Post Valentine’s Family Dinner at Piattino in NJ + a $50 GIVEAWAY #PiattinoNJ

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Ever since having children, Valentine’s Day has become a holiday we love to celebrate for the kids. Showing them love everyday is a given, but on Valentine’s Day we love to shower them with fun treats, balloons & either a special home cooked meal or a dinner outing. If we choose the later, we never go on Valentine’s night. The crowded restaurants and long waits with children don’t make for a pleasant experience. With my husband away, we were unable to have our traditional family meal together, so it was extra special to have an opportunity this past weekend to take my kids for a post Valentine’s Day celebration at a beautiful Italian bistro called Piattino.

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We visited the original location in Historic Mendham, NJ, where Piattino serves an authentic, yet modern Italian dining experience. They recently opened a second location in Summit, NJ, which also serves brunch and has a great wine selection just like the Mendham location. They offer a variety of appetizers, salads, pastas and entrees. Piattino is also known locally for its delicious, hand-stretched Neapolitan style pizzas and sandizza’s (its own version of a Panini) baked at 800 degrees in its imported Italian stone-fired oven using premium ingredients. The custom oven was a beautiful sight to see and made my kids and I wondered how they got the huge oven shipped from Italy and into the restaurant?

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With this being my first time at Piattino, I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried if it would be family oriented enough for my 4 kids and I. Would it be too fancy, would they have a kids menu, a highchair and more importantly would there be too many items on the table that my kids could potentially break? To my delight, from the moment we walked in…the atmosphere of the restaurant was very inviting for my kids and I. The beautiful modern decor and extremely friendly staff was all the reassurance I needed that this would be a wonderful family experience.

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Our waiter Greg was very informative on all the details of the menu, location and the history of the oven that we were so amazed with. The kids and I got to enjoy a basket or 2 of the bread while browsing the menu. For starters we had the calamari and highly recommended meatballs. And boy it did not disappoint. My kids all agreed that the meatballs were the highlight of the evening.

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I was particularly impressed with the portions and taste of the items we ordered from the “kids menu”. Normally I order a large entree for the kids to split when we go out to restaurants. I do this because in my experience, the food on the kids menu is never nearly as good as the adults. Piattino blew me away with the size, taste and price of the items I ordered for them! I’m still in shock that each dish was $5-$7! Delicious is not even a good enough word for my kids to describe the food…and thank God for leftovers because they were still talking about it the next day.

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As for myself, I enjoyed a glass of wine with my delicious pan seared salmon over risotto. And who could forget dessert. We couldn’t decide on 1 so we ordered 2, Nutella sticky cake with Pistachio Gelato and the Nutella Nachos….total hit. Quite honestly I’m still thinking of the flavors of everything we ate and of the memorable evening I had bonding alone with my 4 babies. Thank you for to the staff of Piattino for the wonderful accommodations and experience. Next on my agenda is to visit the Summit location and try the brunch menu!

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Exciting news is that Piattino is sponsoring a $50 giveaway to either location! Just leave a comment on this blog post telling me who you would love to bring with for dinner or brunch! For a bonus entry, visit my Instagram and tag a friend that you would like to bring with you to dinner on my recent Piattino picture! Winner must live in the NJ area and will be contacted directly within the week!

GOOD LUCK!!!

xoxo Cole

* My family and I were provided a full meal by Piattino in exchange for a review post. They are also sponsoring the giveaway. As always all opinions are my own and 100% honest.