byarvin

Grand Shanghai is on Route 1 on the northbound side, a few miles south of the mall. The have serious Shanghai style cuisine and a comfortable dining room too.

Or... What about high-end Chinese? Grand Shanghai is a couple of miles south on Route 1. Menlo Park is in Edison and not far from all sorts of great Asian stuff.

I'm going to agree with Kevin here; you'll have to travel a bit farther to really get the British vibe. That being said, my suggestion is The Ship Inn in Milford, they have an actual British chef and make a real effort to recreate a pub atmosphere. Here's their website: http://britishbrewpub.com/ I'm pretty certain that The Ship and Triumph aren't the only two, but they should get you off to a great start.

Shanghai Park is real Shanghai style, for dim sum in the authentic (Hong Kong) sense, you'll need to head north to the Wonder Seafood Restaurant in Edison. Shanghai Park is in downtown Highland Park and at one time, was legendary for its soup dumplings. It's been a couple of years since I've been there so I have no idea if they still live up to their reputation. Grand Shanghai on Route 1 in Edison also has a serious Shanghai menu including dumplings and could be worth trying. The Edison/South Plainfield/Highland Park area is filled with ambitious Chinese restaurants but their quality can really vary over time. Sadly, there is no way I can eat at all of them regularly, although I certainly try.

They'll have a special dumpling menu for Chinese New Year. No, they're not really like soup dumplings, for those, head down the road a mile or two and go to Shanghai Park.

Most of the Chinese restaurants here in Edison will have special menus. My old favorite, King's Village, should have it's special dumpling menu. They're at 1639 Route 27 and now have a website: http://www.kings-village.us

Does anybody have any takes on Mexican restaurants in places like New Brunswick and Plainfield? These seem to be there for working immigrants and don't appear to cater to the outside world at all. Is anybody checking these places out?

Scott: If it were just you and I, then there would be no controversy. However, there are lots of opinions out there, and some are different than ours.

"Great" is a pretty strong word! Indeed, declaring a New Jersey ethnic restaurant "great" on a board like this is like throwing a lighted match into a pool of kerosene. Moghul is one of the more formal and refined restaurants here and they are consistently good. If you're interested in having a "real" (another fighting word) Indian experience, then go there on a Sunday for brunch buffet. You'll join large groups of well-to-do Indians in a really festive atmosphere. On weeknights, I'd suggest Moghul Express, their dosa shop that's right across the street. If you've never had a dosa, or just one filled with mashed potatoes, try one filled with shrimp or lamb. It's well worth the trip. But always remember that the Edison food scene changes constantly. My Moghul experiences were fine, but even the biggest places here are small operations that struggle. "Great" is relative.

If you're in central Jersey, the Supremo Supermarkets carry an excellent selection of Mexican groceries. Here's the address for the one I shop at: 249 East Front Street, Plainfield (not far from Route 22)

Rosie, I did another web seach and came up with the address 129 E. Front Street. When I called the phone number, it was for a whole different sort of business totally unrelated to food. When I put this address into MapQuest, I came up with roughly the location I spotted a second floor Mexican place. However, I'll be happy to go and look again. However...however...during this trip I spotted at least four other interesting Mexican and Central American places. So if you go down to E. Front Street, you won't go hungry.

More bad news. Today I drove the entire length of Front Street in Plainfield - from the corner of Martine Ave. all the way past downtown and into an idustrial area I'd never seen before and could find no trace of La Viet or any other Vietnamese restaurant there. I should also point out that several blocks of downtown were either recently demolished or appeared as if they were going to be torn down any day. During the next few days, I should be able to visit the Vietnamese grocery on Route 27 in Edison and I'll ask there if they know what happened.

Fat Guy: No. I checked in Jim Leff's book afterwards and found that I had the name, concept and location correct.

Didn't their used to be a Chinese/Sweedish place in Brooklyn? Wasn't it called something like "We Kee?" Was this combination less than successful? Is Sweeden is Asia or not?

Food Snob: Your post reminded me of yet another reason to gather at the Edison Moghul - its proximity to the Oak Tree Road shopping strip. A Sunday afternoon post meal stroll there is one of the best ethnic community experiences in New Jersey and perhaps the best Indian experience in the US. It still seems like a good idea to me...