Covello's Italian Restaurant
Business of the Month: The South Amboy-Sayreville TIMES, April 29, 2006


Photo by Tom Burkard
Owners Anna (r) and Vincenzo Covello are pictured at their new and beautiful Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant at 1792 Route 35 North in South Amboy.

Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant, owned by Anna and Vincenzo Covello carries 30 years of experience in creating authentic, homemade dishes. Now open at their new location on 1792 Route 35 North in South Amboy (The restaurant was formerly located in Sayreville on Washington Road). Six years prior, their business was located on Route 9 South in South Amboy Plaza, and 15 years prior to that on Ernston Road, also know as Pizza Party.

Covello’s specializes in authentic Southern Italian cuisine, and is well known for their seafood dishes such as Lobster and Clams, Filet Rollatini, and Stuffed Shrimp. Delicious appetizers like Clams “Vincenzo” (In red or white sauce), Fried Calamari, and Baked Clams are crowd favorites. Covello's offers much more than just seafood dishes, such as Veal Palermo, Chicken Paisano, and Steak “Covello.” Daily entrée specials are suggested by your server, which are not listed on the regular menu, including Osso Bucco, Tripe Livornese, and Homemade Brocioli. The children’s menu offers a wide selection of choices from Pasta and Meatballs to Chicken Fingers and Fries. A fresh homemade cannoli, cappuccino, or espresso will give a happy ending to an enjoyable meal. Covello’s features a full bar which includes many drink specialties like homemade sangria. Also try one of their popular martinis from the separate martini menu.

Covello’s also offers a private party room with seating for 50 people. Call for party package prices for your next event, such as a graduation, communion, business luncheon, grievance, etc. The top-rated restaurant always takes reservations for holidays such as Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and others to come. Covello’s is open Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday from Noon to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from Noon to 11 p.m. They are closed on Monday.

Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant features beautiful decor, and also has a cozy, casual and family-oriented atmosphere, perfect for relaxing and dining after a long day at work. The staff is attentive and courteous, and is happy to help make your dining experience at Covello’s a pleasant and memorable one. The owners, Anna and Vincenzo Covello will personally welcome you and make certain everthing is to your dining pleasure. Covello’s motto is, “Proudly serving our customers for over 30 years.”

Make your reservation now to stop in and try some of the finest Italian specialies around.

Best of Italian cuisine served at Covello’s
Guide to Good Eating: A Greater Media Newspapers Special Section; Suburban, September 7, 2001
By Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa (Correspondent)


Photo by Farrah Maffai
Vincenzo and Anna Covello recently moved their popular Italian eatery, Covello’s to 267 Washington Road in Sayreville from Sayreville Plaza on Route 9.

If you find zesty sauce, bubbly cheese, al dente pasta, and scrumptious seafood irresistible, you may want to visit Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant for some of the best Southern Italian cuisine this side of Naples.

At their new location on 267 Washington Road in Sayreville (the restaurant was formerly located in the Sayreville Plaza on Route 9), Covello’s proudly carries 30 years of experience in creating those wonderful, tempting dishes that have made the restaurant one of the most popular Italian eateries in the area.

The atmosphere is cozy and casual—filled with the sound of friendly chatter and hustle and bustle of prompt, courteous service. Dishes are skillfully prepared, never hurried. Because each dish is cooked to order you can expect a slight wait for your dinner. This isn’t fast food, after all; it’s authentic Italian cuisine.

Begin your meal with a luscious appetizer such as Mussels Marinara (request the sauce regular, medium or spicy hot), Clams “Vincenzo” (in red or white sauce), Artichoke Hearts, or Stuffed Mushrooms.

Main course dishes such as Chicken Paisano (with roasted peppers, mushrooms, onions, and mozzarella sautéed with white wine), Veal “Covello” (with ham and mozzarella sautéed with white wine), and Ravioli Parmigiana are all excellent choices and are the standard favorites with the regular Covello’s crowd.

Well known for delectable seafood, Covello’s extensive selection includes dishes such as Filet of Flounder Rollatini (flounder stuff with crabmeat and shrimp), Scungilli fra Diavolo, Shrimp Francaise, and Lobster Tails. Shrimp “Covello” and Scallops “Covello” are both delicious, made with plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and parsley in a white wine sauce.

Nightly specials are suggested by your server, and expect these to be terrific creations not listed on the regular menu. On the day of my visit, King Crab Legs were offered as one of the nightly specials—delicious, tender and plentiful, exactly as I had anticipated.

All dinners are served with a tossed green salad and mild vinaigrette, and plenty of warm, crusty bread.

Bringing the kids along for dinner? Covello’s children’s menu lists five kids’ favorites: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Ravioli, Baked Ziti, Chicken Fingers with fries, and Chicken Parmigiana with pasta—all reasonably priced.

After dinner, indulge in one of Covello’s tempting desserts. The Homemade Cannoli shouldn’t be missed, though the smooth, scrumptious Italian Cheesecake and the Black and White Mousse Cake are also noteworthy.

Consider Covello’s for catering your next party. Yours quests will flip for the Baked Ziti, Eggplant Parmigiana, and boneless Chicken Marsala with mushrooms and artichokes.

Covello’s also prepares hot seafood trays such as Mussels Marinara (the zesty sauce is fantastic), Calamari, Scungilli, Jumbo Shrimp, and Stuffed Clams, Mussels or Mushrooms.

Whether for lunch, dinner, or for your next catered celebration, Covello’s gets a big thumbs up for its authentic Italian cuisine.

Comfort food, Italian-style at Covello’s
Eating Out: The Star-Ledger, Friday, September 28, 2001
By S. J. Gintzler


Photo by Daniel Hedden
Vincent Chiappetta serves John and Dona Hogan at Covello’s Restaurant in Sayreville.

Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant is a bustling eatery serving wholesome Italian-American fare. An amply portioned Shrimp Parmigiana or Veal Scallopine should satisfy the grown-ups, while youngsters can keep busy with a kid sized Spaghetti and Meatballs or Ravioli.

Ambiance: Covello’s is contained within a sturdy house set on a quiet country road. A smoking section is located in a rustic, wood-paneled barroom, also known as Wally’s Bar, a popular watering hole. Other dining options are a comfortable, simply decorated rear dining area and a sunny, glass-enclosed porch.

Staff: Welcoming and attentive.

Food: Covello’s specializes in seafood (Shrimp Scampi, Calamari fra Diavolo, Flounder Rollatine stuffed with shrimp and crab). There are pasta dishes (Lasagna, Penne with Vodka Sauce), beef and poultry selections (Sicilian Steak with mushrooms and olives, Chicken Florentine with spinach and ricotta) and blackboard specials (Tilapia Oreganata, Baby Back Ribs).

Dinner started nicely with a complimentary brushchetta topped with garlicky chopped tomatoes. Meaty, succulent King Crab Legs (a special) were a delight, bathed in a lush garlic-laced butter/white wine sauce. A generous shower of garlic also illuminated a peppery tange of perfectly sautéed Broccoli Rabé. An engaging Mozzarella en Carrozza (a special), crisp, golden and cheesy, was sided by a perky tomato dipping sauce. The only disappointment in the started department was a hearts of Artichoke Salad marred by a too tart citrus vinaigrette.

Complimentary salads were sparked by a tangy balsamic dressing. Steak “Covello” was a wow of a dish, a hefty Delmonico encrusted with deliciously seasoned bread crumbs, brightened with fresh lemon juice. The hunk o’ beef was parked alongside a mountain of robustly sauced spaghetti. An abundance of saucy pasta also accompanied an expertly rendered Eggplant Parmigiana. A head-turning Zuppa di Pesce—a bountiful seafood stew teeming with shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, calamari, scungilli and a half lobster, over linguine in a zesty marinara—could easily feed two. Sicilian-Style Baked Ziti was another thumbs’ up, a lavishly sauced, cheesy dome of pasta dappled with ricotta and eggplant.

Sweet endings satisfied. The fresh Cannoli oozed lush ricotta cream: the New York Cheesecake was especially creamy; the double-decker Black and White Chocolate Mousse Cake just rich enough.

If you’re looking for comforting Italian fare, consider Covello’s.

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The Eating Out column appears every week in The Ticket. Send e-mail comments or suggestions to S. J. Gintzler at GlobalGour@aol.com.

Covello’s a Mix of Food and Art
Home News Tribune, July 2001
By Christopher Thumann (Correspondent)


One star is acceptable, two stars are good, three stars is very good and four stars is excellent.

Open for 17 years now, Covello’s is fairly new to its present Sayreville location, having moved to Washington Road just seven months age from its location of 11 years nearby on Route 9 south.

In appearance and in fact, Covello’s is two distinct establishments; it shares space with Wally’s Bar, the latter being the establishment you step into when you first arrive.

You can eat Covello’s food at Wally’s if you want to smoke; diners in the Covello’s dining rooms drink Wally’s drinks. At the end of your meal you get two bills: one for Wally’s, one for Covello’s.

The fun at Covello’s lies in this fragmentation. There’s such a mix of atmosphere that the place attracts all kinds of people out for good Italian food.

When you walk into Wally’s you’re in a bar, surrounded by bar folk. It looks like a bar, with paneled walls a backdrop for beer mirrors, neon beer logos and an impressively vast collection of faded album covers, from the Beatles to Frank Sinatra.

Enter the adjacent dining room though and the people and ambiance change. Now you're in a relatively quiet space that’s decorated with nicely framed Renoir copies and other pretty pictures.

In the next dining room, an enclosed porch, gears shift a little: here pictures of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and a unicorn hang on the walls.

Meanwhile, back in one of Wally’s rest rooms, you'll be welcomed by framed portraits of a velvet peacock, clowns playing pool, clowns playing golf and clowns just clowning around like clowns do.

There seems to be little clowning in the kitchen though. I enjoyed many of the dishes I tried; whatever I didn’t feel was great often came down to just a matter of taste.

Specials at Covello’s actually sounded so good we ordered two. The first was a pretty plating of Asparagus di Parma, a pleasant dish of nicely cooked, pencil-thin asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, breaded and fried, then sliced and served with a marinara. The Italian ham may have been a little salty, but the salt poked through the lightly spicy tomato sauce to balance out some of the dish’s flavors.

Not as good was the appetizer of fresh Artichoke Hearts, our second special. Here fresh trimmed baby artichoke hearts were sautéed and drizzled with garlic oil. A persistent metallic taste that lingered for hours suggested that these springtime treats had been sautéed in an aluminum pan (a big cooking no-no).

Of course we checked out a few standards, too. The Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad was a nice version, with a lightly tart basil-infused vinaigrette bathing bocconcini (small balls of fresh mozzarella) and diced fresh tomato. The tomato could have been fresher, but the mozzarella could hardly but the mozzarella could hardly have been.

If the way you benchmark your favorite Italian place is by how tender the Fried Calamari is, then Covello’s could be your new favorite Italian place. A lightly crisp, nicely seasoned fried batter coated these barely al dente gems, and the accompanying sauce tasted great but didn't overpower the dish. If you get just one appetizer, get this one.

The generous serving of nicely cooked large sea scallops in the Scallops “Covello” was the star of this entree that was sauced with a light (at times too light) mix of plum tomato, garlic and parsley in a white wine sauce.

The dish had a problem or two, though. Offered a choice of pasta to accompany this dish, my companion chose angel hair; the dish arrived with big fat linguini. And the sauce needed just a little more flavor; a liquid at the bottom of her pasta dish actually turned out to be mostly water, not missing sauce for which we searched.

Delicious, though, was the classic Scungilli fra Diavolo, in which slices of this fresh shellfish were cooked in a mildly spicy marinara and served over your choice of pasta. For the most part the scungilli was tender and nicely cooked, and the sauce was wonderful.

Desserts aren’t made on the premises. The Tiramisu was OK, not the best we’d ever tried, but still fine. The Italian Cheesecake was equally middle-of-the-road with a fun cannoli aftertaste.

In spite of its full name, Covello’s Italian Seafood Restaurant offers more than just seafood with plenty of chicken, veal, eggplant, steaks and pastas to choose from. The food is just like the variety of artwork spread throughout the place; eventually you’ll find something that suits your tastes.

Christopher Thumann, a graduate of La Salle University in Philadelphia and Jersey City’s Culinary Arts Institute, is a former food editor at Woman’s World magazine. He has also edited and written for Weight Watchers, Chocolatier magazine and Pastry Art and Design magazine. You can reach him at cthumann@hotmail.com. Restaurants are rated in relation to comparable establishments and review are based upon an anonymous evaluation of food, service, price, value and ambiance.