Monday, August 4, 2008

Cape May Eating

My husband and I spent a four-day weekend in Cape May, NJ. I love all the gingerbread Victorian houses, outdoor mall, restaurants, sunset beach...I definitely prefer Cape May over my childhood beach, which is Ocean City, NJ. I mean, Ocean City is a dry town!
The more I like cooking (and eating of course) the more food becomes one of the more important parts of vacationing. So here is our quest for good (not overpriced) food on our trip.
DAY 1
Lunch
Drove into Cape May hungry, and found ourselves at the Island Grill. Caribbean-ish food. I ordered a black bean and shrimp salad. It had mango and avocado. Also got french fries on the side since I was hungry, and the salad wasn't that big. The husband had a Cuban sandwich with pulled pork, ham, and pickles along with sides of coleslaw and pasta salad.
VERDICT
Hmmmm not sure. The Cuban sandwich was tasty. And a large portion. For 10 dollars, pretty good stuff! My salad, also 10 dollars, was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. The shrimp just looked like defrosted pre-cooked shrimp. And the french fry side was 4.50!! I don't know if I would bother trying again.
Dinner
We had planned to visit the Godfather.....the pizza place. I ate the best white pizza I have ever had in my whole darn life there!!! We were there last summer, walked to the location this time and it was gone!! Alas, we were sad and so hungry.
So we walked to the Washington mall and found Stumpo's, a small Italian place. I had a shrimp ceasar salad and the husband had a margharita pizza with olives.
Verdict
Again, I'm in the middle. My salad was pretty darn good. The shrimp was grilled and flavorful, the dressing and croutons were made in house. But I only got 4 small shrimps in the salad, which was 15 bucks. The pizza was good, but not great. What I did really really like was the basket of little garlic bread nubs, so buttery and garlickly! I could have eaten mostly those for dinner. The entrees seemed overpriced here, as I learned many places in Cape May are. I mean, 20 bucks for a pasta dish that doesn't even have meat in it??
Day 2
Today we skipped lunch, since we ate this for breakfast at our B&B:
Eggs Bene-Chip (named after the owner, Chip) Fresh fruit Zuchinni bread Potato pancakes
This was at the John F. Craig house, if you are interested in a good B&B in Cape May I highly recommend it!
Dinner:
We had my birthday dinner at the Merion Inn. This place has a early bird/night owl special: three courses from a selected menu for 18.95. When you look at the fact that most of the entrees alone are over 20 bucks, makes for a good deal. We had the patio to ourselves too!
Verdict
I say thumbs up! First course: Jersey clam chowder-tasty. Second course-Fresh Jersey bluefish with eggplant caponata and the Merion potato cup (like a twice baked potato!) Dessert: Jersey white peach pie with almond oatmeal dessert!! The husbands entree was a steak (of course) stuffed with artichokes, pine nuts, and sharp provolone cheese-whoa. I almost wished I had ordered that!
I also had a Fume Blanc wine (which I learned is just another name for Sauvignon Blanc) I was a little disappointed....I was expecting a smoky flavor but it still went well with the fish.
Day 3
Another full breakfast at the B&B, including berry cream cheese stuffed French toast that I would love to make at home here sometime.
Dinner
The number 1 rated restaurant in Cape May on TripAdvisor.com is George's Place, a small Greek place that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. We got in for dinner, and it is a narrow place with all booths, but still managed to look nice and not diner-y. We also brought a wine to have with dinner.
Verdict
BEST MEAL EVER! Well at least in Cape May and probably the best restaurant meal I've had in a long time. This place was first of all much cheaper than most other nice places in Cape May. Our entrees were about 12 bucks.
Our appetizer had hummos, tzatziki, olives, a huge hunk of feta cheese, another cheese, and grilled pita. As you can see, it was a big portion. The humoos was amazing. It made me realize maybe I have been making my own hummos a bit too thick. The feta was so good....I like feta but I have never had feta that was just so darn tasty.
My entree was the 6-pepper tuna with greek salad. I was surprised at how delicious the salad was! I have eaten Greek salad before, but this was just bursting with flavor....must have something to do with that great feta. The tuna was also packed with flavor, and just a little spicy! I loved loved this place.
Does anyone else have some food recommendations for Cape May? I would like to try one of the pricey-fancy ones sometime, but only if I know it will be worth the money.


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1 comment:

Michal said...

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