La Marea

We had the most wonderful dinner at La Marea! The food was great as well as the service. We had the eggplant appetizer which was excellent- multilayered - so fine. The calamari was excellent especially with the lemon sauce. My husband loved the short ribs and gnocchi. Our friends loved the pasta and seafood special. The service was impeccable. The manager was friendly and involved- we were made to feel very welcome. Can't wait to go back!

Fantastic fresh food. Can’t beat this atmosphere and service when it comes to Italian cuisine! Gotta give this place a try when you have the chance.

Came in for dinner Saturday 4.20.24 with my wife Sandra, step daughter Gillian her husband Rod and our grand daughter Cecilia. We had the most delicious meal and some very good wine. Juliana & Neno are superb hosts and have a very successful restaurant with many loyal customers. Great experiences are getting harder to find in Connecticut. Thank you Neno & Juliana.

La Marea is one of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time. My wife and I had an excellent dinner with friends. Our waitress was wonderful and the meals were all perfect. We will definitely return.

Most enjoyable evening. Stefi, the waitress, was wonderful… very attentive and conversational. The appetizer soft shell crab was outstanding and the rabbit and scallop/gluten free pasta entrees were exceptional. Can’t wait to go back.

Wonderful dinner and terrific service. Owners visiting was great Highly recommend to everyone

Well rounded Italian restaurant. Nice dining room and really good service. House made pasta dishes are excellent. We had the yellow tail snapper special which hit the spot. La Marea offers pizza that looks worth trying. Priced on the higher side, but worth making the visit from time to time.

What an amazing meal. Super impressed with the authenticity of this Italian spot. The restaurant was very spacious with a tent over the outdoor seating area. The staff was super attentive and gracious. I highly recommend La Maria for a small romantic meal or large gathering.

Marea never disappoints. Food is always delicious. Bartenders make yummy drinks. The staff is always friendly. It is a local place where people a nice and you can strike up a conversation. Such a positive vibe! ✨️

Wonderful service, the food was delicious incredibly flavorful. The pasta was al dente and homemade.

So this place usually has quality food but I went and ordered a margarita pizza for take out, I get home, start eating my pizza and I'm like something is off, I look at it again and it looked like they cheddar cheese 😂😂 so I called them to let them know and they wouldn't admit to using cheddar cheese. So I brought the pizza back to show them and that's when they figured out what happened, it was not cheddar cheese but parmesan cheese, it was an honest mistake. The owner came over and apologized and made me a new pizza and it was awesome like they always are. If you want a beautiful wood fired oven pizza, this is the place, although everything they have is amazing. Oh and by the way the staff and everyone there are really good and professional.

Look, I'm not an Italian cuisine guy, but I had the arancini to start, the fettuccine and shrimp for an entree and some gelato for dessert so when I tell you it's good, it's objectively good.

Loved being greeted by the owner! They make pasta from scratch. So good. Very busy for so many reasons. Discover this gem in Old Saybrook for yourselves. Tell them I sent you.

Reservations are highly recommended. All of our dinners were served perfectly. The waitstaff, support staff and management are very attentive. It was nice to have a night out with friends and not feel rushed through the meal. All six of us will definitely return!

Our table had the fried calamari as an appetizer: excellent!!! My wife had two of the specials of the night, grilled swordfish and a chicken dish whose name I cannot recall. Both were wonderful!! Our dinner guests had a specialty pizza which they loved as well. We would definitely make a return trip to La Marea! Conveniently located right off of Rt. 9 in Old Saybrook.

This is the third time I've been here and each time has been excellent. The service is attentive but not cloying, the food was wonderful, the cocktails were delicious. my girlfriend and I have very different tastes and we were both able to find things that we really liked on the menu.

Great little Italian Restaurant! Very casual. The food was really good! I had pasta Norma… with diced eggplant and smoked mozzarella and tomatoes! So Good🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🍝🍝🍝🍝 Dessert was carrot cake…. Yummmy bon appétit💚

First time at this restaurant and instantly our favorite Italian on the shoreline. We had the special pasta (Lobster Ravioli with a brandy cream sauce); Campanelle con Piselli e Pancetta pasta dish; and the special white pizza with Mozarella, Fontina, and goat cheese, honey, carmelized figs and pear with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette; and tartufo for dessert. Every dish was marvelous and we would order again. Waitress and service was great as well. Will definitely return soon.

Great food, everything was delicious. Nice ambiance. Was pretty busy but even so felt server wasn't as attentive as they should have been Overall highly recommend.

We had a wonderful meal at La Marea last night. The food was exceptional and the service warm, welcoming, and attentive in an Italian kind of way — neither too rushed or too slow which made for a lovely, relaxing, and thoroughly enjoyable evening. We will definitely be back! We loved the roasted chicken and pork chop. The warm olives were amazing and the cocktails delicious. Bravo 👏🏻

This restaurant is really special from start to finish. We were greeted warmly, even without a reservation on a Saturday night. The service was impeccable. Hugo did an amazing job and helped us choose an excellent wine. The waite staff were on top of their game. And the food… SUPERB!!! We left with a hug from the owner, who made you feel like a beloved cousin, and gave our promise we will be back (soon)! You MUST come here!!! Soooo worth it in every way!❤️

This was our first time here and we could not have been more pleased to find such a great local restaurant. The food and service were excellent.

It has been at least 8 years since I have eaten at this wonderful restaurant after having moved out of CT. Was happy to be visiting and be able to have dinner here once again. The grilled octopus was outstanding and the pasta special with mushrooms equally excellent. The staff were professional and attentive.

Why go out of your way, quality that's why. This is not run of the mill it is outstanding. Good quality food, very good quality cooking, a well run place, welcoming that is authentic; they give a good deal. My new favorite place for food on the shoreline east of New Haven. It transcends the ordinary to be sure. They are not rush, rush, but they are smooth, as well as swift. It's out of my way, but boy is it worth it. It is amazing to me how many restaurants charge equivalent money for far, far less quality. This is high quality and welcoming, all too sparse in this day in this region. It is a very welcoming place. I drive 20 minutes to get there and I am glad I do. I haven’t been there in a long time. I will frequent it. The quality is the best I have had in a while anywhere. I am a senior, I sat alone at the bar (they take reservations), I was welcome and not isolated in any way. The food, people, service, and attentiveness, are for a discerning diner. As a long time friend said to me encountering me here some time ago, “This is a good restaurant”, and he is very discerning, owner of a high quality food product business. To LaMarea I want to say thank you for making a very, very, very good place to have dinner, with you.

The food here is excellent and the service was absolutely great

Party of 4, all meals OUTSTANDING, desserts, espresso, perfect. Price point fine, but don't expect to take anything home. On the plus side larger portions would probably = a larger bill. Highly recommend. 3 of our guests are born and bred Italians who can cook so a tough crowd to please. !!

I have been to this restaurant twice now, and it is a lovely, family run place. Both owners are from Italy and the recipes reflect genuine Italian cuisine, from both North and South. It reminds me how much I miss Italy every time I go. The pizzas are excellent, the sauces are carefully crafted and delicious. I also noted a wonderful gluten free selection, and close attention to dietary needs (several vegan options as well). Highly, highly recommended.

5 stars. The setting is soigne. That alone is reason to go. Service was expert and kind (thank you, Denise and attentive table checkers.) Bread, crusty and light. Caesar salad was very good and arrived in minutes. Specials were thoughtful and tasty. The reasonably priced wine by the glass was a delicious blend. The finishing espresso was perfect — satisfying, fortifying, not a hint of bitterness. The single shortcoming had little effect on the overall experience (the lovely chairs in the dining room are a bit too low for the tables.) Overall, this restaurant is a gem.

First time visiting. As soon as you walk in you can smell the great aromas of Italian food. Very charming atmosphere. Very casual attire and the food was great. Had a pizza..one size..12" and the pasta bolognese. The price was very moderate. Can't wait to return..Michael &Nancy.

The most delicious pasta, pizza, arancini, and salads! Espresso martini was delicious and desserts were phenomenal. Wonderful service and we were welcomed so kindly! Thank you La Marea! We will be back!

Came in to celebrate my birthday. Wanted to try a new place. Came in, the place is really beautiful inside and there are two sides to sit. Bar area with seating and a dinner side. Had a very pleasant waitress, and we ordered dinner. I had a few allergies on the meal I was interested in, and they had no problems adjusting it to my liking. We ordered the pork chop meal, fettuccine bolognese, and the swordfish meal. Food came out, not huge portions, but everything was presented well and delish. We enjoyed our meal, and many people came over to ask how we were enjoying our meal. We ended with dessert . We ordered strawberry shortcake, raspberry sorbet, and a brownie dessert. We all left very happy. They even decorated my dessert for my birthday with a candle.

I recently dined at La Marea for the first time. There were four of us, two couples, and I will say that everything that we ate was very good and the service was excellent. On an overall basis, I would characterize the portions as being small (therefore expensive relative to the price) - for most of what we ordered. I ordered the crepes stuffed with spinach & ricotta and then the Campanelle pasta. The crepes at $17 I think, were very good but overpriced for two pieces. The Campanelle pasta had a wonderful mix of pancetta, shallot, peas & cheeses and was quite flavorful. Again, the portion was very small, in my opinion, for $26 or so. One of my friends ordered a different pasta dish and had the same observation as we all did relative to the salads that our wives ordered. One of our servers brought some bread to the table and my feeling is that the bread should either be very fresh, warm or both. Perhaps we received some leftover pieces but neither of the small baskets we received were either fresh or warm. The Halibut special - which in retrospect I wish I had ordered - was the winner of the evening and I was almost going to order it but opted for the pasta at the last minute. I did enjoy my meal and would return to La Marea and try something different - perhaps the seafood special of the evening. We were seated in the back (right) as you walk in so it was a smaller room with just a handful of tables and I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Food was wonderful, unfortunately the wife is rude and for that I won’t be back. The bartender and manager were apologetic and really tried to make up for it. They went out of their way to make sure the rest of our experience was positive.

So much potential, food was good and the space is nice, but the air conditioning barely works, so if you're going in the summer months just know you're literally going to be sweating the entire time. Service was terrible as well, server barely came around, took about 40 mins to order food, didn't ask anyone if we wanted another drink when it was empty. Again, food was good, but not standout enough to come back with the service we received. And definitely not in the summer months.

We were pleased with the pasta dishes . Octopus was very chewy (old). Service ok but not great Not worth the price

Service was lacking. Our questions about the menu were not adequately answered. we ordered salads and pizza the Manager asked if we wanted grated cheese on our pizza! Then walked past the grated cheese several times and when we asked, he told the waitress to get it! Food was ok! Too much cheese on pizza crust was burned. Again service was lacking! When we paid we gave 2 credit cards and asked to split the bill. They lost one of our cards putting the entire bill on the other card! The waitress Insisted she only had received one card. We explained we were on the way to a concert and now we were late. The manager and the waitress showed literally no emotion! Not a “we are so very sorry”. In fact they acted as though we had done something. We all looked for the lost credit card 10+ min until finally another waitress came with the card she had found at the pick up station! Our waitress insisted she didn’t bring our card to the pick up area! Again we never heard a “we are so sorry, come back and have dessert on us NOTHING”. I asked the manager, how could this happen? He looked at me stone faced and said nothing! I finally asked are u the owner and he finally said he was the manager after implying he was the owner! I will definitely not be back!

Good evening, I was there last night for dinner, we had guests from California and looking for some good Italian food. With that said, this was our third experience at your restaurant. The first experience was great, the food and service was outstanding,, our second time there, was not as good as the first and our third time there, was even more disappointing. Our food was served warm, not hot. Our meals portions were very small and over priced. My particular meal, which was the papadella with the mushrooms, with added grilled shrimp to it. With that said, it was a very small, handful size portion of the pasta and three grilled shrimp, which were small to medium size. I did not find out till after we left that we were charged $42 for that meal.. which is completely ridiculous. As it’s probably at most 2 to 3 dollars worth of pasta and $2 for the shrimp, I don’t know how you can sleep at night charging these prices. At the same time the meal had no flavor at all. There were other issues as well, one of our guests was looking for a nice glass of red wine by the glass abd after ordering a glass of red cost him $15 a glass which was terrible, so the waitress recommended one, however, failed to mention that it was $25 a glass. I could see if it was Caymus however, it wasn’t even that close. So disappointed .. Three strikes I guess you’re out.

The only way to describe the experience was bland. The food was not under seasoned but not seasoned at all whatsoever. Technical execution of the food was flawless and with proper seasoning would've easily been a 5 star review. Although the dessert was amazing! Our server was phenomenal and deserved well more than the food she was bringing. The server was attentive, knowledgeable, personable and overall an incredible server. The prices and portions would be easily justified with proper seasoned food, however without that it was a $10 plate with $60 service.

The host was very nice, but when we sat at our table we waited for 25 minutes for someone to ask us what we want to drink. The wait staff didn’t acknowledge at all, and the bolognese that i ordered tasted bland and to charge 27$ for some ground meat and jar sauce is outrageous. A huge disappointment i had one bite from food.

If I could leave 0 stars I would. I made a reservation for valentine's day. Rushed to get there on time. The seating was fairly tight to other patrons. The service was absolutely awful from the hostess to the girl that brought out our water. We had to light our own candle, they absolutely destroyed any type of ambiance that was there. My girl and I, went out, got dressed up for a nice dinner and we were not met with the same expectations that we had. By far. Ended up going to mystic pizza believe it or not.