Shockingly, this will be my 2nd post about a restaurant in Hoboken in less than a month! I was on the other side of the river visiting 2 friends of mine on a Friday night. I originally stopped by the beer garden and had a lovely giant pretzel and then strolled over to Pier 13 which is a surprisingly nice outdoor bar. I can see how the crowd can be on the douchey side but there were also families there as well. so it was a nice mix But it was close to 10pm and neither Holly nor I had had a real meal despite downing 3-4 beers, so we needed dinner stat.
We decided to walk on Washington Street, which is the main strip in town, towards the PATH and stop by any place that would take us that late at night. Most of Hoboken is full of bars or grills but it is Jersey after all, so of course there are a good number of Italian places. Holly had mentioned that Augustino's was one of the best Italian restaurants in the 'hood and that it often takes forever to get a reservation. I guess the key here is to stroll in at 10:30pm on a Friday because we had no problem getting a table.
The menu is pretty classic Italian with pasta, chicken, veal, and seafood options. There are about 6 different choices in each section and they all sounded amazing. Since it was late at night, I figured I would try to get something lighter and opted for the shrimp marinara ($27.50) and Holly got the veal milanese ($21.50). The shrimp marinara came with shrimp, clams, and mussels on top of linguine. The dish came out pipping hot and I was initially very impressed with the amount of seafood in there. In fact, there was so much of it that I wasn't even sure if there was any pasta in there. The pieces of shrimp were huge and cooked to the right temperature. It had an element of crisp firm crunch to it that I love with big shrimp. The clams and mussels were also well cooked although the mussels were a bit on the small side. There wasn't a ton of linguine but it was probably the right amount given all the seafood in the dish. It was a very solid old school Italian dish - nothing like any of the more modern Italian places in the city. I didn't try the veal but it was two huge pieces that probably could have fed 2 people on its own. It was served with a nice fresh looking mixed green salad on top.
As you can imagine, the service there was what you would expect of an old school Italian place. They were very warm and friendly and a bit over affectionate with us - lots of "sweetie baby" talk and these were from women! The place isn't very big, so I can see why it's hard to get a table and given that most other places in the hood are more bar/grill, this is a nice more adult setting for dinner. It almost reminded me of being in my beloved old school Italian part of Williamsburg. I think I'll still stick to my side of the river but nice knowing this exists over there. Total bill: $75 for 2 people with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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