La Cucina Di Clemenza

Only good for ordering out (pizza). Do not dine in. Pizza is above average and better than anything on Millburn Ave.
The restaurant is weird and eating in while the workers stare at you is awkward.

Long story short, it’s an ok restaurant, but the food is over priced and bland.
The service was great, and the atmosphere seems decent, but there’s a reason that there were only 4 other folks in there that night.

We went here on Saturday evening before a show at Paper Mill Playhouse. The place is super cute — looks like a little Italian village. I had the pear salad, which was small but delicious. My partner had the lobster bisque. She said it was good but a little bit salty. For dinner, I had the zuppa di pesce with white wine and garlic sauce, which was AWESOME! Tons of shrimp, squid, clams and mussels. Really delicious. She had the shrimp scampi which she loved. For dessert, we shared the banana cheesecake (bananas mixed into the batter — YUM) and the cannoli, which was killer. The waiter was attentive, but not overbearing. The check was $ 118 with the tip, so not cheap — but we loved it and we’ll be back before the next show we attend.

My wife and I stopped in to eat before going to Papermill Playhouse. The service was excellent. The hostess and waitstaff were polite and friendly. Both my wife’s dish and mine arrived piping hot and both tasted great. The restaurant has a great décor and was super clean. I have no reservations about recommending this restaurant.

This restaurant used to be quite good, but after last night, we are wondering what happened. The food was barely mediocre — I’d especially suggest avoiding the vodka sauce — and the service varied between nonexistent, indifferent and abrasive. With so many good Italian restaurants around the area, why spend your money here?

DON’T EAT HERE! There are so many nice restaurants in Millburn, don’t waste your time on this place. I’ve never seen such discourteous and unpleasant management. There were so many problems this night, I don’t even know where to begin. We dined on a Sunday night, and there was one server with a few bus people working about 10 tables. The server did not greet us for at least 10 minutes upon our arrival. My grandma was itching for some wine, which the bus person said he wasn’t able to get. After the server finally shows up, he asks, «What do you want to order?» What about drinks, apps, do we have any questions? Ok so we get over this hurdle. Maybe he’s just a little busy. Grandma gets wine, we get salads. Dinner arrives. The server wasn’t there when the food was served and there was a mix up of pasta (whole order of pasta was served to someone instead of a sidedish). The waiter graciously said he would take it off the bill. But, the biggest problem was that myself and another person at my table ordered Grilled Salmon for dinner. The sides were veg and mashed potato. We totally understand if there was one piece of Salmon left and no mashed potatoes because it was the Sunday after New Year’s, but please BE HONEST! What the kitchen did was cut the one piece of Salmon into two small pieces (I order salmon by the ounce at the grocery store because I have a small child) so I KNOW that I was served a piece of salmon no more than 4 ounces! The other person had this before and said he had never had such a small piece here. And then the mashed potatoes were microwaved baked potatoes scooped out and mashed with a fork. There was no milk or butter in them. The hostess/​manager woman came over and basically argued that maybe her chef «cut a different cut» of the salmon that night, and that her mashed potatoes are «squeezed from a pastry shell» when clearly they were not. She wouldn’t even look at the plate; all she said was you already got free pasta I’m not taking anything off. Any experienced and professional restaurant owner would have said listen, «I’m sorry, maybe there was a mistake in the kitchen. I will take off one salmon, but I am going to charge you for the pasta.» Then she had the gall to come over and ask if we wanted desert. It’s too bad my family dines here frequently; never, ever again.

As soon as i walked in with my girlfriend i got seated which was good, but i got seated to the right side literally inside the coat closet. Not too good. I was wearing casual clothes, nothing fancy where others were wearing suits and dresses. So i guess thats the reasoning. I didnt really have a waiter, it was the dishwasher/​busboy and didnt know much english. Very nice fellow though. Suppose it was because i was on a date with my girlfriend and were both in our early 20s and not dressed high class. Food on the otherhand was outstanding. Ive been to many italian resturants and this is the best. Ill go next time, just dressed more appropriate

It’s so sad when a restaurant with good food is owned and managed by inept unprofessionals.
The owner should apologies to their kitchen staff and clientele daily for the adverse effect they have on their employees livelihood and the people that they fail miserable to accommodate.
Kitchen staff, find a restaurant where your talents won’t be wasted!!!

The place is over priced for the food they served. On a Monday evening, we went there around 6pm to have dinner after work. There were only one table occupied. We were greeted and seated as soon as entered, the waiter brought 4 slices of bread with packed butter. The bread was ok– just a normal Italian bread we can purchase from any grocery store. After 10 minutes, we ordered Carciofi Francese for appetizer and beef braciole and 4 cheese ravioli for entrée. The appetizer arrived around 6:50 — which is 40 minutes after we had placed the order; considering how slow the place was the food came out very slow. The entrees came out around 7:15, which is after 65 minutes of placing the order. The waiter never stopped by to ask if we needed more drink or bread. Overall experience was very bad. The place is also over priced for the amount of food they serve.

The restaurant did not accept the coupon because the boss was not there and the coupon was not printed.

La Cucina Di Clemenza has delicious authentic Italian food. The calamari and meatballs are delicious. For the entrée, I’ve had the Veal Chop Milanese, the Chicken Francese, and the salmon, all of which were delicious. They do sell some wine although it is BYOB. Great prices and great location.

Pretty standard fare. The pizza is quite delicious though a little overpriced. Recommend the chicken or penne pizza. Forget everything else on the menu. Delivery times can be pretty lengthy especially if you live outside of Milburn.

Recently picked up take out of a pan pizza and a pasta with vegetables. We didn’t enjoy it. Very bland, poor ingredients. A few bites and into the bin it went.

This is a nice place with good food. The risotto ball appetizer is basically a ball of cheese, so unless you absolutely love cheese, stay away from it.
They honored the free appetizer for checking in with Unilocal after about 10 minutes of debating with the manager/​owner. Overall the experience was good, minus odd interactions with our waiter. They cook with a lot of cheese. I’ll probably go back…

Clemenza’s Pizzeria solid local pizza place in Millburn attached to a full service restaurant (La Cucina Di Clemenza). My favorite here is the meatball slices. Tender well seasoned meatballs cut into slices on top of delcious pizza. People here are quite friendly and I love to pop in for a slice or two. Less crowded than other places and I don’t know why. I think it is the best in town. Give it a try. Over a year later and I still really like the pizza here. Please note that I accidentally put this review for the pizzeria on the restaurant page on Unilocal.If there is a page for the pizzeria I would happily switch it.

Used to go here a lot (sometimes twice a week), but the quality of the food has gone WAY downhill, to the point where it doesn’t even seem fresh.
The pizzeria they own used to also be better. Now that it’s staffed by kids who’d rather be elsewhere it’s also a complete waste of time. The last time I was there it took 25 minutes from them to make me a chicken cutlet sandwich and both time when I asked about it all I got were mumbles and shrugs. The last couple of times we ordered pizza from here it was ice cold by the time we got it.
They charge too much in this place for the quality of food and service provided and there are too many other cheaper/​better Italian options in Millburn to even consider this restaurant now.

Had a nice meal here on a quiet-​ish weeknight (only a few tables in the resto but one was a hen party, so i guess you can say it’s good for groups. Also, with 3 or 4 tables full in the resto, why did they seat us by the restrooms???). Caesar salad was ok, but some of the lettuce was going a bit brown. It didn’t have the kind of rich dressing that makes you want to go to town on it. The salmon asparagus fettucine was delicious. BYO.

Because the pizza was so delicious, we went back for dinner in the main restaurant. It did NOT disappoint. Everything was wonderful. The staff was phenomenal. The portions were large enough to have take home lunch the next day. I had a chicken dish, like piccata, over penne in the same sauce. It was remarkable. In addition, there were over 10 tables and only one server. Unless you saw the server busting his tail, you would NEVER had known he was by himself tending all the tables, service was that good.

I’ve had two meals at this restaurant, one dining in and one take out. Frankly, the meal in was a lunch some time ago and I don’t remember the details. The other day we had take out from La Cucina Di Clemenza and the food was almost entirely forgettable. Nothing was bad. It just ranged from meh to bland.
The soups– escarole and bean and pasta fagiole were probably the best things we had. They were decent renditions and had plenty of stuff in them. All in all I prefer Sofia’s versions (right around the corner).
Two pastas, cavatelli and broccoli and Iinguine Alfredo had very little flavor. A seafood salad was a strange rendition with only shrimp and crabmeat served with a honey mustard dressing on the side. Thank god it was served on the side so I could make my own dressing. Sausage and broccoli rabe was also disappointing. Quite a bit of broccoli rabe with lots of garlic, but not a lot of flavor. Salads were decent with fine quality greens.
This is a restaurant you want to like. It is very pretty, but the food is pretty uninspired. I don’t think I will try it again.

This is a GREAT place to have lunch if you happen to be in downtown Millburn. I was in the area with a couple of my employees on business and noticed this restaurant had lunch specials for as a little as 5 bucks. Sounded good to me! The folks working inside were great and very friendly. The place itself has a handful of tables and the full restaurant for dinner dining next door. It’s well decorated, clean and the service is fast.
I ordered a chicken cutlet sandwich with fresh mozzarella and it was delicious. It has a light balsamic dressing on it and it wasn’t greasy at all. Very tasty! And only 5 bucks, which is a bargain! We’ll definitely eat here again the next time we’re in the area.