BeerWeezil's Profile
Enzo's Caffe Italia Toms River New Jersey
By "spurge" and "fancy" at Il Giardinello, you mean the prices not the quality of the food or the service, right?
Spuntino Wine Bar & Tapas - Clifton
You can be confident and not get your hopes up; the Frankies (Castronovo and Falcinelli of Manhattan and Brooklyn's Frankies Spuntino and Brooklyn's Prime Meats) are not involved.
Where to find balsamico in Northern NJ?
Do you have time to run into New York to go to DiPalo's on Grand Street? Frankly, I wouldn't buy it from anyone except Lou and Sal.
"Red sauce" Italian
We loathe it because it's done so poorly EVERYWHERE (well, except for Carbone and Torrisi's PARM). Personally, I'd much rather just stay home and make these kinds of things myself instead of suffering through the horrible slop that passes for Italian-American.
Just because you're putting a domestic spin on traditional dishes doesn't mean you neglect the basic rules of cooking good food.
NEW Cracker Barrel to open on Rt9 / Rt37 Toms River
People have to realize this is the Toms River equivalent of Thomas Keller opening a spot in town.
I'm so glad I finally got out.
Northern New Jersey Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans
Honesty, why don't you just order coffee from your favorite roasters online?
I don't bother treking into New York or Philadelphia to try and track down what I need on a regular basis anymore, only if I'm in the area and have the time.
Anyone tried Aqua Blue in Toms River?
I find this question funny because it's Toms River.
25 Burgers in Branchburg
The Royal, which is attached to the former Branchburg Diner, is my buddy's local bar and he's there multiple times a week. According to him, 25 Burgers has taken over the diner's kitchen, from which The Royal served various easy bar snacks, and you can get the 25 Burger's offerings inside the bar until they rennovate the diner.
Deninos Pizza new Brick Location
Yes! My aunt and uncle had dinner for my cousin's birthday there this past Saturday evening. It was very busy and didn't seem like it was going to be letting up.
I'll say this for my review in brief; it didn't suck, which for Ocean County is something unheard of, particularly for pizza. Especially compared to the abysmal Tommy's "Coal-Fired" Pizza on Route 70 in Brick/Lakewood and the awful Nino's "Coal-Fired" Pizza on Route 9 and Cox Cro Road in Toms River which seem to be the hot joints these days. Also, anything touting its Staten Island pedigree always makes me at best suspicious and hesitant and at worst violently opposed.
The lot of 13 of us had the rice balls, which are served curt in quarters with chopped meat and peas in tomato sauce but oddly lacking discernable rice (really good, otherwise), wholly unremarkable, standard, boring fried calamari, and the spinach salad with walnuts, goat cheese, and sliced apples, untossed (which both my brother and I despise) with a very sweet, out-of-the-bottle raspberry vinaigrette. All in all, appetizer course ranked neutral.
For pizzas, we ordered a regular, a margherita, a buffalo chicken (my cousin's favorite), and a broccoli rabe with sausage. Denino's is a place that proves you CAN make a half-way decent pizza, COOKED PROPERLY in your standard pizza parlor oven provided you turn the temperature in the oven up high enough. The crusts were thin, yet crispy and suprisingly resiliant with no saltine cracker or matzoh vibe which is common in this type and a litte black char. The margherita was simple and well done, dare I say correctly done. My mom, who hates thin crust and most pizzas she or I don't make ourselves, had four slices to the delight of my uncle. I'm not a fan of the other two "specialty" pizzas, but they were popular and overall we left nothing behind.
All in all, I was presently surprised by the quality of the pizzas and it gets a solid, "will at least try again once or until I'm disappointed." I'm not sure how well the place will fare once we get deeper into the fall winter, but there was talk of already expanding. It's in a rotten place right off of Old Hooper Avenue on Mantoloking Road so we'll see how long it lasts.
I'd definitely recommend giving it a try especially as you've had such experience with the original.
Bday dinner with a 4yr old in Montclair - suggestions?
You can do what my mom used to do with my brother and me; feed your son at home before going out to dinner. Then he can just pick and you don't have to worry about food fussiness at whatever restaurant you choose.
Ja Rock Jamaican Restaurant Toms River
It's definitely a great place, much better than anything else in that particular strip mall. My coworkers and I went for lunch ourselves a while back and absolutely loved it. The best part was the owner urging us to have the beef patties while he was chowing down on one freshly out of the kitchen.
Delirium Tremens beer in New Jersey or PA
It's not that rare; I can find it pretty easily in most liquor stores locally. Nocturnum is slightly more hard to come by.
Brasa Portugese BBQ Toms River
My dad and I noticed this place a couple of times coming back from watching my cousin play baseball in Lavalette this summer; I think we're going to check it out tonight. Let's see how it holds up to the Newark joints I know so well from college.
Toms River Diners?
The Toms River Diner was/is my diner all through high school and college. I started and ended many an evening there over the years. These days, my circle of friends have dispersed - some were banned from the TRD, which is another story - so I find myself there less and less. When the Saturn dealership on 37 was open, I always stopped in for breakfast whilst my car was being serviced. Every once and a while I'll go for lunch or very late night for coffee. Most days I end up either at the Ocean Queen or the Rainbow Diner in Brick, the Ocean Bay Diner in Point Pleasant, or the Broadway Diner in Red Bank just because I'm in those areas more often. But those are well out of scope for the request of the original poster.
The food at the TRD isn't exceptionally good by any stretch of the imagination and can fluctuate wildly in quality depending on who's in the back. However, some will debate that observation. One of my oldest friends swears by the tomato sauce which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole being held by someone else. All in all, it's a solid diner, not fancy, definitely not gourmet, but solid.
The absolute best diner in the area was the Dover Diner at the intersection of Old Freehold Road and Route 166. They were only open for breakfast and lunch but they were absolutely the best in the area. It's been almost 2 years - correct me if I'm wrong - since the owner of the Dover Mall had it demolished to build his business's headquarters on the site.
I also really like the Fast Break down Route 37 East at the intersection of Vaughn Avenue. They're mostly a breakfast/luncheonette but have great breakfast sandwiches and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
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Rainbow Diner Restaurant
State Highway 70 N, Brick, NJ 08723
Ocean Bay Diner
1519 Richmond Ave, Point Pleasant Boro, NJ 08742
Toms River Diner
State Highway 37 NE, Toms River, NJ 08753
Brickwall (Asbury Park)
I agree; the food did seem much better in the past. Oh, do I miss the prime rib hash...
a new old beer from Yeungling
Yuengling is my cheap beer of choice; I'm sure this one is more than as good as the rest.
Market In The Middle - Appears to be CLOSED
Trinity and the Pope, eh? Sounds interesting. Wow, I am SO glad that that wretched Mattison Park monstrocity is gone for good.
I used to be a huge proponent of Brickwall's food early on, but as everything in this part of the state, is starts strong and gets mediocre quick. They used to do a prime rib hash with eggs that was just stellar...
1500 beers under one roof in NJ
Yup, that's the place, and you're right, totally; I'm sorry for the confusion. I usually make it there on auto pilot anyway. Funny, the friend who recommended me to it originally said it was in Edison - which obviously it isn't - and he'd been going there for years.
1500 beers under one roof in NJ
OK! Finally made it up there this past weekend. Intitial impression was that it was indeed very new; however, the beer section and selection was sizeable and really not bad at all. There was an overall spottiness to the shelves which tells me the post holiday restocking hasn't taken place yet. My biggest concern is with longevity and if they can both maintain and expand on this inventory.
Overall though, the Oak Tree Buy Rite in West Plainfield is still king by far; Dan and the gang's import selection is particularly unmatched.
Tuscan House Toms River
I disagree, Jackie C; I think it'll be there for a very long time. Flashy mediocrity has a way of hanging around in Toms River.
1500 beers under one roof in NJ
Sorry, forgot about this thread! I'll give you a preliminary, second hand review until I can make it there myself.
My brother stopped in on the way home from Hoboken before Christmas to pick up some Anchor "Our Special Ale" magnums and confirmed the massive size of the place. He reported that the beer inventory is substantial and may surpass the Oak Tree.
However, two points he did make were that it is not as strong on foreigns and weird brews nor was the staff anywhere near as knowlegeable or helpful as Dan Rati's staff in West Plainfield. He also didn't have a lot of time to browse as he was looking to get out of North Jersey as fast as possible that day.
The overall concern was how long they were going to maintain this inventory at this location. Were the Hoboken yupsters really going to come this far for good beer when they can get PBR by the pitcher around the corner? And are the riverside Jersey City yupsters going to make the same trip from the opposite direction when the Iron Monkey and the Hoffsbrau Haus is so close? Time will only tell.
More to come when we give it thorough shake down, stay tuned!
Xmas Eve treat -- 1997 Thomas Hardy Ale and more...
They're discontinuing Thomas Hardy's AGAIN at a different brewer? Wow...
UVA Restaurant and Wine Bar Bradley Beach NJ
This is actually owned by old friends of mine from high school; sufficed to say, I haven't made it there yet.
River Market Toms River NJ Amazing Lunch Today!
Were the high school students behaved when you were there for lunch? I avoid the place at that time of the day just to avoid having to deal with them.
Beer delivery to San Francisco?
I'd give a call to Craig and Beth at City Beer Store and see if they'll prepare a care/gift package for you.
http://www.citybeerstore.com
Tuscan House Toms River
My father and I took a gamble and tried this out on Tuesday evening. Let me preface my one-line review by saying this, my expectations weren't very high going in and luckily they succeeded in just barely hitting my already low-placed bar.
OK, my overall impression which summed up both mine and Dad's thoughts?
"They've spent a LOT of money on everything at his place except the food."
Boring menu, cheap ingredients, tasteless dishes, mediocre bar-out-of-a-box bar, tons of wasted space, oddly laid out dining room.
Toms River again impresses...
1500 beers under one roof in NJ
I'll check it out this weekend and see how it stacks up to the Oak Tree Buy Rite in West Plainfield which is the current king of beers in NJ and highly recommended.
Need a Recommendation in Cherry Hill
Actually, it's "Caffe" Aldo Lamberti which is a mispelling.
Can anyone tell me why?
