Celebratory Fine Dining
Due to some major events in their lives, two of my best friends have a lot of reason to celebrate. I'm supposed to select a nice restaurant where we could have a leisurely meal and enjoy ourselves. I've narrowed it down to five places and would appreciate any input:
Blue Bottle Cafe - we love this place. But we ALWAYS go here. Time for something new maybe?
Hamilton's Grill Room - I've heard it's gone downhill, but we love Lambertville, and it seems like a pleasant place with an interesting menu.
The Frog and the Peach - mixed reviews, but one of my friends lives in the area.
The Ferry House - Princeton is a great place to wander around, so we might cap off a day there with a dinner at the Ferry House. Plus I love mushrooms and they have a mushroom section on their menu:)
Rat's at Grounds For Sculpture - I know the restaurant is not a favorite on these boards, but I do love the park it's attached to, and it could be a good time.
Sooo... anybody have any thoughts?
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The Frog and the Peach
29 Dennis St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Hamilton's Grill Room
8 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530
Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525
Ferry House
32 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ 08542
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Sorry tom246, I didn't mean to be cruel!
My friends and I had another lovely dinner at the Blue Bottle Café the other night.
We started off with salads and apps – one friend had a brie tart topped with mangoes, which she found quite lovely and the other had a frisee salad with a creamy dressing and some tiny purple potatoes that she seemed to like (she is never very verbal about her food). I LOVED my salad – a bed of lentil pilaf topped with lightly dressed red lettuce, goat cheese crumbles and roasted yellow beets. The flavors went together perfectly. I mean, when you take it apart, I guess it was just an ordinary salad dumped over some lentils, but the end result was better than the sum of its parts, if that makes any sense at all.For our entrees, my one friend (the one who doesn’t really talk about food) had mahi mahi over forbidden black rice. I don’t like fish that much, so I didn’t question her too closely except to figure out that she was beyond satisfied. My other friend had the gnocchi dish which was porcini flavored gnocchi in a light cream sauce with peas and asparagus and mushrooms. She ALWAYS gets the gnocchi dish at BBC because she seldom comes across gnocchi that light. These lived up to her expectations and she was very pleased with the dish overall.
I had a pork chop that could only be described as … GINORMOUS. Seriously. In any case, it was nevertheless very tender, and the honey sauce was a perfect complement. It came with a flavorful side mix of purple potatoes, fennel, pancetta, mushrooms and leeks that was almost more interesting than the meat. I really like those little purple potatoes, with their hint of sweetness.
We were stuffed, but the dessert menu was too tempting, so two of us got desserts. I had the S’mores Tart, with dark chocolate pudding, a graham cracker crust and a very light homemade marshmallow. It was a bit rich, but incredibly delicious. I don’t think I could go back to eating regular s’mores after this. My friend had the Dulce De Tres Leches, which was amazingly light for something that was so over-the-top creamy. I only had a sample bite, but I would probably advise going with that if they ran out of the s’mores.
All that and the bill came to about $145. Not bad. My friends and I have now racked up three visits to the BBC over the last few years, and they have yet to make a single misstep. I would love to visit some of the other places mentioned in my previous comments and original questions, but it keeps getting harder to steer away With the menu being revamped on a regular basis, it’s hard to get tired of it.
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Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525›1 Reply -
The friends voted for Blue Bottle Cafe again - I'm so not complaining:) Hopefully I'll be able to post up a review sometime this weekend...
Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm going to try to find reasons to go try them all!
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Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525›4 Replies -
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Foody4life
Apr 21, 2010 05:24 PM
You can always get to BBC and Due Mari would be my 2nd choice above Rat's and F&P. But for a truly celebratory fine dining experience, how bout one of the two chef's tables at elements?! Scott preparing a personal experience for you and your two best friends would make for a once-in-a-great-while evening!
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bgut1
Apr 21, 2010 01:37 PM
Heatherb - A couple of questions: How important is BYOB to you? Are you willing to try other restaurants and if so what are the limits of your geographic area? Of those listed, I would choose BBC. It's BYOB and has the most solid food and service of the restaurants listed. Good Luck.
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re: bgut1
BYOB is kind of a nonstarter for us - we have no problem bringing a bottle (one friend has access to a good wine cellar) and we don't mind ordering if it's not a BYOB. Geographic limits are basically anywhere between Hamilton, Lambertville and New Brunswick - they're kind of the outlying points for us because we all live near one of those three areas. I know what you mean about BBC, bgut1. It's just a spectacular restaurant. My only concern is that it's the place we go for our big nights out almost every time:) The current menu looks awesome though!
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re: Heatherb
seal
Apr 21, 2010 02:20 PM
We had a wonderful meal of pasta and scallops at Due Mari in New Brunswick last Saturday night. For the moment, this would be my pick for a nice dinner there. I want another bowl of garganelli right now!
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Due Mari
78-80 Albany Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 -
re: Heatherb
bgut1
Apr 21, 2010 03:57 PM
Even throwing New Brunswick into the mix, I still think I would pick BBC. As I understand from my good friend tom246, the new menu is reason enough to return. Of your remaining choices, I might pick Rats for the park and due to the fact that they have a new chef with an interesting resume. Good luck and please let us know what you decide to do.
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re: bgut1
As my friend bgut1 mentions, the new menu has been up at BBC for a few weeks. I will be setting a res there soon as a very good friend from work is retiring and moving back to England. he lives in Princeton so BBC is perfect.
Have not yet tried the new menu but it looks very inviting.Heatherb, have you considered Brothers Moon, down the street form BBC. Have not been for a couple of years but we always thought it to be very good.
Last time we were at The Ferry House it was disappointing.-
re: tom246
Argh, tom246, now you go an add in another choice I know we like:) I'll have to check out the menu at Brothers Moon and bring it up with the "committee." We had dinner there a while ago and enjoyed it immensely. But yeah, the new BBC menu DOES look wonderful...
Funny your friend is moving back to England! One of the things we are celebrating is the fact that one of our trio just got her visa to return to England to work.
Sad to hear about the Ferry House not being up to snuff. I had lunch there once years ago and it was one of those experiences that turned me on to "nicer" restaurants.
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