Esposito’s Pizza & Pasta

Went for pizza one afternoon and it was so good. Went back for dinner with friends had calms chicken parmigiana and wife had Voka sauce chicken out of this world.

I had people over tonight for dinner/​drinks/​/​/​hanging down and catching up… I ordered a few dishes of Chicken Frances & Chicken Parm Ala vodka… OH M G!!! everything was DELISH…(I ordered it because my guests enjoy/​frequent the place) the chicken was fresh, nothing was oily, old, over fried, over breaded… it was really delicious… PLEASE…maintain this… PLEASE!!! such a treat!

Yes the pizza is as good you may have heard. Sesame crust is fantastic.
It’s a BYOB — and a nice patio outside in warm weather.
Eggplant is fantastic — everything is really great. A wonderful addition to Manasquan.

We have been here twice. The food is very good, though we haven’t been very adventurous on the menu. They have this fantastic heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad as an appetizer special. We all love it! It may be seasonal though. The chicken parm is great too. A little salty but good. My family said the pizza is just ok. Good but not great. Their homemade balsamic vinaigrette is amazing and tasty.
Service has always been good here. Hard working and competent servers.
I like the outdoor seating area. They have lights and it’s really cozy. I’d like to come back and try different things.

The chicken in my wrap was terrible. It was like rubber.

The place before it was so good. I live close by so it is a great place to walk too. The food is a huge disappointment. It’s sort of tastes like a chain restaurant with mediocre food at best. Pizzas are soggy with dry sauce. I won’t go there again

So, I ordered 2 large pies.
I tried this place because it is relatively new and the previous pizza place at this location made good pie and was there for many years.
Picked up the pies 20 minutes later.
Took my 5 minute ride home and we dug in.
Consensus: Pies were slightly under cooked.
The crust was more like white bread, not much flavor and very, very soft.
Tomato sauce just laid there on the pie and had no punch of anything.
Cheese was good.
Overall a big, yawn.
There are many other places in the area that make a much better pie.
I will not say where, because, that would negate the credibility of this review.
But, I will say that I am not a teenager, and have consumed many a pie over the years in the N. J, N.Y. area.

The food here is more delicious than a five star New York City restaurant. The menu is creative and they will cater to your individual choices if not on the menu.
The chef is professional and gracious. Service is outstanding from the staff who greets you at the entrance and extends to all the servers.
This is a special treat for my family since we enjoy a lovely dinner there every Saturday evening.

This place has great pizza especially the sesame crusted ones. Those are a most have! Tried the chicken parm alla vodka today and it was incredible! Try the Garlic knots with cheese for an app you won’t regret it.

Absolutely amazing! The sesame seed crust is divine! I suggest getting the vodka sauce pizza! Heaven on earth!

This location used to be one of my favorite restaurants when it was East Main Street Trattoria. It had a great atmosphere and great food to match. Now, it’s Esposito’s, and if I’m honest I have to say the experience was not what I was hoping it would be. As a precursor to my review, I’d like to say that I know that it’s a completely different restaurant, so I understand that they weren’t necessarily going for the exact same atmosphere and food.
Food: ³⁄₅
Figure I would start with the most important category first. The food was generally good. I started with a slice of their award winning sesame seed crust pizza. It tasted fantastic, and is definitely award worthy. Very flavorful and the sesame seed crust added a uniqueness to the pizza that I’ve never tasted before. Definitely a five star slice. Moving on to my entrée, I got the chicken marsala. The first step is admitting that you have a problem, and I admit that I am a chicken marsala addict. It was not a bad dish by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt that the sauce could use a bit more flavor. One of the pieces of chicken was also quite tough. Besides that, the portions were huge and I was generally happy with the dish.
Atmosphere: ²⁄₅
Here’s where I was bothered. I loved the atmosphere at East Main Street Trattoria. The decoration here was bland in comparison — not much on the walls, and the entire space was basically designed like a pizza joint. Lights turned all the way up, TV on the wall in the dining room with football playing. Definitely not a place for a date night. The pizza was served on metal plates, and the bread was served in one of those plastic diner baskets that fries and burgers usually come in. This all being said, as I said at the beginning of my review, when restaurants are made into different restaurants I completely understand that they’re not going to stay exactly the same. I am simply saying that I personally preferred the old atmosphere.
All in all, I’d say stop on by if you’re looking for an absolutely fantastic pizza or a casual, overall solid Italian meal.

My wife and I have a new favorite restaurant in Manasquan. I realized that I had spent the entire summer raving about this place to family and friends, but hadn’t even posted a review on Unilocal… Maybe subconsciously I was trying to keep the tourists away from this little gem that we discovered.
The ambiance is very nice, with outdoor seating available and overhead lights strung above the tables. On a warm summer evening with a cold bottle of wine, you’ll wonder why you didn’t come here before, and swear that you’ll come back more often.
I couldn’t tell you how disappointed I was when I heard that the restaurant that used to occupy this place had closed (because I loved their pizza), but I’m telling you… one order of Chicken Parm alla Vodka later and I was like «thank God that other place closed down!» My wife got a stuffed shrimp and pasta dish that was one of their specials that evening, and it was also delicious.
The next time that we came back, we tried their one of their «specialty» sesame crust pizzas. I was skeptical at first, as I had never tried such a thing, but it was AWESOME. The pizza concoctions aren’t your ordinary «meat lovers» varieties, but special combinations of different ingredients that are out of this world. I would never in a million years think to put together a sesame crust pizza with sausage, caramelized onions and a pesto sauce, but I’m glad they did because it’s one of my favorites.
We went back several times over the summer, and we tried many different dishes, but if you go there I would highly recommend the Chicken Parmesan alla Vodka (basically a chicken parm with vodka sauce instead of marinara sauce). If you’re a light eater, be prepared to have lunch for the next day, because you get 2 giant chicken breasts on a bed of pasta.
Things you should know:
* This place is BYOB.
* The restaurant is really kind of split into a more formal restaurant on one side and a quick sit-​down, take-​out restaurant on the other. You can take your choice of sitting down for a nice dinner or just grabbing a slice for a quick lunch.
* The one draw back… There is a train station next door, so if you’re sitting outdoors, you will get a train pulling in about once an hour. And while the view outside is nothing special, they still make it feel nice out there.
* This place is great!

While spending a weekend down the Jersey shore, we wanted to go somewhere casual and BYOB. Within walking distance to our hotel, we discovered Esposito’s, which was new to Manasquan. They already had a location in Matawan, and had opened this location weeks prior to our stay. Lucky for us!
The dining area was very casual and had an old school pizzeria feel, with a cute patio, which we chose to sit out on.
For our appetizer we ordered the Sicilian Calamari, which was very unique because it had spicy red peppers and onion relish mixed into the fried calamari with some balsamic vinegar sprinkled on top. I liked this dish in general because of the unique flavors, but the major issue I had with it, was there were olives mixed into it as well. My boyfriend and I hate olives, so we had to pick around them, after each having a few bites that tasted like olives… eeewww. The description on the menu did not say there were olives, so we were both very disappointed to find them in this dish.
For our pasta we shared the Bolognese penne, which was penne covered in homemade meat sauce with a touch of cream. We could have had this sauce over any type of pasta noodle which was nice, but penne was our selection. The sauce was very flavorful with the perfect amount of meat and fresh tomato chunks. A very hearty pasta!
For our main dish, we ordered the #3 sesame seed crust pizza. This pizza had plum tomato, garlic, basil, fresh mozzarella, homemade pesto, broccoli rabe, and sausage on it. I have never seen pizza crust like this before, and it is unique to Esposito’s. The sesame seeds gave it that Italian bread stick flavor with a nice crunchy exterior and slightly doughy soft interior. So divine! The quality of all the toppings were super fresh and so full of flavor. I kind of wish I was back at Esposito’s eating a slice of the amazing sesame seed crust pizza right now!
I highly recommend and don’t forget to bring a bottle of vino! No corkage fee here!

Ordered the vodka pie on a friend’s recommendation and it was delicious and quick delivery!!! Very happy! Will definitely be ordering from them again!