American Bistro

American Bistro is by far my favorite restaurant in N.J. I’ve tried everything on the menu in the past 15 yrs & have never been disappointed. Kenny the chef is amazing! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM! Try the stuffed pork chop 5

The food is top notch, the portions are unbelievably big, the service is great. Never had a single complaint about this place. Highly recommended.

This place blows every other Italian place away. They give you free antipasto and free fresh fruit. The rock shrimp arrabiotta appetizer is the best. Every meal is wonderful and the portions are large. FYI– Johnny is an awesome waiter!

Went to dinner for my birthday with family and was totally disappointed. Ordered the chicken with olive oil & garlic with the bowtie pasta and literally didn’t even touch it when I saw it. Plate was served with string beans & other vegetables piled 2″ high on top which apparently they neglected to drain since my food was swimming in water. When I asked the waitress about it I was told it was supposed to be like that but at the same time she offered to take it in the kitchen and drain it. Yeah that’s exactly what I wanted a dish of chicken and pasta swimming in water instead of pasta & chicken sautéed in olive oil and garlic. My husband ordered the trio grill with francaise sauce which also looked as though someone poured water in his plate. Overall a horrible dinner.

This is a nice local restaurant whose menu has alot of staples (pasta, chicken, seafood) to interesting specials. American Bistro is divided into two rooms. There are a few tables in the bar area (crowded) and a more spacious formal dining room to the left. Alot of the times there are large parties dining there that can make service a little slow (there was a party of about 15 last night) but the servers work hard and were apologetic about our wait. I had made reservations for 8:30 and we had a choice of a very small cramped table in the bar area or a table in the dining room if we wanted to wait a few minutes. We were finally seated at around 8:50 and it took a few more minutes to get a menu but the place was full and the big party in addition to all the other tables kept the servers running. They were also nice enough to give us a table for four in the back and away from the hustle and bustle. Every table gets a complimentary antipasto to start: olives, hot and sweet peppers, cubes of Parmasan cheese, zucchini, mushrooms and delicious fresh mozzarella. Plus a basket of warm bread. Great start to the meal. I love their Chicken Pecan. A huge portion of delicious super tender chicken coated in a breaded pecan mix in a wonderful honey mustard sauce. It also comes with two vegetables, I got the string beans in oil and garlic and their signature potatoes, layered sweet and white potatoes that is excellent. Definitely get the potaoes. My Bloody Mary was delicious, full of flavor and a very generous pour. Hubby got the salmon, grilled with Canneloni beans in oil and garlic (it was also offered blackened). Hubby said it was amazing. The salmon was perfectly grilled and the beans and oil and garlic was a great combination. The portions are huge so we have never have room for an appetizer or dessert so I can’t comment on that. I did catch a glimpse of the dessert tray and the table near ours ordered gelato and everything looked delicious. The décor is pretty dated and nondescript but the star here is the food. We have come here many times and never been disappointed. They are pricey but the quality and amount of food justifies the cost. Our server Donna was frazzled but apologetic but did a great job. Maria who seems to run the dining room is always sweet and accommodating and works hard to make you feel welcome.

Made dinner reservation for 8pm, as usual table not ready so was offered table in the bar — no big deal, actually nice sitting at a large table instead of the dining room all cramped.
The food took forever to come out. They were not busy on this particular evening so not sure why service was slow. For appetizers we had asparagus, wrapped in prosciutto, breaded and lightly fried — sounded quite tasty… WRONG the asparagus was burnt, (disappointment #1). Main course was Veal Piccata… veal was tough as shoe leather (disappointment #2), my dish was blackened salmon, with sauteed veggies… salmon was dry, veggies were shriveled to nothing (disappointment #3). Cannot believe they pride themselves as a five star establishment. They are a three at the very best. Service was extremely slow, waitresses always seem frazzled, and forgetful. lace needs a pick me up… very dated. Felt like I was back in the 1960s.
Parking lot is very small, so don’t know how people say there is plenty of parking because there is not… parked on the street no big deal.
I would rate this place a 3+ at the best.

Everything Chef Kenny Mahon prepared was delicious. Mussels marinara, sausage with potatoes, shrimp marinara, rigatoni and meatballs, even the bread baskets were all expertly prepared and served hot and fresh.
If you really like excellent Italian food, go here.
It’s easy to find, and they have plenty of parking.

This restaurant was attended early on a Sunday night. The bar was in the front and the seating area was located in the back. There were 15 or so tables. There were pictures of the local area from years back. It was a nice atmosphere. The service was friendly and the food came out in a timely matter.
First, an antipasto plate (free of charge) and basket of bread were presented. The antipasto plate consisted of meats, cheeses, olives, eggplant, peppers, and artichokes. They were all wonderful and was a nice start to the meal.
The tripe fra diavolo ($ 20?) was ordered as an appetizer. I am not a huge fan of tripe to begin with, but everybody in my party loves it. I just don’t think it tastes like anything. I tried it like always, but had the same thoughts. The sauce was exceptional though especially with a little bread.
I ordered the grilled duck breast ($ 34?) as an entrée. The boneless duck came in a port wine and fig sauce with smashed potatoes. There was also a side of string beans. The sauce was unreal. It is one of my favorite sauces of all time. I am not even sure how to describe the taste. It was a little sweet, but not too sweet, but it was really what brought the dish together. The duck was cooked to perfection with a slight burnt crisp on the ends. The potatoes were tasty too.
For dessert, a plate of fruit and cookies were brought (free of charge). The fruit was fresh and had grapes, sliced pineapples, oranges, etc. I did not try a cookie, but they looked solid. Most appeared to be biscotti.
Will I go back? No doubt. One of my favorite restaurants of all time and this time did not disappoint.

Nice little spot for Italian. The portions are huge but you can order half sized. Its decent, I’ve had better for the price. It’s way too expensive for a small local place charging NYC prices. I had Chicken with linguine, it was good but I not worth 26 $. I had this little peanut butter pie for dessert, it was good. Kinda old looking décor, more older crowd, maybe 60 and up.

This was our first visit to the restaurant. It was excellent! From start to finish, the food was so flavorful and portions were enormous. Ambiance was very nice too. I would highly recommend this restaurant.

Soft shell crabs last night where excellent

Doesn’t get better than this. Great food, friendly staff and a very welcoming atmosphere.

Love the complimentary antipasto. Even the breadsticks were fresh and delicious. I had the Chicken ala Casa. (Boneless chicken, sausage, peppers, onions) it was outstanding. My wife had the Chicken Pecan and loved it too. Service is always excellent, friendly and personable. Definitely would recommend and we will definitely be back.

I’ve been coming to this cozy Italian restaurant for years and have never once been disappointed. The food and service is consistently amazing. Do yourself a favor try the stuffed pork chop, It’s literally what I would have as my last meal.
As far as the ambiance, it could use some updating I know, but you forget about that once you eat what’s in front of you and crack a few jokes with your waiter or waitress. As far as dress code, you can wear jeans but keep is classy on top. It’s not a place for sneakers. I’ve been there decked out or just business casual and both were fine depending on the occasion.
There is a parking lot on the side of the restaurant that packs up quickly but I’ve never had a problem finding a spot on the street.
I have to warn you, you will become a regular whether you want to or not. Enjoy!

Went to try it out and was encouraged by all the great Unilocal reviews. Was not disappointed. Greeted immediately by friendly staff. Antipasto was placed on our table immediately and was delicious. I got the Blackened Salmon (huge portion) and my girlfriend got the Chicken Marsala (Also gigantic portion). The potato and vegetable of the day was amazing. The potato was a mix between regular and sweet potato. Tasted like ice cream (in the best possible way). Dessert was good. Got the Ricotta Cheesecake, which is great in the area. Dinner worth the price here. Would definitely come back

Excellent food! No need to order appetizers, they give you an antipasto plate to start. Tried many different entrees and enjoyed them all. Stuffed pork chops are fantastic, (just a bit salty). Escargot is my favorite appetizer. I also loved the duck, extremely tender and tasty. The potato side is awesome!
Biscotti and fresh fruit with your coffee!

An Italian-​American feast all about family or a little romance to possibly lead to a family! I came here with Christina R., her bf, my brother, Francis C., and his wife Bianca C. Christina, a.k.a. «work wife» recommended this place for dinner after we saw the cherry blossom trees in bloom at Branch Brook Park in Newark on a Saturday. I’m glad she did. The six of us were immediately seated and given a variety of bread and two huge antipasto plates of spicy sausage slices, different olives, and two types of cheese. After only having some of that, I already felt kind of full.
I ordered the black ravioli with a cheese-​based sauce and eating it felt like a hug. The ravioli was this rich purplish, brownish-​black color prepared perfectly al dente and the sauce was oh-​so-​dreamy nice-​and-​creamy. Of course, I finished it by sopping up that precious sauce with bread. I then had a pretty satisfying slice of ricotta cheesecake dusted with powdered sugar. This was accompanied by a magical platter of chocolate and traditional biscotti and fresh fruit for the table from the chef. What?! YES.

First of all, thank you Unilocalers for recommending this place. All the positive reviews were spot on.
AB is a very unassuming restaurant on a busy commercial main street in Nutley. You would pass it by if you did not know it existed. But that’s where the unassuming ends.
Food is great. Waitress Maria is great. Clothed tables with a family atmosphere is great. And Chef/​Owner Kenny coming out throughout the evening to make sure all are happy is great.
The table was set with a complimentary warm bread and an antipasto, which was very assorted and deelish!
Our waitress Maria was my favorite kind of server, one with an opinion. She guided us through the menu from start to finish, and she was such a delight while doing it. Thank you so much Maria.
We had tri-​color salad and I had the escarole white bean soup (half portion). All nice and fresh and wonderful.
Entrees were crazy good! Stuff pork chop in a red wine sauce reduction with mushrooms (one of the higher priced dishes but could easily serve 2) was unbelievably incredible. I recommend the sweet potato soufflé as one of the veggies. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Our table also had the stuff rigatoni with pork bragoli. They all raved about it. The pork was so tender and moist.
For desserts blueberry crumb pies with ice cream and the biggest cannoli I’ve ever seen. All were wonderful.
This is a bookmarked restaurant for us from now on. We couldn’t have had a more delightful birthday celebration and dinner. Thank you Kenny and Maria. You must GO THERE!!!

This was a nice surprise. I have known about this place for a while but never made it here.
Everything from the complimentary antipasto to the lobster raviolis to the stuffed pork chops and duck breast were great.
The wait staff was also great and the owner/​chef even came by to make sure everything was good. I will definitely be back.

Solid American fare in Nutley.
Walk into an eclectic bar area that turns a corner into a small dining area. Christmas decorations in April. Portugese servers that get it done, albeit slightly askew. Food that shines. That’s American Bistro.
Antipasti comes out compliments of the house with cheeses, meats, assorted olives and a mix of peppers. Crusty bread comes out at the same time. Others have mentioned warm bread, but our basket was not. And pats of butter were prepackaged and cold, cold, cold. How about warm bread with olio or soft house-​prepared butter? Simple details go a long way.
The stars are in the entrees, however. The stuffed pork chop is amazing, and I don’t use that term loosely. Huge. Tasty. Cheesey. Worth the $ 30 accompanied by a potato gratin and green beans.
Chicken Della Casa is chicken tossed with sausage and potatoes, enough for lunch and maybe even dinner tomorrow. Good enough to be your regular order at AB.
Lobster ravioli is black pasta filled with luscious lobster topped by a light red sauce. Just enough for most appetites. This is a not-​for-​take-​home dish, as the portion is just right, and you will most likely eat every morsel on your plate.
I have to disagree with a few other Unilocalers regarding the sweets. The desserts were not particularly appealing except for maybe the cannoli. Order them at your own risk, but hey, you’re already over-​full from the great entrée.
All in all, American Bistro is a nice though eclectic space, has interesting service, and features entrees that will not disappoint.
Welcome to Nutley!