Raia’s in Long Branch wins praise for its truffle pasta

Raia’s in Long Branch opened in April in the former Tuzzio’s space on Westwood Avenue, and its tagliatelle al tartufo is already acting like the dish that defines the room. That is the clearest sign so far that the restaurant is drawing attention well beyond a typical shore debut. It is behaving less like a new neighborhood Italian spot and more like a place people are willing to drive for.

The restaurant comes from Joe Conti and Stephania Raia Conti, whose background includes Little Buca in Little Silver and the Il Mulino restaurants in the United States. That pedigree shows in the way Raia’s presents itself: coastal Italian cooking, old-school hospitality and a little bit of glamour, all packed into a dining room that aims higher than the standard Jersey Shore red-sauce formula. The result is a place that feels built to matter in Long Branch, not just fill a summer slot.

The menu gives that ambition a few different gears. The meal began with General Tso’s calamari, a sharp turn from classic Italian expectations that still landed as one of the most flavorful plates on the table. From there, the food moved into more familiar territory with carciofi alla giudia, before the pasta course took over with tagliatelle al tartufo. That dish became the centerpiece for pasta watchers because it was not treated like a side note or a safe default. It was the course that carried the most weight.

Stephania Conti said the concept draws from travel to Italy and years of restaurant experience, while the kitchen continues to evolve and test new ideas. That helps explain why Raia’s feels more layered than a simple shoreline opening. The owners are also building out cocktails and wine around the food, which gives the place the bones of a full-night destination rather than a one-dish stop.

For the Jersey Shore, where many dining rooms lean heavily on seafood, steak and atmosphere, Raia’s is staking out a different lane. The polished space, the family-backed operators and the truffle pasta all point in the same direction: this is a restaurant trying to become part of the region’s regular dining map, not just its summer chatter. The tagliatelle al tartufo is the proof point, and it is the reason Long Branch already feels like a destination on the rise.