Eating Out in New Jersey

Atlantic City: Carmine's, 2801 Pacific Ave. Phone (609) 348-6737 Good food served family style and a la carte for salads, entree and desserts. And each salad, entree and dessert will easily serve four people and you'll still have leftovers. The price reflects the size of the portions, prepare yourself for a big bill. Excellent service, friendly staff. (9/2009)

Cape May Courthouse: Clary's Country Corner Restaurant, 2 W. Hereford Ave, Phone (609) 465-4361 We stopped here for lunch after exploring Cape May State Park as there had been a lot of cars here earlier. My fried flounder sandwich was just so-so, barely hot for something freshly cooked. Denny's reuben was just okay. I see a lot of great reviews online for their breakfasts, which is where their specialties lie. Plus we arrived just before they closed for the afternoon, which we didn't realize until we sat down and ordered. So the kitchen staff probably wasn't too careful with our order. We'd give this restaurant another shot and come for breakfast. (9/2009)

Galloway: Athenian Garden, 619 S. New York Rd. Phone (609) 748-1818 We had lunch here courtesy of some friends and we all had a very pleasant experience. The restaurant is located in a large, older home and decorated in a sunny, bright manner. Three of us had the gyros with the chicken avgolemono soup, Denny had the sausage, pepper and onion wrap with Manhattan clam chowder. It was all delicious. Our server was helpful in explaining the dishes, pronouncing them for us and smiling as we stumbled through our attempts at repeating what he said. For dessert, the four of us split a serving of ek mek—delightful! Reasonable for the area. (8/2011)

Romanelli's Garden Cafe, 279 S. New York Rd. Phone (609) 652-0179 Lovely interior, gracious and friendly staff, a nice breakfast. Excellent bread pudding with whiskey sauce and tasty bacon topped apple muffin which was more like a cupcake. If we go back to the area, we'd try an evening meal.

Leeds: Oyster Creek Inn, 41 N. Oyster Creek Rd. Phone (609) 652-8565 There are two separate sections of this restaurant; the crab Shack and the dining room section. Each has its own menu and you can't sit in the Crab Shack and order off the dining room menu or vice versa. And there is only one check per table—house rules. That out of the way, the food is good, albeit pricey. If you sit in the Crab Shack you have a view of the marshes and birds and on Friday night there is live entertainment. There are also picnic tables on the deck should you want to eat out in the open rather than the screened Crab Shack. Our waitress was a bit surly and abrupt but we didn't allow it to ruin our meal. The Crab Norfolk is very good and a nice way for a beginning crab eater like me to enjoy crab without having the mess of trying to dig out the meal from the shell myself. Denny's fish sandwich was good also. (8/2011)

Old Bridge: The Pine Tavern, 151 Rt. 34 N, Phone (732) 727-5060 Denny's cousin recommended this one and we were disappointed in the quality of the prime rib we both had--it was tough and chewy although it had a very good flavor. The steamed spinach was good, but the waitress (or the cook) got all three orders wrong. I don't think we'd do this one again, but maybe they were just having a bad night. Pricey. (9/2009)

Parlin: Santinos Ristorante and Pizzeria, 499 Ernston Rd. (also shows up as Sayreville, NJ) Phone (732) 721-3163 Tasty Italian subs (hoagies). Once we arrived to pick up our order, I almost wished we had ordered pizza--what they had out at lunchtime looked and smelled wonderful. It was the first time I saw pizzas with calamari and pasta as ingredients. (9/2009)

Seaside Park: Berkley's Fish Market and Restaurant, 24th & Central, Phone (732) 793-0400 A nice view of the Barnegat Bay while you're dining on the second floor. Nice Jimmy Buffet style decor, great fried flounder sandwiches and nice staff. Just outside of Island Beach State Park with miles of beach (shore if you live in NJ) and a few geocaches. (9/2009)