Panico’s Bistro

Terrible service… godmother and lucky bones are much better options for anyone visiting cape may.
Note if they tell you it is «pretty open» when you call in — add an additional one hour to your wait time once you arrive.

Food was great — the wait was not.
Went with friends on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I was surprised it was crowded. We had a reservation for 6 PM. We didn’t get seated until 6:45. If it wasn’t for our friends, I would have left. What is the point of making a reservation if it isn’t honored? Once we got to our table, everything was great. Hubby had spicy seafood which he really enjoyed. I had the eggplant which was also very good. We had the mezze appetizer, which was wonderful! It was very noisy and everything seemed to echo. I’m not sure I’d go back except if I could find an off-​time.

Excellent italian byob.
Garlic bread is awesome. Had the calamari, bruschetta, and chicken parm.
Definitely check it out.

I’m sure the quality of this food might have been great but I never got a chance to try it. Not only did we call a reservation but when we arrived they told us that it would be a 20 minute wait. Seems reasonable. However, 20 minutes later, they said the same thing. It would have been nice maybe if they had told us we’d expect a wait of more than an hour and a half before deciding to go elsewhere. So far Sapore, which is 8 minutes away, has shown us great care within the first 10 minutes of arriving. No sass included!

Second time here and the food was amazing– again! The specials tonight were wonderful– butternut squash ravioli, pasta with fresh pesto and asparagus, and the strawberry and blueberry salad– all great. I highly recommend it!

Early dinner on a Sunday. Children at almost every table. Most well behaved but the other few were overwhelming. Very noisy.
We each had a special. Delicious but we had not asked those prices in advance so we’re surprised at how pricey it was. Pizza looked very good. That may be the way to go.
Good service.

Outstanding Italian food. Great service. Friendly staff. I can’t say enough about this place. Everything is fantastic. Thrilled to have been introduced to it by friends. I’ve never had a bad experience. It’s BYOB and no corkage fee. Get the shank. It’s simply to die for. The pizza is huge and definitely would fill 4 people up as an appetizer for the table.

Panicos is truly one of my favorite restaurants when visiting the cape. However, this time around, we called ahead and made an 8pm «call ahead time» only to find ourselves still sitting waiting for a table at 9:15pm.
The food is great, but they should absolutely consider revising their «call ahead» option as it’s not any different from having no reservation at all. I understand it’s not technically a «reservation», but why have anything at all. After seeing multiple patrons coming in and out asking when their table would be ready, we saw the hostess give them all the same answer — «your table is paying now, should be a few minutes.» An hour and fifteen later…
I will leave this review with a quote from a woman walking out after seeing the line of «call ahead» patrons— «this place is good, but it’s not that good.»

Food good but service and attitude of owner was horrible. She actually came over and told us «she is not a slave to the customer!» Seriously? Waitress brought an extra pizza that we did not order. She agreed to take back the pizza. Then brought pizza back in a box and said we could take it home anyway. But then tried to charge us for the pizza. Waitress sent the owner over who instead of believing the customer over a pizza, told us to pay our check and leave. Gave us the hand and walked away. Is that how one treats customers? I thought the restaurant business was was about the customer experience?

Mediocre at best. I guess if you’re from this area, you’ll accept service «with a snarl» and semi ok food. Personally, I don’t think it’s as good as everyone raves about.
It’s loud, food is ok, nothing to «go wow» over, and the service was below acceptable.
I’m glad to say I tried it. Once, but that’s all it will be.

Panico’s is truly an excellent restaurant, even by my elevated NYC standards. It’s housed in an old church, so there’s lots of natural light flooding into the restaurant, and the ceilings are high. Unfortunately the chatter does echo a little bit, so this definitely isn’t an intimate date spot.
Since it’s such a popular destination, be sure to call ahead and get your name on the list. It’s not a guaranteed reservation and the time may be a few minutes off, but at least you have priority over a walk-​in at that same time. We were seated just five minutes after our 7 pm Saturday reservation. While waiting, you can sit in the little porch right next to it and have some wine if you wish.
A huge plus to Panico’s is that it’s BYOB. That saved us quite a bit than buying a bottle at the restaurant. The dishes I had were: calamari, spicy sausage and broccoli rabe, and chicken soup with meatball. The calamari was a little greasy, no thanks to the extra olive oil doused over it after it was deep fried. The spicy sausage and broccoli rabe was just the high protein/​high fiber plate I needed — the rabe wasn’t bitter at all and the spicy sausage was herby and tasty. The chicken soup was served boiling hot and I scalded the roof of my mouth, but otherwise, the broth was very flavorful, if not a little commercial-​tasting, and the pasta remained al dente in the hot broth.
I love the garlic bread they bring out to serve. It’s baked in flat loaves cut into diamond diagonals, so you can pace yourself out with the portions.

The food was innovative. It’s a converted church. The dinning room is tight and a little loud. You get over it because the food is great. The staff is attentive and fun. BYOB

Really great place for dinner if you like to wait for a table 45 mins after your preferred seating, then sit in the loudest establishment on the East coast, and get rushed through dinner.
Tip: if you have a kid and ask for their pizza to come out first, it will come out around 20 mins after everyone else’s.
The pizza was good. Nothing mind blowing.
Moral of the story: this place is a big old NOPE.

My husband and friends dined there on a recommendation last Saturday. The evening was fine until my husband found a bug on his plate. He immediately show our waitress who looked embarrassed but said nothing. She came back a little later and my husband asked her if she told the manager since no one came to the table. She replied that she did speak to the manager. We had dessert and still no one came over to our table.
My friend was not as forgiving as my husband and decided to talk to the manager. The manger acted or didn’t know what had happened. She apologized and stated if she knew she would adjusted the bill, even though we were still there.
We are a large family with several houses at the Jersey shore. If the manager would have shown some concerned, this review would never have been written. Just so you know, we still left a 20% tip which was more than generous considering the circumstance.

Don’t bother calling. We called
To check on wait
Times and they said they had open tables. We told them we were coming. (we were two blocks away)
When we get there and walk in they say at least a half hour wait. Not happy with the service the hostesses provided.
And considering the number of people waiting in the light rain the wait
Would
Be much longer.

Really good place and hudging by the number of diners i’m not the only one that thinks that. They do not take reservation but… wait for it… you can call ahead and reserve a time slot. Be sure to do that it gets busy. We waited over an hour in the basement which is nicely decorated and we drank half of our wine there, it’s a byob. You can buy a bottle of local wine in the basement if you wish. The wait was worthed. I had grilled octopus and clam and crabmeat linguine. The others had ravioli and a chicken parm like dish. All really good. Definetly a must go if in Cape May. I agree with the noise lavel issues but the place used to be a church so its undenstandable. Just drink plenty of local wine and you wont care.

Amazing food. Amazing prices. Fast service. Over this was a great experience and I would love to go back. The fact it’s a byo is a wonder treat down the shore when bar tabs are one of the biggest expense.
It’s a little tight inside. And there is always a wait. However all of this is well worth it for anyone and everyone to give it a try and enjoy a nice meal out in cape may

4.5 stars…
My girlfriend and I had an amazing meal here and couldn’t have been happier with not only the quality of the food and the portion sizes but the service, prices, and BYOB policy. We started with a free delicous pull part warm crusty roll, split an excellent personal sized pizza topped with lots of meat, and each picked a pasta dish for our meal. I had the Sunday Dinner ($ 18) which is rigatoni with meatballs, sausage, and roasted pork in a tomato sauce with some fresh ricotto. She had the Spicy Seafood ($ 23) which was linguini with scallps, shrimp, salmon, clams, mussels, and crab meat with marinara sauce. After having split the Lardo pizza ($ 11/​small) which was topped with pancetta, sopressata, and sausage we could only finish half our meals. They do take reservations here but on a Friday night in June the place was only half full so walk-​ins shouldn’t be an issue. They are a bit farther away than most places in Cape May so it’s better to drive here, they do have a parking in back. Everything we had (except perhaps the roast pork in my dish) was cooked perfectly and though the prices are a tad high the BYOB makes up for that in my book. We’ll definitely be coming back here next time we’re in Cape May.

this place was amazing
BYOB
I had the Sunday Dinner, and it was crazy good. huge portion, completely fresh, the sauce was amazing, just like my mom’s. The meatballs were awesome.
Had a pizza for an app, the pizza was one of the best pizza’s. How is Pizza good compared to others? This pizza is amazing, the way the make it is real italian.
The House salad was delicious as well. I have nothing to say bad about this place. Can’t wait to go again.
Service was awesome as well, we drank 3 bottles of wine

We came here for dinner on our one-​night visit to Cape May. It was the right choice. The server was attentive and knowledgeable, and the space was cavernous and romantic. (Note, though, that I was a bit cold.) The portions were very large. Heather ordered the eggplant parmesan, which is one of her favorites, and she ranked it near the top of all the ones she’s had (which is a lot). I ordered the pastichio, which was also quite nice, if a little less punchy than the things that I usually prefer – I suspect this was a function more of what I ordered than its preparation. Anyway, we thought it was a very good value, and we would certainly come there again. Heather would have given it a five, but it’s my Unilocal account.