Antimo's, Hopewell, New Jersey

Antimo’s is one of my favorite Italian restaurants. It is the opitdemy of a New Jersey Italian restaurant with warm, stone walls and fattening, addicting food. When I go to Antimo’s I usually eat in the restaurant but due to the pandemic my family and I decided to get take out from there for the first time and it did not disappoint. We ordered a bunch of different entrees and all shared “family style”. I’ll start off with my personal favorite thing on their

menu, the penne alla vodka with homemade fettuccine. This

dish had the perfect ratio of sauce to pasta where the pasta was more of a holder for the sauce rather than the main focus of the dish. The homemade pasta also has the utmost perfect texture, smooth and soft rather than boxed pasta which tends to be a bit chewy. If you are to order one dish at Antimo’s I highly recommend this one be it. The next dish we got was the tortellini in tomato sauce. This was my first time trying it and it did not disappoint. The pasta was soft and filled with salty, delicious cheese. The tortellini also was not drenched in tomato sauce so I was really able to taste the flavour of both the tortellini and the sauce. The next dish was the eggplant parm. I

would call this dish no different than the run of the mill eggplant parm from every other Italian restaurant. It was tasty, but the eggplant was a little soggy having been drenched in the sauce. I would not run to order this dish but if you like eggplant parm I

would call this a safe order. The next thing we got was garlic knots. Although delicious, this appetizer lacked the saltiness and strong garlic taste that I usually like - making them more bread focused than flavor focused. The last thing we got was some salmon and vegetables to have a healthy option with our carb overloaded

meal. This salmon and vegetable dish was quite bland compared to the rest of the meal - even more so than the garlic knots. I do not think people really go into an Italian restaurant with the intent on ordering salmon so I think they have an excuse for having not perfected the art of it.

In terms of take out procedures, the restaurant had our meal prepared in a timely manner and it was still hot when we got home roughly thirty minutes after picking it up! It was easy and seamless to order so Antimo’s is definitely proven to be reliable. Overall, my experience with Antimo’s is always good. I would say my one piece of advice is to stick to the classic Italian menu items and steer away from the healthy food. Also don’t sleep on the homemade pasta, although it costs a bit extra it is completely worth it. I would overall give Antimo’s a solid rating of 8.4/10 and think it is a must stop for takeout if you live in the central Jersey area!