If you're looking for some other places to go (assuming you're not just driving back and forth for one meal and are staying at least overnight), you may want to check out some of the places we tried last time in AC. Most highly recommended would be Crabby's, the Vietnamese place and White House Subs. Here's my post (originally here on another website): Subject: Atlantic City & Vicinity From: Rachel Perlow Posted: September 07, 1999 at 16:15:32 Message: So, to continue from the “best buffet” thread, Jason and I went to Atlantic City over Labor Day weekend. As promised, here are our comments on the restaurants at which we ate. Only two of the places were previously listed on this board, another is most definitely worth going out of your way for, if you’re looking to get the best crabs. We arrived at the SEAVIEW MARRIOTT RESORT (Rt. 9, Absecon, 609-652-1800) on Friday, September 3, 1999, at 6 PM. As per my mother’s instructions I had called ahead to make a reservation for their locally famous (it is obviously a celebration destination, “Happy Birthday” was sung several times by the live piano player (grand piano in the center of the very large dining room)), FRIDAY SEAFOOD BUFFET. Unfortunately, I had not called early enough – prime times book a week in advance – and our reservation was for 9:30 PM. We got up to the room, unpacked, relaxed, took a nap, and were starving by 9. So, we headed downstairs, checked in with the hostess, had a drink in the hotel bar, and were seated by 9:15. I had been concerned that, with such a late seating, they would be out of the best items or they would have been picked over. No need for such worries, everything was great. The star of the buffet is steamed 1 – 1¼ lb. Lobsters. Many other items are worth your attention, as well: very large shrimp with a nicely spicy cocktail sauce and lemon wedges, a very fresh crab salad (huge chunks of Maryland crab in a light vinaigrette with diced vegetables), and my personal favorite of the buffet: Grilled Chilean Sea Bass with Beurre Blanc. Chilean Sea Bass is not usually my favorite fish, however it was cooked perfectly and the grill marks had a wonderful flavor. It was served at the carving station with the sauce on the side, along with prime rib and pork loin for those craving meat (I had none, but Jason said the macadamia-encrusted pork was good). Revelation: Beurre blanc is a wonderful dipping sauce for lobster. There were, of course, numerous other dishes/stations. These included: a salad station, cheese station, caviar (with all the trimmings, but I don’t like caviar), smoked fish (salmon and whitefish), fried shrimp, fried scallops, pasta station with “Scallop Carbonara” (too much bacon flavor for me and I didn’t want to fill up on pasta, so just had a taste (the scallops were very good both fried and in the pasta), clam chowder, some other Italian dishes and Jambalaya which I skipped. There were also steamed clams and mussels in a Pernod sauce. The clams were a little overcooked and the Pernod didn’t match well with the mussels. Also, there were potatoes and asparagus available. The asparagus looked a little overcooked, so I skipped it at first, but on a second (third?) trip up, they had replaced it with the most perfectly cooked, skinniest asparagus I’d ever seen! On to dessert: there was a huge array of desserts, but I was too full of seafood to try many of them. I chose a slice of chocolate iced rolled white cake, which I mostly just picked the chocolate out of, and a fruit tartlet. The latter was wonderful. A very crisp cookie shell (coated in white chocolate to keep it crisp) with pastry cream and berries. All in all this was a wonderful start to our weekend. If you are going to be in the area on a Friday it is worth the $50 pp price tag (~$120 for two with tax & tip). PS – I just realized I wrote so much about the food I forgot to mention the service, which was excellent and very friendly. Some other notes about the Seaview Marriott: The hotel bar was quite nice, with live music at night. Room service was prompt (see Saturday Night), although we only tried it once. We shared a very good Häagen-Dazs sundae (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) with hot fudge, raspberry sauce, brownies and macaroon cookies ($5.50 plus tax & tip). I’m still craving more of the macaroon cookies, which were nothing like the Passover Macaroons you get in cans. For lunch on Saturday, we went to WHITE HOUSE SUB SHOP (2301 Arctic Ave, AC, 609-345-1564, 345-8599) on advice of this board. It is a very nondescript corner establishment. Nondescript except for the line out the door. We arrived around 2:30 PM (had a continental breakfast at the hotel around 11), and had to wait around 15 minutes for one of the 9 booths (there are 5 or 6 stools for single patrons). The most frustrating part about waiting there is the aroma and the locals- in-the-know who kept walking in past us to place or pick up a take out order. Not being lucky enough to have another place to eat our subs, we waited patiently while chatting with the others on line. When we made it past the exterior door, we occupied ourselves by looking at the countless celebrity photos, which line nearly every inch of wall space. By the time the grandmotherly woman in the housecoat who cleans the tables summoned us to our table (“Next!” – G-d help you if you aren’t paying attention when called), we were ready to order. We shared two half subs (each half is about 10” long). The first was a cheese-steak with fried onions, mushrooms and hot peppers ($.50 extra each). I had meant sweet peppers when I said peppers, but I learned for that you must specify a Green Pepper Cheese-Steak. It also had lettuce and tomatoes on it, which I would ask to have left off in future. Anyway, the sandwich was quite tasty, dripping juices, the beef lean, the sandwich not overly stuffed. The second sub was the White House Special. It is an Italian sub with very good cold cuts, provolone, raw onions, lettuce, tomato, hot peppers and oil & vinegar. I realized, while trying to get my mouth around this sub, that “special” refers to extra meat. You can also get a White House Regular, which would be my suggestion. The staff was very friendly, but very busy and you are obviously not encouraged to dawdle. The deserts available were Tastykakes, and there are no french- fries, just bags of chips. Soda is available as cans for 85¢ or a can with a cup of ice for 95¢. You pay at the counter, our total was about $18 for two half subs with extras and two sodas, including tax and tip. Jason was craving Alaskan king crab legs after all that lobster and shrimp on Friday night. We had the concierge call around to some of the casino buffets to find out if anyone had them, none did. Everyone seemed to have snow crab that night. So, on the advice of a hotel employee, we headed to CRABBY’S (1 mile south of Mays Landing on Rt. 50, Belcoville, 609-625- CRAB (2722)). It is about a half hour west of AC, on the left as you head south on Rt. 50, a little while down from the small “Welcome to Belcoville” sign. According to their ads they were voted Best Crabs of the Shore for the past 9 years. I can believe it. We did not have a reservation, but arrived around 8:15 and did not have to wait for a table. It is a very casual, semi-raucous local bar/restaurant. The waitresses shout out their drink orders to the bartender. Instead of just the staff singing Happy Birthday, the bartender gets the entire place’s attention by shouting, “Excuse Me Everyone!!! It’s Linda’s Birthday, let’s all sing for her!” and we all did. He got the crowd’s attention again a little later to present some gifts and bid farewell to one of the waitresses and her husband, a marine who was being transferred. They really make you feel you don’t need to be a local to be part of the gang. On to the food... We had several starters. Jason had the seafood gumbo, which was nicely spicy and full of crab bits. I had the steamed little neck clams, yummy, and we shared a special appetizer, Shrimp Jalapeño Poppers served with Remoulade sauce, double yummy, though not too spicy. As main dishes, we shared 4 Garlic Crabs (Maryland blues, $4.25 a piece) and the Crab Sampler ($25), which consisted of two Alaskan king crab legs, two Maryland blues with Bay seasoning, a snow crab and half a Dungeness crab. The Garlic crabs were completely cleaned, sautéed and served with scampi sauce for dipping. They were delectable and easy to eat since the underside shell and “dead man’s fingers” were removed. The king crab legs were particularly sweet, even better than those we’d had at Steve’s Pier One on Long Island, NY (search for one of Jason’s previous posts for more on Steve’s). Although the blue crabs were caked with Bay seasoning, they weren’t too spicy because it was just on the body shell. You had to take off the exterior shell and clean out the lungs yourself on these, just as you would in Baltimore, but they were slightly larger than the ones prepared with garlic and were quite sweet. Of the four, the snow crab was my least favorite. I found it too be very iodine/salty, except for the largest claw, which was sweet and had a texture very similar to the Dungeness. My only complaint is that no side dishes are served. About halfway through our crabs, I was longing for something, anything, green. When asked I found they have basically no vegetables available, not even corn! We settled for some coleslaw and french-fries. Which were both quite good. The fries had the peel on, were not too thick and not too skinny and weren’t salted, which was fine with me with all that crab. Crabby’s has all you can eat specials during weeknights from 6 – 9 PM. I know Monday is Dungeness, but I can’t recall Tuesday – Thursday, call and ask because it’s worth going out of your way for this place! BTW – our bill totaled ~$85 with tax & tip. We wanted ice cream for dessert, but the place we saw on the way to Crabby’s (Scoops) was closed, so that’s why we ordered the sundae from room service (see above). The Seaview is supposed to have a wonderful Sunday Brunch, but as we were going to head into AC to see a matinee show, the concierge recommended (and made us a reservation) at CASA NICOLA at TRUMP TAJ MAHAL (609- 449-1000) for their Sunday Brunch. Although the restaurant serves “regional Italian specialties” at dinnertime, Sunday Brunch was representative of a wonderful hotel Sunday brunch ($35 pp, ~$85 for two with tax & tip). Among the standard brunch stations such as omelets and waffle (with bananas foster and vanilla ice cream available) stations, there was perfectly ripe fresh fruit, shrimp cocktail (with shrimp even fresher and larger than at the Seaview and extra horseradish available if the cocktail sauce was not spicy enough), crab claws (a little watery, they were probably previously frozen), smoked salmon (with all the trimmings you usually find with caviar, but I didn’t see any caviar), a display of terrines, cheeses and meat pates, sushi (tuna, cucumber and California – all made fresh in front of you, though not to order), dim sum (hargow (shrimp dumplings) and scallion pancakes (very crunchy)) and some other Chinese dishes (fried rice, lo mein, chow fun, gailon (Chinese broccoli – very impressive for a non-Chinese restaurant, heck its even impressive when a Chinese restaurant has gailon!)), chafing dishes with pasta, fish, risotto, chicken, beef tenderloin. What also impressed me (besides the gailon) was the other vegetables available, the green beans (with the beef) and the asparagus were both perfectly cooked, not overdone as can happen when things sit too long in chafing dishes. Desserts were a beautiful display of individually portioned tartlets, cakes, cookies and wineglasses layered with puddings/mousses and Jell-O and/or whipped cream. My favorite was a chocolate enrobed brownie topped with chocolate mouse (under the chocolate dip). The one dessert that didn’t work was chocolate croissant bread pudding. As I learned in New Orleans, bread puddings need to be made with regular bread. Sweet or extra rich breads end up making mushy bread pudding, as this one was. Dinner Sunday night was at the KNIFE & FORK INN (intersection of Atlantic, Pacific and Albany Avenues, 609-344-1133). After all the seafood of the past few days, Jason was longing for some red meat. Advertised as “an Atlantic City tradition since 1927 [the windows of the dining room were etched with “since 1912” however] ... fine steaks and seafood”, it was really more seafood than steaks. However, not to be daunted we did order meat. But first the starters. It was rather windy and chilly that evening so we both ordered soup. I had the Manhattan clam chowder, good but nothing special. The soup de jour was another story, Cream of Asparagus with Crab, it was simply sublime, no salty bits of crab, just the sweetest lumps. We also shared a plate of fried Ipswich belly clams, on the menu as Fried Soft Clams ($19 for an entree portion, it was not available as an appetizer, only as a main course, although the portion was about the same as most plates of fried clams you’d get as an appetizer). They were OK, but not great. I had been craving them since people started talking about them on this board, and none of the other seafood places we’d been to had had them. As for main courses, Jason ordered the Surf & Turf ($38). He was the one who was tired of seafood, but the “regular” filet mignon was $29, so for an extra $9, he figured he may as well get the lobster tail! It was a spiny lobster tail, of course, but very good. The filet was very good too, cooked to the rare side of medium-rare. My entree was not so perfect. I ordered the chopped steak ($19), medium. It came out over-well-done. I rarely send things back, but this was rather dry, so I did. The waitress was very nice about it, Jason gave me some filet mignon to nibble and I picked at my fries. However, when my replacement came it was more than rare, it was browned steak tartar! (I could just imagine the cook thinking, “she wants it less cooked, I’ll show her less cooked!”) So the very accommodating waitress brought it back once again. This time it was cooked perfectly. Apparently, the head chef had taken a break, she said he was appropriately cross with the cook when he came back and heard what happened. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it however, as it had a few too many ingredients, more like a fancy individual meatloaf. I prefer my chopped steak to be just that. To its benefit, it was served with wonderful onion rings. Meanwhile, the potato side dish was interesting, very skinny french-fries (practically potato sticks, but not so hard), which they called Long Branch Potatoes. We also ordered, ala carte, a side of asparagus, which were perfectly steamed, and what was billed as corn fritters, which was good, but was really a corn pancake, similar to what I make for breakfast, not deep-fried fritters. To make up for the first chopped steak mishap she brought us another corn fritter (which we ended up offering to the parking attendant (too full)). After the second, we were offered an after-dinner drink or dessert. Being that we were totally stuffed and the last patrons in the upstairs dining room, we thanked her anyway, but she offered to wrap up dessert. So, we brought back a piece of lemon pie, which we ate that night (good, but I prefer it tarter), and an individual sized blueberry pie, which was wonderful shared for breakfast Monday morning. Our bill was about $100 before tax and tip, and I left a nice tip, as it wasn’t her fault the kitchen screwed up. For lunch on Monday, we felt the need to eat something healthy (after all that overindulging and I was starting to feel a little sick with a cold), so we headed for LITTLE SAIGON (corner of Arctic and Iowa Avenues, 609-347-9119) for some Vietnamese soup and summer rolls. As soon was we walked in the door we knew it would be good, as it was packed with Vietnamese families. Luckily there was one table for two left in the corner so we were able to sit right down. I knew I wanted beef pho, but there were several variations to choose from. I stuck with what was billed as Deluxe Beef Pho ($8). The broth was mild and delicious, the noodles nicely firm, and the beef plentiful, but rather fatty. The classic condiments of bean sprouts, basil and lime wedges were perfectly fresh. I think what made this “deluxe” was the extra large cartilaginous fatty pieces in the broth. I can imagine this being a delicacy to Asians, but I just picked them out after the first try. Next time I’ll either try the Pho with Beef Ball I saw a kid at the next table enjoying, or the My-Tho Style, which is shrimp & pork in a chicken broth pho. Jason ordered Chicken Curry with Noodles ($8), which was a soup, although not billed as one. He was warned it was spicy when he ordered it and again when it was delivered. That’s fine with him, he loves spicy food. I gave it a little taste, too spicy for me, but Jason loved it, sweat dripping down his brow all the way! For appetizers we had ordered spring and summer rolls ($4 per order). The spring rolls were perfect versions of what I was familiar with (for those that don’t know, they are not like Chinese spring rolls, they are tiny and have noodles as well as veggies & pork in them). I did not care for the shredded pork summer rolls (I usually get shrimp summer rolls, but even I was tired of seafood at this point), as they were flavored quite differently, with lots of anise, but Jason gobbled them up. We also shared an order of Vietnamese fried rice, which was very similar to Chinese Young Chow fried rice ($10), we took half of that to go. Drinks were also interesting, Jason had iced coffee with condensed milk (“very strong,” he said) and I had coconut juice, which was rather sweet and slightly tangy, and went nicely with the pho. Our bill was around $40, plus tax & tip. Well, I hope our little adventure is helpful for those on their way to Atlantic City. We left for home right after lunch. As the bathroom at Little Saigon was temporarily out of order, we made a pit stop at the Visitor Welcome Center along the Atlantic City Expressway. The bathrooms were clean and they have Salt Water Taffy out to sample at the information desk (along with souvenirs to buy and lots of info on stuff in and around town). Two nice older ladies staff it, so stop by on your way into town. May Lady Luck smile upon you so you can enjoy some of our extravagancies! Giving credit where credit is due: all the addresses, phone numbers and some quotes were from the September 1999, issue of “Shorecast” magazine, found in all hotel rooms in AC.
