By Zach Brown, Berks County Eats
In early 2025, one of our favorite Italian restaurants — Mangia — closed after 15 years in business. Suddenly, we needed a new go-to Italian spot.
I think we may have found it with the newly opened Stefano’s Ristorante & Bakery Cafe.
Stefano’s first opened their doors in January 2026 before celebrating its grand opening the following month. The restaurant took over the former Mary Jane’s Kitchen along State Hill Road.
Two doors down is The Original Mama’s Pizza (our son’s favorite pizza), and while you can get Italian at both, the two restaurants could not be more different.
Mama’s is your typical takeout-first pizza place with a counter of ready-to-heat slices, while Stefano’s is a full-service, sit-down dining experience.
Julie and I arrived in the late afternoon for a date night dinner. The restaurant wasn’t quite half-full when we arrived, but there wasn’t a table to be had by the time we left. The dining room isn’t huge, but it has a decent number of seats with tables for two and four. A large banquette sits along one wall — tables there were pushed together to accommodate larger groups. And by the entrance, a counter with tall stools looked out the front window.
Our server was at our table quickly for our drink order and back again for our food choices. Our pasta dinners each came with a house salad and a choice of dressing.
The presentation on the salad was unique — a thinly sliced cucumber was formed into a small bowl shape to hold the mixed greens. Once the cucumber was “opened,” it revealed a sizable salad which was topped with tomato, croutons, and sliced carrots.
We were still finishing our salads when the main course arrived at our table.
For me, it was “Nonna’s stuffed eggplant,” a twist on the traditional eggplant Parmesan. Rather than a heavy breading on the outside, the eggplant was stuffed with breadcrumbs and ricotta cheese and was served with housemade tagliatelle pasta.
Everything about the dish was impressive. The homemade pasta was thicker than store-bought, which let it hold the sauce better. The eggplant was perfect with the creamy ricotta, adding another level of flavor beyond the basic mozzarella.
Juile, meanwhile, really enjoyed her lobster ravioli.
The plate was filled with large homemade ravioli stuffed with lobster and ricotta. Pieces of shrimp were also swimming in the rich sauce. While the dish was rich, it was delicious. From the creamy sauce to the perfectly stuffed raviolis — every bite was amazing.
When you walk into Stefano’s, you can’t miss the dessert case, and a slice of cake was calling our name, so we decided to save some of our meals for lunch the next day.
By this time, the restaurant was busy. All of the tables had been filled. Unfortunately, service slowed as a result, and we found ourselves waiting about 20 minutes for our server to take our dessert order. (Another server or hostess came by and boxed our leftovers for us in the meantime.) Another 10 minutes later, we had our slice of mango cream cheesecake.
What about this instead: This wasn’t your typical cheesecake. It was more cake-like with a light and airy texture. It had three layers of cake with cream in between each layer. The plate was dusted with powdered sugar, and the slice was served with a dollop of whipped cream.
It was an indulgence, but absolutely worth it.
Our bill was around the $65 mark, which felt right for the portion size and the quality of the food. The service was great early on, but when the dining room got busy, our server seemed to get a little overwhelmed.
While the service should get better with time and training, the food is already great. That’s enough to keep us coming back for more.
And who knows? Maybe we just found our new favorite Italian spot.
BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: $$
Stefano’s Ristorante & Bakery Cafe
1816 State Hill Road
Wyomissing, PA 19610
This story was contributed courtesy of Berks County Eats, a local resource for food and dining information. Berks County Eats is dedicated to promoting the dining scene in Reading and Berks County, PA, offering restaurant reviews, news, and events, and a comprehensive Berks County restaurant directory. You can read more at berkscountyeats.com.
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