There is a new Italian restaurant Uptown Hoboken, replacing Las Olas, the Asian fusion restaurant that I will always remember for its delicious wings. Yes, Apulia just opened and I was hoping to see something different considering the number of Italian places in Hoboken, the latest being Zero Otto Uno few months ago. The owners, Franco (originally from Apulia in Italy) and his nephew Frank completely gutted the place that is awkwardly in a U shape, giving more space at the entrance, with a dining room dominated by their wood fire oven. Service was courteous but the noise level was a bit too much for me, the music being too loud. Food wise, I admit that I was a bit disappointed as I was expecting pasta dishes, but I would not be surprised to see the menu get adjusted in the coming months. Yes, they just have pizza for the main, good pizza for sure, better than Urban Coal House that we tried again few weeks ago and still does not convince me. Their Margherita pie is quite good, made with Apulia tomatoes and mozzarella (the menu did not say homemade so I get that it is not), but I preferred the Biancaneve, a white pizza made with mozzarella, stracciatella, ricotta and garlic (I should have asked without although it was subtle). If you like cheese, go for it as there is a lot of it. The crust was delicious, puffed up on the outside and nicely charred. At least these were great pies. I should mention that of course they have few appetizers and salads, but, unfortunately, they ran out of the octopus that I really wanted to try.

Know that this is BYOB and they have interesting sodas like the Cedrata I had (a lemon sparkling drink).

For dessert, they propose three homemade choices: tiramisu, panda cotta and almond cake. We went for the former that was served with homemade whipped cream and we did not regret it (well the only thing I regretted was not wearing my stretch pants).

So welcome Apulia to the Hoboken restaurant scene: I am looking forward to going back and hope that this time you will have the octopus!

Enjoy (I did)!

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Apulia - 1319 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ 07030

New: Apulia in Hoboken, NJ

I Just Want To Eat!