By: | August 26, 2025 | Dining | Little Silver
By Ryan Loughlin
Although their heritage is clearly Italian, there is something so wonderfully American — and particularly Jerseyan — about a great local pizzeria. Growing up in this state, the concept of enjoying a killer slice from a no-frills, hole-in-the-wall pizza joint is practically melded into the fabric of the culture. And of course, all the locals have their favorite place that they are fiercely loyal to.
One spot that regularly inspires that kind of loyalty is Family Tavola Pizza and Restaurant in Little Silver.
Family Tavola sits just opposite the train station, making it a great place to grab a slice or a fresh pie on your way home from work (they even have a section on their website where you can order based on when your train is scheduled to arrive and they will have everything ready when you get there). They also have a location in Point Pleasant should you find yourself in that neck of the woods.
After at least a year of having this spot recommended to me by various friends and coworkers, I finally stopped in at the Little Silver location on a recent Sunday evening for dinner with my wife and quickly realized I had been missing out on something great.
The Space
Family Tavola offers exactly what you want from your local pizzeria — it’s casual, but unlike some of the more well-worn slice shops you may encounter at the shore, it distinguishes itself with a bright, inviting atmosphere, presented in clean lines of whites and grays. Subway-tiled walls peppered with portraits of Al Capone and other gangsters add a touch of Italian-American whimsy to the dining room, which is more spacious than what you might expect from a place like this. A large, flat-screen TV features a loop of a charming street in an Italian village, just for fun. Up front, those in a hurry can grab slices at the counter and be in an out in minutes, but we opted for the full dining experience.
Chowing down
If you are craving Italian, you’ll find all the classics here and then some. Pizzas, pastas, a variety of parms, alfredos and the like are all scattered throughout the impressive menu at Family Tavola. But they also manage to work in quite a bit of creativity, offering fun apps like the Italian Egg Rolls, which are available in a rotating lineup of varieties. We opted for the utterly delicious cheesesteak version, which featured a wonton wrapper fully loaded with thin-sliced steak, cheese, onions and a side of ketchup to dip in.
For our second app, we sampled the Grandma Goldbergiani Meatballs, which were possibly the single best version of the dish either of us have ever had. All beef meatballs covered in tomato sauce and topped with both mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, these were an absolute highlight of the meal. They also offer another meatball variety — the Nana De’Luca which serves as a direct rival to the Grandma Goldbergiani in what their menu describes as “Meatball Wars.” The Nana De’Luca is made with a beef/pork/veal blend, but sadly, we didn’t have the chance to sample that. Next time we will for sure, but it’s going to take a near miracle to unseat Grandma Goldbergiani as the winner in this war.
From there we dove headfirst into a variety of slices, sampling everything from their standard plain slice with its perfect ratio of cheese to sauce, to the Nonna — an excellent square slice topped with cheese, sauce and pesto that sits somewhere between a grandma and a Sicilian-style slice. Perhaps the most unique of the pile was the Frangelica, a gourmet pie with a thin, almost bar pie-style crust topped with grilled chicken, bacon, onions and a creamy tomato sauce that was unlike any we have tried prior. It’s anything but traditional, but it’s a more than worthwhile effort.
After hemming and hawing a bit over which pasta to choose, we ultimately went with the tortellini with vodka sauce, which was flavorful and cooked to a perfect al dente. One nice thing at Family Tavola is they allow you to mix and match pastas and sauces. Choose from spaghetti, linguini, penne, capellini, fettucine, rigatoni, cavatelli, tortellini or gluten free pasta and you can pair it with sauce options, including oil and garlic, vodka sauce, alfredo, cacio e pepe or either red or white clam sauce. And if you want to add a protein to your pasta dish, chicken, meatballs, sausage, shrimp or scallops are all available to add on as well.
After our feast we were too stuffed to pile on any more, but even with all we ate, we still barely scratched the surface of the menu at Family Tavola. Intriguing main courses like Seafood Alfredo in a bread bowl; Salmon Wellington or the slightly intimidating “Flaming Cheese Wheel of Death” (Shrimp flambeed in a wheel of parmesan prepared tableside and served over pasta) piqued our interest enough to plan a return trip, as did the long list of sandwiches, many of which I will be sampling on my future lunch hours.
Family Tavola Pizza and Restaurant
24 Ayers Lane, Little Silver
Rating: 4 stars
For more info, go to EBFamilyTavola.com.
