Pastosas, Rt 35 North Eatontown, NJ

Always one who likes to live up to his word, I anxiously showed up for what was billed their; “soft opening”. As we pulled into a bustling parking lot my wife asks: “I wonder why they are calling it a soft opening?” To which I replied: “ because they are only serving fresh not dried pasta, limp noodles only……” her: “ ohhhhh” :smiling_imp:

Anywho………the place was bustling as the parking lot indicated. I’m assuming the “soft opening” had to do with potential limitations on supply depending on unknown demand? ((shrugs))

Overall I would say it’s pretty comparable to Livotis it was crowded and disorganized as expected on a “soft opening “ and for the first time ever, as I explained to my wife, I had actually seen hard noodles at a soft opening!! Scandalous!!

Everything you see below for $90. (That’s 6 sausage wrapped up there, 2-hot-sweet-broccoli rabe all store made.)

Making a pot of pork gravy with their sausage, braciole, pork chop. Memories from childhood flood back to me, during the week sometimes we would have “pork gravy”. Just pork chops/bits whatever meat they had, Sunday’s was ALWAYS “meat”, full sausage meatballs and braciole!! Lol (Sometimes chicken too but I never liked a chicken based Italian meat sauce)

So far so good the mozzarella is pretty dam good. So much so I made a balsamic honey reduction for it! lol toasted a store made onion roll (delicious) sliced and left over prosciutto bread from last night. (I’m in friggin heaven……when I tell you my adult (life long) comfort foods………just missing some good roasted peppers!

(Nod to an old friend of 30+ years Cesare who truly taught me the beauty of simple joys like; fresh bread (hot from oven imperative), mozzarella and roasted peppers with balsamic vinegar. Endless meals of nothing more than that shared over the years. Also my love of pasta fagiole!!)

Sooooooo good…….

More to come!!!

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I grew up with Pastosa being the neighborhood store. We generally used it only for fresh macaroni/ravioli/manicotti/etc. As time went on they started having their private label tomatos and such which were very good. Also they expanded their antipasti items and they were always good as well. As I remember it, they never had a meat case in the old store. Walking in there was like walking into your living room, the guys were friendly and treated everyone like family.

Only reason I am typing this is I am curious how this recent expansion will effect their quality. I am hoping it will not, and with the pasta making centralized I’m sure they will keep a great eye on quality control. I recently visited the Manasquan store and was impressed with everything from the people to the products.

I get nervous because another famous expansion started in a tiny store not 10 blocks from their flagship location in Brooklyn. Yes, the utter hell that became the franchised Sbarro’s :smiley:

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They have expanded very slowly; a new store every couple years. Still mostly family owned & rigorous quality standards.

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Had their ravioli tonight both the plain cheese and broccoli rabe. They were both excellent but I prefer the plain cheese.

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This happened today! Hope they get some employment issues solved, the woman who was very pleasant to us, was trash talking some other workers. She was too distracted to notice she never gave me my sausage order. (It was a nice order of assorted sausage) So had to make an emergency run to Taste of Italy to save the day.
I gotta admit I felt a little dirty having to go back to my “old stand by” while I took the new girl on the block a try!

FYI the crab ravioli were pretty good, just the right amount of crabby. Ironically that’s what I say about my wife!

FYI below was $145.00

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Hit them again yesterday to pick a few things up and what do I se?? @Ragtopssk look what with my eyes I did see! Since reading your plight I have been fascinated with this stuff, so I had to pick up a bottle. ( I text @seal about it and he reminded me you only wanted the larger bottle, he said he was on his way to help me secure a large bottle for you. He showed up 20 mins later with ski masks, rope and lube. A little taken back, I decided to leave him to observe things outside while I just bought the normal bottle)

So I took my first swig and was immediately perplexed by the espresso/coffee/soda-ish flavors of this beverage as I finally decided; “hey I like this stuff”!

My wife took a sip too and found it a bit overwhelming but said she would like it cut more with club soda. Then she looked at the nutrition value and “Holy Sugar - Ragtop!!! Careful my friend! Honestly once I realized I liked it because it was so high in sugar my opinion changed a bit. Still delicious and very cool and complicated taste, just not worth the calories and sugar content for me.

FYI ordered some meat bread for tomorrow, fingers crossed!

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Sugar is natural ingredient and it only killing us slowly lol.
Hopefully my passion for this gift from the espresso & sugar gods doesn’t cause any issues for you or your family.
In my journey I have heard of a few who dare to put a really great vanilla ice cream or gelato to simulate a crude affogatto (sic)
Me I take mine on the rocks & pray against going into a diabetic coma,
Love my coffee & sugar carbonated rush.
I must admit I am intrigued by you & @seal efforts on my behalf & am honored by your attempt.
I’m starting to feel like Capt Ahab lol

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The sugar free version is pretty good as well.

C’mon man it’s like training wheels on a bicycle. I guess you have to start somewhere. Or avoid death by sugar

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This is directly on the way home from the beach club (Deal) So it’s becoming a favorite; “let’s run in and grab” kinda place. Picked up the produce and bread, salad (:face_vomiting:) and stocked up on our pizza crusts! ( see last night dinner!)

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How was the lidl sauce?
So you’re a medium square ravioli guy not the large round?

Have you tried the sauces from pastosa yet? Haven’t made it there yet, still can’t believe it

I can taste those pics, man that looks good

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I honestly have no idea how we wound up with these bit they are very good. The sauce was comparable to Ragu or the like. It was passable for the occasion. Haven’t tried their sauce yet.

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FYI they also have 28 day aged tomahawk for $19.99lbs! That’s a steal these days!!!

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Ok, well the “steal” these day’s is now $ 21.99 which is still a good deal on prime dry aged (28 days) prime tomahawk. My red meat consumption has truly nose -dived in recent years, I’ve gone from eating one or two steaks a week to 3-4 a month. So, I decided to finally give Pastosas a try. It certainly didn’t disappoint.

This has become one of my favorite stops for Italian specialties and breads. They have some good deals on certain products and their ravi’s are EXCELLENT. (I’ve only tried cheese)


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They make all thier own fresh ravs, stuffed shells,
And manicotti as well. You can taste the difference.
Only had a cpl subs there so far but they were top notch too. Really the top of the Italian market space for me locallyfresh mozz was awesome.

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