Sanzari’s New Bridge Inn

Really good piece of veal, especially for the price. Nicole the bartender was very friendly and helpful. It was my first time in, I will definitely be back!

This was our first time here and we were already in the dinning area when we realized we were a little underdressed. Everyone overlooked it. In fact, the staff and the businessmen we sat next to were all quite welcoming & friendly. The atmosphere was relaxing & comfortable. Keith was our waiter (very attentive) and he knew exactly when I needed a refill on my margarita (very important). We started with the calamari and it was fresh, crispy, and just right. The sauce was a bit rich but there is no denying it completed the dish. My sister had the veal and I had the chicken parm and it was phenomenal. It is pricey but for the quality of food and service, I’ll certainly return. After payday of course :)

After 2 trips here, this is now our current go to spot. We normally find a new place, hit it hard for a few weeks/​months, and then move on — but file it away for a future trip. We are in the ‘courting’ phase here. A few highlights, this is a classic, old school restaurant. I love the wood, and classic décor — with whimsical touches reminiscent of The Monkey Bar in NYC. Actual Monkey lanterns on the bar with candles in them, and a wooden (plaster?) butler in the foyer. Walking in, you are greeted by hostess, and head to a table (if you have a reservation) or the bar — we are bar people.
After grabbing 2 seats, which can be a challenge during prime time, you are greeted and asked what you would like. House vino is good, Mark West is the house Pinot — and isn’t bad either. Chunks of parmesan cheese, olives, and an olive oil/​sun dried tomato come out next.
We have had the blue cheese salad, and split the Avocado salad as appetizers. Entrees have been the Chicken Sanzari — a nice portion that is a chicken picatta-​esce, with capers, grilled asparagus and a potato coquette. Nicely done. The wife had grilled chicken over an avocado salad, and I’ve also had the cheese and parsley sausage with broccoli rabe and smashed potatoes. All good portions, artfully prepared, and delicious. Never made it to dessert, but it’s on our list as we will definitely be back!

great food and wonderful experience!

This is by all means 4 ½ stars restaurant. The food is superb and unlimited choices with excellent service. The waiters are very experienced and professional with good knowledge of each item in the menu. Of course such a great place does’t come cheap. Average cost per person with appetizer, main course and drink comes to $ 60 to $ 70 which is bit high for small place and out of main road.

My wife and I have eaten here 4 times and the food, service, and drinks are excellent! THE veal parm is my favorite! Go for the cream bule for desert. The dining room makes you feel like your at home. WE ARE GOING BACK AGAIN!

I had a party for 40 and was extremely pleased! Service was excellent, the food was delicious, and they were very easy to work with. I highly recommend Sanzari’s New Bridge Inn for a private party!

We ate here after hearing positive comments from a friend; well, we were disappointed to say the least. The food is not impressive, the clientele are a bunch of poorly dressed townies, and the prices are high. We ordered the two most expensive dinners on the menu, one we had to return because it smelled like ammonia, the other we kept even though it was incredibly over spicy. The manager came over, presumably to apologize for the ammonia smelling food that we returned, but the most we got out of him was «that happens sometimes», which is not much of an apology. And the icing on the cake is that we were not offered even a comp drink or dessert for our trouble. Note to ANYONE running a restaurant, if you are not willing to make an attempt at a real apology nor offer a comp drink or dessert to dissatisfied customers, you don’t belong in the restaurant business.

Terrific food and service (sat at the bar).

Always had a good meal here. The staff is friendly and the food is good not great. Was there when the had live entertainment. They could have toned it down during dining time

We had a lovely early Sunday dinner here with the ‘old’ school Italian as noted by others. The service was just right. My drink was correctly made (they have a real bar with real bartenders) and we could have a nice conversation and the price was right.

You may recognize the Sanzari name from the construction business throughout New Jersey. They are an Open Table Diner’s Choice 2014 award winner. As you can expect their menu is generally centered around Italian, however, they usually offer specials, which are Mediterranean, Asian or Spanish. This is one of my favorite restaurants in the area.
This is old style dining with very mature male wait staff, who have been here serving here for years. I usually come here on special occasions as was the case this time for my friend’s birthday with my party of 6. We started with one cocktail at the bar before we sat at our table, which was centrally located in the main dining room.
We started with the following appetizers: home made egg ravioli for $ 11, house salad for $ 9, soup of the day for $ 8.25, and Caesar salad for $ 10.
My favorite here is the veal chop voldastano for $ 39. The 3 men including myself ordered the veal chop. The three of us thoroughly enjoyed our veal chop as usual. And again I could not finish my huge veal chop so I had a doggy bag. The girls at the table equally enjoyed their meals including the shrimp forno for $ 29, sole francese for $ 25 and short ribs for $ 29.
We also enjoyed two bottles of Travagalini for $ 57 each and one bottle of Kendall Jackson chardonnay for $ 36.
We finished the night with two coffees at $ 3.50 each and two double espresso’s at $ 5.75 each. The evening’s damage for the night was a mere $ 457.43 less gratuity. I always love the food and experience here.
This was the first time Keith served us, but, Keith was quite good at taking care of our table needs. We usually have one of the other waiters.
I will continue to return here especially on special occasions.

Awesome food! We went for dinner a few times and loved the food so much that we held our baby shower there. I am highly recommending the meatballs with mozzarella inside them!
Ambience is nice and classy. One of top italian restaurants in all of NJ by far.

Sorry — but inconsistent service knocks the rating way down.
Been here enough times to tell you the service runs hot and cold in a big way. Last time we took our family to this place was the last straw. Apparently there was a private party upstairs and the majority of the servers were allocated to the event. I know this because our server told us when we complained about waiting almost 1 hour to receive our entrée’s and a steak we ordered rare was medium… and cold. But what was really frustrating (aside from that admission about the party — is that my problem?) was the fact that tables near us, who arrived AFTER we did, were getting served everything in a timely fashion — one table even got their check! Why my family had to suffer is a mystery but I would hazard a guess the others were «regulars.»
Food is not bad but not over the top either, certainly not worth suffering through the inconsistent service. I will say though, we did speak to the Manager about our experience and let’s just say he did the right thing. Unfortunately, in Bergen County and the surrounding areas, there are SO many great restaurants to choose from so no reason to return to places as a 2^nd chance.

After years of living in the same town as this restaurant, my family and I finally went out to celebrate a birthday dinner (I think that is telling, in itself, that we and not many people I knew had ever been there, despite it being so close to home).
The restaurant is really nice inside, which is its biggest plus: if you live nearby, you don’t have to go far for a more elegant, white tableclothy setting that you won’t find in most of the local Italian places. The service was definitely very spotty, and we were there much longer than we needed to be for dinner. Everyone was satisfied with their food, but nothing really stood out. I would say that the prices are too high, though, especially considering you can’t make up for it by B-​ing YO (and no craft beer was available, FYI). I prefer Sanducci’s (River Edge) and La Famiglia (Bogota), for both food and wine bringing-​icity.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was postponed in anticipation of inclement weather which never arrived… and we ended up here. The 3 course pre-​fix dinner was sensational.
We had the privilege of tasting the corn chowder and crabmeat and avocado salad which were delicious. For our main course, we both had the stuffed pork loin with a madeira sauce and were pleasantly surprised as we expected a little less because it was an inexpensive pre-​fix deal. The pork was really moist and tender and the sauce was just right, not overly salty… the test being the lack of thirst after the meal. The portions were also quite substantial and I have lunch for tomorrow.
Now, the service was unsurpassed… The waitstaff was extremely friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. The only negative is that the courses were not paced well and each course appeared rushed. It is understandable being Thanksgiving and they were booked out. Hopefully, on a regular night, it would not be so. Overall, it’s a beautiful place with great food and service, and I am so grateful to all the staff for sacrificing their Thanksgiving so that we could have ours.

I’ve had a couple of pretty good dishes here, and the décor and atmosphere is quite nice for a dinner out. It’s especially nice during the holidays, they really decorate it nicely, and with the fireplace going it’s lovely.
But the food is, honestly, just average, and considering the price I was expecting more. It’s also very salty.
It is a good place, though, but I’d probably choose other places first.

Ambiance/​Décor/​Atmosphere: Sanzari’s provides a warm feel of an older rustic Italian banquet setting, but in a manner that is not overly ritzy nor underwhelming.
Noise/​sound level: Standard noise level nothing to ruin your dining experience; intimate enough.
Menu: Sanzari’s menu consists of a wide variety of typical Italian dishes, but done in different ways that the offerings appear interesting and intriguing. The menu here is on the verge of big, but not overly confusing.
Service: For the type of establishment Sanzari’s is the service is pretty good; nice, friendly, and ticket times are right on par with what you’d expect from a restaurant of this caliber. Roughly 15 – 20 minutes.
Food: For an appetizer we had calamari and it was borderline inedible; overcooked and nearly elastic. My wife and I quickly became nervous because we were dining in an Italian restaurant that couldn’t hit calamari correctly; how will the rest of the meal turn out? However, I had the veal capricciosa which is basically milanese style, but served with fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, and potato croquettes. Wow!!! The veal was cooked perfectly and the portion size was large. The fresh mozzarella melted all over the meat and paired well with the tomatoes. What I had was all the best aspects of veal parmesan without the acid sauce burning a hole in my gut after dinner. My wife had the braciole special with gnocchi; she enjoyed it very much, even to the point where I was jealous of her. Definitely one of the better meals we had out.
Bar: Full and the bar even serves Armagnac, which is a rare treat for me.
Price: Moderate to high depending on what you eat and drink, but if you’re dining here you should already be prepared to spend some money.
Overall: Honestly I can’t really stand Italian food, because I don’t really like tomato sauce, but Sanzari’s is a very nice place to spend quality time dining with family, friends, or lovers. There are many drink options, and finely tuned meals that even please tough Italian critics like me. We definitely will return to Sanzari’s.

I’ve dined at Sanzari’s many times, and have always had a wonderful experience. Anything I have every ordered on the menu has been delicious. The restaurant is beautiful, as well. I’ve had the pleasure of dining in both the bar area, and the dining room. Lovely restaurant with reasonable prices.
Some of my menu favorites are the tuna that is encrusted with wasabi, and the scallop risotto. Breaded pork chops are also wonderful there. I can’t wait to visit again soon!

This is a lovely, old-​school kind of Italian restaurant with really good food. It appears fancier then we expected (valet parking, waiters in suits, coat check…), but my bf was not out of place in nice jeans. We were really pleased with the food and service. This is a good place for a date night.
Appetizer: coconut shrimp. They were gorgeous, huge shrimp, but there were only 3 for the price. They were quite good though, and served with a nice salad and an apricot horseradish dipping sauce (more apricot than horseradish).
Entrees: pappardelle bolognese (recommended by our waiter) and gnocchi with beef bresciole. I won the best entrée of the evening this time! The pappardelle was a great dish with pasta that tasted homemade, although since the menu didn’t state homemade, I’m sure it was purchased. The bolognese was really tasty with some marscapone mixed in, and the dish was large. Worth the $ 18 price tag. He was pleased with the gnocchi dish, but not overjoyed.
We passed on dessert, but the menu was tempting! We’d happily go back.
Note: free soda refills, big screen TVs at the bar if you’re a sports fan. There was no live entertainment the Saturday night we were there, but I’m not sure if it showed up later (we’re early kind of people).