Everyone who goes to Boccone South talks about Silvio.

Who’s Silvio? you may wonder.

Well, he’s the gravel-voiced restauranteur who greets everyone that walks in through Boccone’s doors like they’re at once old friends and royalty. I recall the first time MDP and I went to Boccone, back when they were on South Orange Avenue. After Silvio recited the specials – in a similar way as a gifted orator delivers a soaring speech – I said to Dan, “Isn’t he special” – in a warm kind of way that has heart emojis in between the words if real life were iMessage.

We’ve been following Boccone on their journey from their longstanding home in South Orange to a short stint in Short Hills and now to their latest location in Livingston. What’s been constant in all of these storefronts has been Silvio’s superlative hospitality and the quality of the food.

If you haven’t been to Boccone yet, run. Don’t walk. And don’t be distracted by the large sign for a dentist looming at their current location, an easy to miss strip mall type deal on Mount Pleasant Avenue. Though small and intimate their new space may be, they’re serving the unequivocal best Italian food in the area. (I said it.)

So let’s dig in.

Boccone has a robust menu with the expected standards like calamari and veal milanese. They also offer many daily specials, which seem to always include a burrata (so don’t sweat that it’s not on their online menu; they’ll have it when you go, I’m sure!) and several delectable proteins to consider, ranging from grand dishes like osso bucco to fresh fish specials that may include Mahi Mahi.

It’s decidedly BYOB, but when I last went, I ordered an unsweetened iced tea and Silvio said he’d make a fresh batch for me just because I asked for it (a stunning move and quite good, too).

After you order, a wait staff will bring over a bread basket and the most delicious roasted garlic-infused olive oil. The bread serves as a blank canvas to this sublime dipping oil. When you think of “[something]-infused,” you may imagine tasting light notes of [something]. At Boccone, they take this concept to an entirely new level, submerging the roasted garlic in the sea of olive oil when they bring it over to your table. Although I no longer eat bread, I could not resist trying a piece (or several?) just to experience the unique olive oil when we last went.

One of my favorite appetizers at Boccone is the eggplant rollatini. I think eggplant is a bit deceptive – what’s so hard about making this taste good, right? If you’ve never made it yourself, you’d be surprised by how bitter it can taste if you do not cook it just right. Yet at Boccone, the eggplant slices are supple and seamlessly blend with the melted mozzarella and ricotta, to deliver a sumptuous, silky bite. The bright marinara sauce is a necessary foil to cut through the richness of the rest of the dish. We got a bit of black pepper ground on top, since whenever a dish is delivered to your table, wait staff are quick to follow with a pepper mill or bowl of parmesan cheese, depending on what you’ve ordered. Yes, please.

Sure, plenty of Italian restaurants do pasta well, but nobody beats the rigatoni at Boccone. Although the ingredients list is simple – fresh rigatoni, broccoli rabe, Italian sausage, red pepper flakes, garlic, and EVOO – the sum of this dish is far greater than its parts. There’s something about the just-enough liquid in the dish – and maybe your wait staff put a little cheese on for you, too – that ties up the overall flavor profile of the dish in a neat, irresistible bow. Portions are ample at Boccone, yet you’d be a fool to leave one bite behind. Thinking back to the many times I’ve been to Boccone, I may have ordered the rigatoni at one point and then only ordered that dish any other time I’d been there. Many compelling pasta dishes grace the menu, yet this one drew me in like a siren while at sea. You can’t go wrong with it. And once you try it, like me, you’ll never turn back.

Many of the so-called secondi dishes are outstanding, including the can’t-go-wrong chicken parmigiana and chicken scarpariello. During my last dining experience, I ordered the rib eye Boccone. The dish comes with that divine roasted garlic (from the olive oil experience, yes it’s an *experience*), sun-dried tomatoes that add both texture and zing, capers, broccoli rabe, and fries. I substituted their sauteed spinach – served in a tangle with the broccoli rabe, though no complaints here since it was all well-salted and delicious – for the fries. Though a fattier cut than other steaks, rib eye is undoubtedly flavorful, and the deft immersion of garlic throughout the dish elevates the flavor profile of the steak. I ordered it medium rare and it was cooked to my preferred temperature. You may think steak shouldn’t be at the top of your list of options at an Italian restaurant, but Boccone’s offering supersedes many true steakhouses, in my view.

Boccone also has a lovely, diverse dessert menu with housemade favorites like cannolis. Although we passed on our latest outing, I recall every one we previously tried to be truly outstanding.

Anyone in Essex County – or from further away as it’s worth the trip – must go to Boccone. Since I sense their new location may result in less visibility for them, I’m going to make a point of getting a babysitter more often just so MDP and I can regularly dine there. Who *doesn’t* want to be treated like a queen and eat a meal fit for one too?