Ocean County Restaurants

[Debz]

Leave your reviews of the best Ocean County restaurants. Have a question about a specific restaurant, post it here.

[karen ann]

Notice a good portion of members live in Ocean County, yet this discussion is rather quiet. Ocean County is a sad place for foodies!

[Cheffe]

well all, there is a few i have found so far since buying a house in beachwood last year. first, if you like sushi/sashimi, go to nobi in toms river. superb quality, consistant, and friendly. i must admit i am a snob when it comes to this ( well most ) kind of food, but it is the best i've had since moving to nj from san diego. i cannot vouch for the tempura or other hot items as we do not go there for that. no teppanyaki there either which to me is a good sign.
next goto el familiar, also in toms river. a great little colombian/mexican "joint". great service, fresh and clean tasting food ( unusual for this type of place ), and very inexpensive ( always helps to offset the expensive sushi ). only issue i ever have there is the chips, which my wife assures me are a frozen product. she is a chef and "super-taster" as well. amazingly, nothing needs salt there either, another rarity for the type of place it is.
which brings me to my latest discovery, the forked river german butcher. i just posted twice to my blog about it. wonderful find. i am gushing over this one. one thing i want to mention in addition, the place was very busy at 2 pm on a tuesday, always a good sign.
yes, ocean county is sad, but there are some places and i hope to find some more. i hate driving to monmouth co on my day off !

[Debz]

Yes, I confess, living in the northern most town of Ocean County, we rarely, and I mean rarely, travel south for a dining experience. My haunts are the Shipwreck Grill in Brielle, Shogun Legends and several restaurants in Asbury Park. I guess we'll have to turn the car around and head into Toms River for a change.

I will say that Europa South is a favorite of ours and its right here in PPB. Very dated decor but always great food and a seat at the bar. Frankie's makes a good burger too.

[johnandlisa]

Lisa and I can definitely recommend Shut Up And Eat on 37 (by the K-Mart) in Toms River. Very good luncheonette, and it's very kitschy. We also like Villa Amalfi on 166. Nice Italian place; they do the classics very well.

[Peter Culos]

Over the weekend, Deb and I tried Latitude 40 N in Point Pleasant Beach. The menu was interesting and the food was very good. By "very good" I mean that you couldn't find anything to complain about, but you also don't think, "Man, I've got to get back here soon!" It's within walking distance from Deb's and I could see it as becoming one of our staples.....except for two big things.

One, the atmosphere. Drop ceiling and crappy seashore paintings. Shore shlock galore! Maybe the food would have been more impressive in a nicer place. Also, beware of close table syndrome. The party of two seated next to us looked more like they joined us. Some folks like that and some don't.

Two, the unprofessional wait staff. It's so common in seashore towns that have seasonal staff, but I hate it. I mean, it wasn't like we were there to have some fried clams. Oh, they were polite and all, but woefully uninformed. A little personality is nice too.

Did anyone else eat out this weekend or was it all burgers and barbeques?

[karen ann]

We didn't make it out for the weekend rush, but waited for it to pass to try a new spot in Bay Head, Theresa's South. It is where the old Heatwave used to be. I will post a full review a bit later.

[karen ann]

OK, I am back. Well Peter, The service and the decor at Theresa's were very good, very comfortable room and nice outside seating as well. I was not as lucky as you, to be going out with just Deb, as we, as always had the two kids along! Theresa's is a BYOB, so we brought along a very nice Barollo, thinking maybe veal or osso bucco, but the menu and all specials pointed to their specialty being pasta. That was the first disappiontment. Anyhow, let me start at the begining.

We started off with four appetizers, an eggplant app, crabcakes, Carpaccio and BBQ ribs. The ribs were in a mole sauce with peanuts and were falling off the bone, very yummy! The carpaccio was very fresh once we found it, the plate was very busy with a full salad on top, good, but very, very busy. The eggplant was paper thin with alot of mozzarella melted on top. It was good but not exactly what the menu stated, it would be better listed as an eggplant "pizza". The crabcakes were completly forgetable with as much breading as crabmeat.

With the entrees we all went with pasta, they had other things but at $23.00 for grouper, you know it is IQF (individually quick frozen), and not a favorite, I really am a fish snob and only like fresh! Anyway, I had a special pasta with grilled chicken and vegetables adn it was very tasty, I really enjoyed it. My husband had the linguini with white clam sauce. When they brought out his dinner I thought they gave him the wrong dish, but, no wait, we found a clam! His dish was loaded with spinach, diced tomatoes and other veggies, it would have been good if that was what you expected, but no where near a white clam sauce, very few clams, no clam taste at all. Onto the less adventurous kids meals, penne vodka, yuk aand my sons rigatoni marinara with fresh mozzzarella, yum. That puzzled me, a good marinara and a lousy vodka sauce? I do have to say all of the pasta tasted like it was cooked to order, al dente, without having to ask. For dessert we split a creme brulee and one other that escapes me right now, both were just ok, don't think they were made in house.

Did I find my new favorite place? Absolutely not. Will we go back? Yes, half of the food was really good and the big bonus...it is close to home!

[Peter Culos]

So, we're still looking for that killer Ocean County place? Deb and I tried the Atlantic Grill on Saturday. It's right by the entrance to Island Beach State Park and has a great view of the sand dunes and water. We had to wait for a table, so we killed time at the bar. Debbie struck up a conversation will a guy sitting next to us and he promised it would be much better than our beloved Shipwreck Grill (which is almost in Ocean County!)

Not so much. It was good and worth a stop for sure but definitely a notch below Shipwreck. The ingredients were all first class but presentation was a little strange (think big food, big plates) and the menu was not as imaginative. Our Asian Tuna Nachos tasted more like TexMex to me. My wild boar chops were good, but plopping them on mashed sweet potatoes with some cranberry stuff didn't exactly make them more interesting.

If we go back, I'd like to do it when it's quiet and we can enjoy the view and not have to wait. It was packed on Saturday!

So, yes, still looking....

[karen ann]

Peter,
Please bring Deb in to see my husband and myself(I think you are childless this weekend?) at Pino's, 448 Rt 9 North, Marlboro. I don't think you will be disappointed.
www.famouspinos.com

[karen ann]

Well, Danny and I have bite the bullet. We will be opening our own restaurant in Ocena County, Point Pleasant Beach to be exact. We hope to be open the end of May. Daniel's Bistro, 115 Broadway, PPB. Hope to see you all very soon!

[Debz]

How exciting Karen. Congratulations. We'll have to cover it on Jersey Bites and on PointPleasantParents.com. That's a new site that Elizabeth and I are working on. Check it out.

What is 115 Broadway near?

[karen ann]

Behind the new condos on Broadway, used to be Laurina's. We are still working on cleaning up the place, took out the blacktop and picnic tables yesterday, stamped concrete went in today, will be finished Sat. In the process of gutting the inside and cleaning it all up.
Lots of work to be done, but it will be good once we are finished!