great (reason for 2 stars instead of 1). The pasta was very disappointing. 2 adults and 3 kids $ 200+ bill. Don’t mind paying, but not when it’s so bland and unsatisfying. Frankly, I’ve had better pasta at pizza joints. Service was poor. Many errors made by wait staff. An overall debacle. Won’t go back. Lot’s of choices in Red Bank far superior.

The food is amazing here! Exquisite Italian! Mike was our server he was such a sweetie. My dad is a hard core Italian/​Italian food critic and he loved everything! (Except that they don’t serve Coke only Pepsi) Try calamari calabrese, grilled octopus, pork chop (huge) and osso Bucco (also huge)!

Thoroughly enjoyed this place! I highly recommend the Sunday prefix meal. $ 29 and you get appetizer (I got eggplant rollitini SO good!), entrée, and dessert. The tiramisu is hands down the best I’ve ever had! Made with homemade whip cream. In-​cred-​ible! They are a BYOB, and also sell bottle and ½ bottles of wine. They also sell the herb infused olive oil, and assorted fresh pasta from the refrigerator. I will definitely go back if for nothing else but the tiramisu!

Ordered the pork chop it was delicious, juicy not dry and full of flavor. A winner…

Came here for lunch the other day. The waiter was very friendly and the service was good. I had the escarole bean soup and a salad. The soup was a good portion (large bowl) and very tasty. But the salad was not good. The balsamic dressing was too sour (not enough oil). And the salad was overall nothing special. Not a big pasta dish or meat kind of person so I guess this place wasn’t for me.

We haven’t been to Gaetano’s in about 6 years and saw that the reviews are mixed, but we thought we’d give it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised. We shared the grilled octopus, lobster ravioli & italian egg rolls as appetizers. All were delicious. For our entrees we had the veal milanese, linquine with white clam sauce, shrimp with spinach risotto & lamb osso bucco. Everyone was happy with the portions & quality of the food. The Chocolate vesuvius cake was so-​so. The gelato was regular ice cream. Our server was disappointing but dinner was an overall success. Reposted from Trip Advisor.

The food was delicious. I’m only giving four stars because the service wasn’t up to par. It seemed like our waitress was young and inexperienced.
The fried calamari and Italian egg roll appetizers were very good. I had the Rigatoni Capri, which was almost like baked ziti but with rigatoni and sausage. It was delicious. Everyone else also enjoyed their dishes — scallops, shrimp with risotto, and lobster risotto.
We will definitely be back next time we’re in Red Bank.

Very disappointed I knew when the salad was served that it was not going to get better. The pasta dish was tasteless the bread was good. It is overpriced and not worth the parking.

Gaetano’s has never disappointed me. There are some reviewers with mixed feelings, but I haven’t ever had a bad experience here.
The staff has always made great recommendations, been attentive, and the dishes are better than you’ll get anywhere else in Red Bank, with the exceptions of Dish, Via 45 and Trattoria — Gaetano’s is playing in the same league as those three.
Lunch or dinner, whatever you order, you won’t walk away regretting it.
Would be a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I’m very sad to say that my recent experience at Gaetano’s was a MAJOR disappointment. My husband made a reservation there for my birthday dinner this past Saturday night, and just about every aspect of our experience there fell far bellow our expectations.
First of all, we’d made our reservation for a party of 6 over a week in advance, yet upon our arrival, the staff scrambled to fit a couple of tables together in the corner between the door of the main entrance and the «Market Place» — right in the center of where customers were lining up/​congregating to wait for their tables to be ready. As this was a super tight squeeze (and the crowd of people coming and going were basically in our laps) — we asked the hostess if we could be seated in the main dining area, which was much more adequately equipped to accommodate a larger group.
Despite the obvious availability of tables in the main dining area (and our advanced reservation), we waited for over half an hour to be seated. Then, when we got to our table, we realized that the staff had not cleaned it prior to seating us. The table was covered in a sticky film, there was food on the floor that I almost slipped on, there were crumbs and food particles all over the bench seats, and there was soda or coffee spilled on 2 of our 3 chairs (which my father almost sat in). My poor father had to excuse himself to the bathroom after he pulled out his chair to clean the sticky sludge off his hands. Then, when we alerted our server of the mess, it literally took him 10 MINUTES to come back and clean it so that we could sit down.
From the time we sat down throughout our entire meal, the service was consistently slow. We waited close to an hour for our entrees to be brought out. Our server was very un attentive, and we had to ask another server to flag him down for us so that we could ask him for a status update. Also, the staff member who was going around filling water glasses only attended to the people sitting at the end of of our table and failed to ask the rest of us if we would like refills (and I sat without water or a beverage for most of my meal).
The food itself was also very disappointing. My mother and father-​in-​law both ordered the seasonal penne, which was very bland and flavorless and had no sauce/​dressing on it. I ordered the Tilapia, which was very dried out and over-​cooked (to the point where the bottom of the fish was actually crunchy).
At the end of the meal — despite several mentions of it being my birthday — I was not given a complementary desert/​bowl of ice cream as most reputable restaurants will do for special occasions — nor was I even wished a simple «happy birthday». Then, when we were ready to pay our bill and asked to split our check between each of our 3 credit cards (as there were 3 couples in our group), our server told us that this could not be done, and that he could only split the check between 2 cards. I have never heard of such a thing at any restaurant before.
Needless to say, I will NEVER be going back to Gaetano’s again, and I will be sure to warn all of my friends about the utter incompetence of their staff, their dirty/​unkempt/​unsanitary environment, and the very disappointingly sub-​par food! I literally have never had such a negative experience at a restaurant before in my life, and my experience at Gaetano’s is what inspired me to join Unilocal!Do yourself a huge favor if you’re in Red Bank and feeling like Italian, and go to Buona Sera or even Pazzo instead!

On a spur of the moment Sunday trip to Red Bank with the beau, we came across Gaetano’s. We were both in the mood for Italian and a bonus if it was BYOB and this place fit the bill.
The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived around 1pm — we noticed they had some sidewalk seating so we opted to dine outside since the weather turned out to be lovely.
Our waiter quickly arrived and popped open the wine bottle and soon returned with water and wine glasses. Told us he’d have some fresh warm bread on the table shorty and sure enough, came back with it.
I’ll agree with the other person who wrote Gaetano’s isn’t cheap — but they had a Sunday prix fixe menu which got you a salad, an entrée and a dessert for $ 27. My boyfriend opted for that choice getting a caesar salad, the sunday gravy and cannoli raviolis. I just ordered the homemade fusilli which came with broccoli rabe and chicken.
I really liked my meal and was given a generous portion (which made up for the price). My boyfriend was also given pretty generous portions of his salad and entrée and was also happy with his meal. He especially raved about the braciole on the Sunday gravy plate.
All in all a positive experience and would consider dining here again if we’re ever in the area.

I’m planning a rehearsal dinner for my upcoming wedding and had called at least 10 places in the Red Bank area. When I contacted Gaetano’s I spoke with Rich the GM. Rich was great. My family and I went down there this weekend to test it out and we were not disappointed.
They have their «Sunday Sauce» menu on Sundays which is a 3-​course meal for $ 27. While my father, father-​in-​law and mother-​in-​law all got the Sunday gravy, I couldn’t resist the risotto special which had about seven kinds of seafood in it.
Everyone cleaned their plates and had a great time. A dining experience is about more than the food. It’s about the service, the staff and how they staff make you feel… and oh yeah, the food. Gaetano’s hit it out of the park on all three. We had such a great time that we decided to book the rehearsal dinner there. Looking forward to it.