Finding a steakhouse in Central Jersey

My husband and I enjoy a good steak restaurant, the standard style of New York steakhouse where the menu consists of steak and seafood entrees, caesar salad and shrimp cocktail as appetizers and various potatoes as sides.  Since moving to Old Bridge though, we had a tough time finding this style of restaurants.  The "steakhouses" in the area are either Italian style steakhouses which, even though they are advertised as steakhouses, still specialize in the typical Italian fare or they have an "everything under the sun" type of menu which features everything from burgers and sandwiches to pasta dishes and from seafood to chicken wings.  Since it doesn't come across as their specialty, it is tough to order steak at these places.  We have kept searching though.

Last night, we searched again and found Witherspoon Grill in Princeton.  It was a longer drive than we would have liked (interestingly enough though our GPS seemed to take us a really long way to get there and then on the way home took a completely different way which was half the time), and it was bitter cold outside.  Once we found a parking garage next to the restaurant so that we wouldn't have to be in the cold too long, we both decided it was worth it.  We bundled up and ventured to the restaurant.

The restaurant does not take reservations so we had to wait twenty minutes.  We went into the bar area to wait, since the front of the restaurant was cramped and crowded.  We both didn't want a drink yet though so we just waited there.  While we were waiting there, we noticed three open tables to the side of the bar, one for two people and two for four people.  Interestingly enough, after our twenty minutes of waiting, we were seated at the two person table there.  I am still not sure why we had to wait since the table had been set and cleaned already, but I will never know the answer.  

While waiting, a woman and her friend came into the bar and were very talkative with the bartenders.  It was the one woman's birthday, and they wanted to eat in the bar area.  I found it strange that for a celebratory occasion, they wanted to eat in the cramped bar area, but maybe that is just me.  I definitely prefer the space of a table if I am having a relaxing enjoyable meal.  I only like to sit in the bar area when I want to have a quick meal.  They were definitely interesting though.  They first sat at a small table in the bar area but were unhappy there (I guess it was too much space) and asked to have the next available seats at the bar itself.  Again, I was confused why they wanted as little space as possible but to each their own I guess.  When they were finally seated, the birthday woman made a grandiose announcement that she wanted to "keep summer alive" and ordered a glass of rose.  Again, I was expecting an order of a daiquiri, a margarita, some alcoholic lemonade or something similarly refreshing and fruity.  I was not expected a glass of rose.  Finally though the entertainment had to end with the hostess coming over and escorting us to the table that had been open for the last twenty minutes. 

To keep with the theme of entertaining diners, the tables in the restaurant were very close to each other so we were able to listen to the discussions going on on both sides of us.  On our one side was an adult man and woman with two younger boys.  Like our hibachi experience from an earlier post, it seemed as though the man and woman were dating and each had brought their son.  On the other side was two couples on a double date.  The man in the one couple was acting like the "Mayor of Princeton," in a cocky ostentatious voice he kept talking about how great Princeton is with all the wonderful places he's been and activities he's done in the area.

Aside from our fellow diners, dinner itself was very good.  My husband started with the lobster bisque and then enjoyed filet mignon cooked medium with a side of onion rings.  I tried the caesar salad and also had a filet mignon cooked rare with a side of french fries.  Everything was tasty and enjoyable.  We had a bottle of Malbec with dinner from the discount wine list which was very enjoyable too.  Our waitress too was very friendly and attentive.

Dinner at Witherspoon Grill made for an enjoyable Saturday night.

Grandma Pizza - Central Jersey at its best

Since moving to Central Jersey, I have found three things food wise that the area does better than the rest - the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, the fresh, straight from the ocean seafood and, last but not least, grandma style pizza.  I had never even heard of grandma pizza before moving to the area.  Whenever I had heard the term "sicilian," it always meant thick crust.  This is not the case in Central Jersey.  Here, a grandma pizza is a thin crust, sicilian pizza served best when made with fresh mozzarella.  It is definitely one of my new favorite things.  My husband have tried them at Old Bridge Pizzeria and Bacci Brick Oven.  The two pies have their own unique flavors, but both are delicious in their own ways.

The only problem with Grandma Pizza is that it only ever comes in one size.  My husband and I can eat a decent amount of pizza, but when it comes to trying to finish a Grandma, there is always some that goes to waste.  It feels like such a shame to throw away such a tasty meal.   

Back in Philly for My Sister's Birthday

Last night my family celebrated my sister's birthday at Cuba Libra in Philadelphia.  My husband and I drove down Saturday but got to the restaurant an hour early.  We were going to go in for a drink at the bar, but the entrance was mobbed so we decided to go to Bleu Martini next door.  I enjoyed a Strawberry Blonde, and my husband ordered a vodka and ginger ale.  I really enjoy fruit flavored, sugary sweet martinis, and my Strawberry Blonde definitely hit the mark.  It was a delicious drink and went down easily.  Just out of curiosity, my husband checked the menu at Bleu Martini, and it looked good.  If we lived in the area, we would definitely give it a try.

When the rest of my family arrived, we went back over to Cuba Libre.  We were seated immediately (right at our reservation time).  The bar was still crowded, and there were no open tables in the dining room.  My parents and brother and sister all had different types of mojitos.  I am not a fan of mojitos.  I don't like the mint taste in them.  Trying to keep with the spirit of the restaurant though, I tried a Raspberry Caipirinha.  It was definitely yummy.  The sad part though is that at least for me it was the highlight of my meal.  The worst part is that it wasn't that my food was bad, it was that the portions were so small that I left hungry but the bill was still substantial.  

Back though to what I had to eat.  I started with the only salad on the menu, really the only item with vegetables on the entire menu, the Ensalada C L T.  The salad was fairly uninspired.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.  For dinner, I had the Camarones con Cana.  This is definitely where portion shock came into play.  My plate had six shrimp in total.  Six shrimp for twenty-six dollars is a little ridiculous if you ask me.  I had also asked to have white rice in lieu of the pepper, but when my plate came out, there was no rice to be seen.  The sauce on the shrimp was spicy but tasty.  I did enjoy what little food I had, but as I said, it was definitely a little bit of food.  The rest of my family felt the same way.  My Mom and sister had the paella which they said they could barely see on their plate.  My husband had the salmon.  My Dad and brother split the Plato Gaucho for Two (which looked like Plato Gaucho for 1.5 if that).

One thing I have to say before I go on is that while my family definitely enjoys good food, they are not large people by any stretch of the mind.  When they go out to eat though, they like to leave satisfied.  At Cuba Libre, everyone left hungry.

For dessert, my Mom and sister each had flan, and I had berries with cream.  Again it was nothing over the top, but I think my dessert might have actually been bigger than my dinner.

The restaurant itself did well with the Cuban theme.  The room was decorated as if it was a courtyard surrounded by Spanish style villas.  The ambiance was great.  However, the bathroom left much to be desired.  There were only two individual bathrooms for the entire restaurant, and they both reminded me of a bathroom at a dive bar, not a restaurant that charges twenty-five dollars for an entree.

All in all though, the company was great.  I was happy to be able to celebrate my sister's twenty-second birthday with her.  My husband and I learned that it is only an hour and fifteen minutes from our house to downtown Philadelphia.  The drinks were delicious.  So, the night was definitely a great time.  Nevertheless, without good food, all of this fades to the side.  I do not plan to return to Cuba Libre.

Luigi's in Old Bridge

I have already mentioned Luigi's and their steak sandwiches (closest match to a Philly steak sandwiches that we have found this side of the Delaware River) in an earlier post.  Since moving to Old Bridge though, Luigi's has been one of our top choices for delivery and not just for their steak sandwiches.  This Friday night we ordered from there again.  My husband stuck with the steak sandwich, but I had a chicken caesar wrap.  The wrap is very good.  The chicken is lean, and the dressing is very tasty.  One thing to note though is that it is a very messy wrap.  I'm not sure if it's just me and my clumsiness taking effect, but I always end up with my hands covered in dressing from this wrap.  This is one occasion though where I'll put up with the mess.  I usually don't like foods that make my hands messy (crabs and buffalo wings are on my list for this reason).  I don't know why.  It's just one of my quirks I guess.  When it comes to the chicken caesar wrap at Luigi's though, I don't mind the mess.  The wrap itself doesn't fall apart.  The dressing just oozes out of the wrap and onto to the plate or my hands.  However, the dressing makes the wrap.  It is a good, messy wrap.  

Park Ave Bistro - the NJ one (not the NYC one)

Yesterday my family came over to our house to spend the afternoon and evening with my husband and myself.  They came to see our Christmas decorations (we bought our first tree this year and put up outside lights for the first time too... a feat I'm proud to say we accomplished not with grace but still with success).  My Dad also helped us put in a dimmer for our new dining room chandelier.  I tried to get him to come over and not do any handy man work for once, but he can't help himself and I definitely don't say no too forcefully.  He has definitely been our savior with our new house projects.  

I also made my second batch of cupcakes from my sister's Christmas present to me - the Martha Stewart Cupcake book.  This second batch was just as good if not better than the first.  The other week my husband and I went to brunch at his grandparent's, and I brought my first batch - Gingerbread cupcakes.  This time I made vanilla cupcakes with dark chocolate icing which are so yummy.  The cake is moist and bouncy for lack of a better word.  The dark chocolate frosting is to die for.  I highly recommend these.  

For dinner, we ventured out into the snow to Park Ave Bistro in Freehold as while I can bake, cooking is not my forte.  I can boil water for pasta or saute meat for tacos, but anything more intense still scares me.  I am gearing myself up though to try more complex meat dishes.  I even got a roasting pan for Christmas to ready myself for this quest.  The telling sign though is that I have already broken out the gingerbread man spatula and cupcake cookbook but the roasting pan is still in its box.  

So the first thing I have to admit too is that I pulled my first ever table move at a restaurant.  My in-laws are notorious for not keeping the first table they are seated at a restaurant.  At first, it bothered me but now I completely understand.  There is no reason for not being happy and settling when out to eat.  If a better table is available, I think you should ask to be moved.  Why not?  You deserve it.  The first table we were seated at was in direct line with the front door and whenever it opened it was freezing, so I went and ask the hostess to push the two tables in the middle of the room together and seat us there.  She was gracious and obliged.  I greatly appreciated it.  It made our dining experience so much more enjoyable.

I mentioned in an earlier post that to me, a good restaurant is defined by the food.  Our meal at Park Ave Bistro exemplified that.  The food was very tasty.  Around the table, we had many different starters that were all shared - mozzarella and tomato, fried mozzarella sticks, buffalo chicken tenders, house salad and bacon wrapped scallops.  Everybody enjoyed.  For dinner, we had bruschetta chicken with french fries, ribs with onion strings, hamburgers and cajun chicken linguini.  For drinks, there were a couple beers, a couple glasses of house white and red wine and two very yummy strawberry martinis.  At the end of the night, everyone agreed that it was definitely worth a return trip.  One thing to note, definitely go hungry if you plan to eat the ribs.  They looked as if they came from a couple different animals and as if they were designed for an army.  Tasty but overwhelming.

Dinner with my family is always a great time and when it's surrounded with good food, it's even better.  Last night definitely fit the bill.

What I thought was Cella Luna

It appears that Cella Luna has either changed its name or gone away and become a new restaurant entirely called Cucina Michael.  Whatever the case, that is where my husband and I went to have dinner on Friday night.  We made the fatal mistake that night to forget to call ahead of time to ask if the place was BYOB (a very necessary pre-dining activity in Central New Jersey).  So we arrived empty handed which on a Friday night after a long week is not the way to arrive.

We were seated quickly as there were a couple empty tables.  There was a kid's soccer party going on in the other room (which seemed strange at 8PM on a Friday night but I don't know.  We're not in the "kids" world yet).  The kids ran between the party room and the dining room all meal long.  At the end of the night, I totally understood the table of open wine bottles in that party room.

Our meal though started off well.  We had mozzarella en carozza.  It was delicious little triangles of breaded mozzarella goodness.  Our entrees though were a different story.  While the basics were good (my husband's chicken parmesan and my shrimp and linguini), there was overall way too much sauce on both dishes.  The top portions of our entrees were yummy but when you got to the part of the plate that curved into a little bowl, everything was so drenched in sauce that it became unappetizing.  It was definitely a shame.

So while we loved our appetizer, we will not be returning.

Wine Store on New Year's Eve

Crash!  I turned around from my position in line to see the flow of red wine running across the floor of the liquor store and the scattered broken pieces of glass puncturing its smooth journey across the room.  A customer a couple people behind me in line at the liquor store had dropped his bottle of wine on the floor.  It made me wonder how many times bottles are broken in liquor stores.  I never really thought about it before, but now I really wonder.  It definitely seems like it is one of the biggest hazards of running a wine store.  From one of the most clumsy people, I won't say that I have never done it (for fear of jinxing myself more than anything), but I will say I never thought it before.  This is coming from the person who a couple years ago was enjoying a very romantic dinner with my then boyfriend and now husband at The Ocean Club in Scottsdale, Arizona and who at the end of the meal made a very ostentatious gesture with her hand and knocked the wine glasses on the floor smashing them to pieces.  It is also coming from the girl who just the other month was taking a jar of tomato sauce out of the fridge and had it "slip" from her hand and splatter all other the floor into a million pieces.  Months later, we are still finding glass shards in the kitchen.  So needless to say, I should be one to see a store full of glass items and expect that things would break there all the time.  However, it never crossed my mind until this New Year's Eve.

This New Year's Eve my husband and I stayed in, had pizza and buffalo wings and enjoyed our new house.  It was perfect.  My husband ordered the wings from Anchor Bar in Buffalo which if you haven't done it is very cool.  They ship them overnight to be delivered around 11AM the next day.  Although I am not a fan of buffalo wings (They are too messy for my taste.  I don't like when my hands get messy while eating.  It's a silly thing of mine.  I'm the same way about crabs, too messy to enjoy.  I don't mind my mouth getting messy.  It's my hands that bother me), my husband enjoys them, and he especially likes getting them from Buffalo.

So we went to the wine store that day to pick up beer and wine for out at home celebration.  I have to admit, I was shocked by how crowded the liquor store was at 5PM on New Year Eve's.  I would have thought that people would have either already had their alcohol for the night or would have been going out to dinner and not needed it, but I guess there are a lot of BYOBs in our neighborhood and people must get what they need at the last minute.  I mean the store was mobbed.  The check out line went all the way from the front of the store to the back.  It was impressive.

I'm adding it though to my list of places to avoid: grocery stores on the eve of the eve of a major holiday and liquor stores on New Year's Eve.  Next year, I will be more prepared.  Let's just see though how long I keep that resolution!

Blue Water Seafood Company

My husband went to a bachelor party last spring in DC where he had these buffalo shrimp that he absolutely loved.  So begun our quest to find buffalo shrimp in Jersey.  We had no luck until moving to Old Bridge and coming across Dino's Fishery in Hazlet.  The buffalo shrimp there fit the bill, and my husband would them as take out for lunch on the weekend fairly often.  Recently though, the Dino's Fishery phone number has been going right to voicemail, and we have been unable to get them.  

The other week we were both craving seafood, and with Dino's still not picking up the phone, we went online to try and find another seafood place.  While we couldn't find buffalo shrimp on any menus, we did find the Blue Water Seafood Company in East Brunswick, NJ, a place with such solid reviews that we figured we would give it a try.  We were not disappointed.  The restaurant is in a small unassuming building on the side of the road on 18N, but the food is delicious.  The fish is fresh and tasty.  We had fried calamari to start in a mango salsa which was absolutely delicious.  The portion was huge so we were unable to finish it all.  For dinner, my husband had salmon while I enjoyed grilled shrimp and scallops with a side of french fries.  Everything was cooked perfectly.  My husband had been eying the lobster bisque pot in the corner of the room all night and after dinner in lieu of dessert, he had a cup of the bisque.  

The restaurant may be small but the food definitely makes it and isn't that what should make a restaurant.  I always find it strange when people complain about service and restaurant set-up in a place where they enjoyed the food.  To me, if the food is good, the rest is just icing.  While I like icing to live up to the expectations the food sets, it won't stop me from going back to a restaurant.

I definitely recommend Blue Water Seafood Company.