Welcome Home to Il Ripasso Ristorante

If there’s any question why there’s so much foot traffic on South Livingston Avenue near Northfield Avenue in Livingston, look no further than 499 S. Livingston Ave., home of Il Ripasso Ristorante.

Owner Roberto Rogers personally greets the diners and makes them feel like long-lost friends who happened to stop at his home for dinner.

The first thing you notice about the dining room is the greenhouse windows, which give visitors a view of the bustling neighborhood.

The menu offers various seafood, chicken, beef and homemade pasta dishes, a variety to please most palates.

Il Ripasso offers an early bird special menu (Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 4-6 p.m.) at $15.95. The special includes a soup (we had the split pea, loaded with thick, hearty peas and carrots and vegetables) or an appetizer of eggplant rollatini, an all-greens salad with a balsamic dressing, a main course, coffee, tea and dessert. It was filling and priced right.

We supplemented our meals with the Caprisi appetizer ($9), a vegetable-laden platter filled with tomatoes, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, basil and extra virgin olive oil. The vegetables were fresh, well-prepared and crisp.

Next, we shared a Caesar salad ($9) with crisp Romaine lettuce, homemade Caesar dressing, croutons and shaved parmigiano cheese.

With so many tempting menu items to choose from, it was hard to pick a main course. So we chose a variety of food to share, which turned out to be a good decision.

The homemade pastas offered on the early bird special included rigatoni, penne and linguine and each one was a winner. The penne was cooked al dente to perfection. The homemade marinara sauce (Rogers seemed especially pleased to inform us almost everything on the menu is homemade) had a sweetness to it and was speckled with pieces of basil for extra flavor.

The chicken and fish dishes for the special included three types of sauces – Marsala, Francaise and Picatta. We tried the chicken picatta (white wine and lemon sauce) and the fish choice, which turned out to be flounder Florentine or tilapia – we sampled the flounder.

Both dishes came with a side portion of oven-browned potatoes and broccoli with garlic. We added a side dish of linguine in olive oil.

Both dishes featured a large breast with the aforementioned picatta sauce and capers. The potatoes were soft and delicious and were cut in quarters. The vegetable was nicely seasoned and crisp.

Il Ripasso is eager to please, so when we asked for a chicken parmigiano, Roberto personally made sure the dish was prepared to the restaurant’s high standards. A side order of linguine marinara filled out the order.

A meal at this restaurant is not complete without dessert and Il Ripasso is no stranger to fine desserts, featuring two types of cheesecake – Oreo cookie cheesecake and ricotta ($7), a chocolate mousse cake ($6), a chocolate soufflé cake topped with homemade vanilla ice cream ($7) as well as cannolis ($6), tiramisu ($7) and gelato and sorbet ($5).

Some other items of note about Il Ripasso:

• Parking is in a rear lot and is very limited.
• The restaurant features outdoor dining in warmer weather.
• Tuesday night is pasta night. Buy one pasta entrée at regular price and get the second one at half-price.
• The restaurant is BYOB. However, a liquor store is nearby inside the ShopRite shopping center immediately next door.
• Lunch is served Tuesday through Friday, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
• Reservations are highly recommended for the weekend. The restaurant seats 70 people and gets crowded quickly.
• The restaurant features two bathrooms, both clean and handicapped accessible.
• All major credit cards are accepted.

Il Ripasso Ristorante
499 S. Livingston Ave.
Livingston
973-992-4455
BYOB
Hours:
Lunch: Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Dinner: Tuesday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.
                Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m.
                Sunday: 4 to 9 p.m.
                CLOSED MONDAYS