Newark Restaurants

[Rachel Perlow]

A while back I had quoted an email from a former co-worker. Marta grew up in Newark and is Portuguese-American. These are her and her family's favorite places:

Iberia Resteraunt (corner of Ferry Street and Prospect)

Sol Mar (Ferry Street)

O'Campino (I believe it's on Jabez Street)

Tony de Caneca (Elm Road)

Taste Of Portugal (corner of Van Buren Street and Delancy Street)

We've decided to try them all - taking our time of course.

Just to make this easier for future reference, here are all the details on each of the above, according to Marta's directions above and clarified by yp.yahoo:

Iberia Peninsula Restaurant

67 Ferry St, Newark, NJ 07105

(973) 344-5611

Sol-Mar Restaurant

267 Ferry St, Newark, NJ 07105

Phone: (973) 344-3041

Campino Restaurant

70 Jabez St, Newark, NJ 07105

Phone: (973) 589-4004

Da Caneca Restaurant

72 Elm Rd, Newark, NJ 07105

Phone: (973) 589-6882

Taste Of Portugal

148 Delancey St, Newark, NJ 07105

Phone: (973) 274-0600

If you have been to any of these restaurants please feel free to add your comments. However, if you would like to discuss other Newark restaurants, please start a new thread or post in one of the following threads:

1) Spanish in Newark, started as a discussion about The Galicia Spain Restaurant and moved on to discussing the Portuguese Festival

2) Authentic Portuguese Restaurants in Newark, started with a list similar to Marta's:

I met a Portuguese man who has lived here for a while who recommended the following restaurants in Newark (I haven't tried them yet):

Seabra's Marisqueira (this is the only one I had heard of)

Sol Mar Vila Nova

Taste of Portugal

Fernandez Steakhouse

Pulaski BBQ (for grilled chicken and ribs)

Anyone familiar with any of these?

But we mostly discussed Brazilian rodizio.

3) Casa Vasca/Newark - Rosie's and my favorite Spanish restaurant, so far.

[Rachel Perlow]

So, Friday night Jason, jhlurie and myself went to Campino. It was Jason's choice as he heard they have really good chorizo. We got a little lost getting there, so thank heaven's for our Magellan GPS unit. But I'm sure if you are familiar with Newark or have a good map you'll have no problem finding the place. Actually, it is very close to Spanish Sangria, another restaurant we frequent. There was plenty of street parking when we arrived around 7:45 PM, but I think I spied a parking lot around the corner. The restaurant is very large, with a dining room to the right and a bar to the left of the entrance. The dining room was very sparsely populated but, by the time we left a couple hours later, the street and restaurant were much more crowded.

At the entrance you are confronted by a display counter showing various cuts of meat and fish - all separate and on ice. We were seated right away as the dining room was only about 10% full. After perusing the menu for quite a while, nibbling on the olives and cubes of cheese placed on the table we ordered appetizers of the Portuguese Sausage and Garlic Shrimp ($8.50 each), a pitcher of red sangria ($14.95). J&J also had a cocktail of Amarguinha, an almond liqueur. Since Jay had to drive home, I made it my mission to spare him from drinking too much of their delicious, not too sweet, sangria - by drinking a lot of it myself.

The chorizo came to the table aflame. The waiter bathed it in the flaming liquid and then carved it into huge chunks. It was the kind of sausage made up of large pieces of meat and fat rather than being ground. I found it quite tough, but it did have excellent flavor and J&J both loved it. The Garlic Shrimp were very good examples of this dish. Tender, not too small, with lots of lemon and garlicy oil in which to sop bread.

The Portuguese selections on the menu were very limited. I would say that it is more of a steak/chop/seafood house than a Portuguese restaurant. (However, it was clearly a Portuguese restaurant as opposed to a Spanish one, because the Fish section of the menu was title Peixe.) To that end, Jason ordered the Grilled Pork Chops ($14.95) and Jon had the Black Angus Steak ($13.95 per lb., the bill was $15, he didn't specify a size but I suppose that you can order a smaller or larger steak since they price it that way.) I ordered the Arroz Marisco ($16.95) rather than my usual Mariscada or Paella. What came was sort of a combination of the two. It was a seafood and rice dish, but had a lot of sauce. Lots of perfectly cooked shrimp, clams, mussels and scallops. There was one extra large shrimp in the pot (langosta?), but no lobster. It was a very good dish though.

I'll let Jon & Jason comment on their dishes. I tasted the steak and it was very good and perfectly cooked medium rare. But I didn't taste the pork chops (yet - there's one in our fridge right now). We were very full and brought home leftovers, but wanted to sample one of their homemade desserts, which included a variety of fruit filled crepes (they also have the standard Bindi selections). We ordered the Flambe Fruta, assorted berries, flambed in the kitchen not tableside with vanilla ice cream. One dessert split three ways was plenty. It was a delicious warm and liquor-filled end to a very good evening.

Oh, I do want to comment on pretty much the only negative of the evening. What is with having Mexican mariachi musicians strolling around a Portuguese restaurant? They were definitely Mexican because Jason spoke to them in Spanish and they had difficulty coming up with a Spanish song to play for us (as opposed to a Mexican song). We heard Happy Birthday, La Cucaracha and the Mexican Hat Dance more than once. Ay Caramba! Is there a polite way to shoo these guys away without tipping them?

[jhlurie]

Hah, I thought Jason--as the only person to try every single thing we ate--was going to comment. He's just being lazy, I tell you!

Anyway, I hadn't eaten with the Perlows for quite some time (meaning I've been eating conservatively and diet-like for a while ) so I readily agreed to something massive.

The chorizo was above average. I saw the piece that Rachel took, and she really got hit with some bad luck. Jason and I both seemed to agree that the meat/fat was much more in the proper ratio in what we ate than in hers. I tend to favor crumbly, spicy chorizo, but this was an excellent specimen of a sweeter more mellow and chewy kind of sausage. On Portuguese rolls, it did give your jaws a bit of a workout, but it was worth it.

The Black Angus Steak was fantastic--very highly recommended. It was well and properly seasoned, and while I couldn't swear to this, I'm pretty sure it that it was well and properly aged on a meat hook in a warehouse somewhere as well. It just had that taste to it. It didn't shy away from salt, but neither was it overwhelmed by it in the way some Portuguese or Brazilian restaurants might serve it.

It was served with some fairly boring roasted New Potatoes, but also with a passable Balsamic salad.

I traded Jason some Steak for a Pork Chop, and while not quite as stellar as the Steak, it was above average as well. Jason asked for a garlicy preparation (I have no idea if that was the default) and they obliged quite nicely. They were only about medium thickness, but reasonably large in size (and he had about two more of them on top of the one he traded with me).

The sangria--of which I drank the third not consumed by Rachel--was made with a far better than usual red wine, but hadn't had the fruit in it long enough.

The mariachi band should have been shot. It was like a Mexican shakedown.

Rachel didn't say much about the space this was all going on in. It was actually quite attractive. The entrance opens into an airy high ceilinged area which to the left expanded into a racous, very full, and fairly fun looking "bar" /"informal eating" area, and the right side, past the meat and seafood counters (which seem like they might do neighborhood meat sales) led to the much quieter split-level "restaurant" area--and that was the part which was only about 10% full at 8 o'clock on a Friday night. The customers, at least initially, seemed to be a fairly balanced group--a few couples, at least one family, and some random twenty-somethings down at the other end of the dining room from us. And we had no direct view of the second-floor, so there may have been more people up there.

The wait staff was VERY attentive, in fact there were almost as many waiters as customers, at least until a large party of burly looking Italian gentlemen came in towards the end of our meal. Hey, it's Newark, okay? One guy--who I refused to look directly at--was about as broad as he was tall, walked in a hunchback fashion, had a funny little mustache and a high and squeaky (and yet somehow also grumbly) voice which seemed to carry--although it also seemed like his vocal cords were somehow optional to the process. All I know is that everyone at that table laughed... with him I mean.

Gotta love Newark.

[Suzanne F]

Am I right in guessing that the portions were big? Still, as long as you can take home the leftovers...

We ate at Iberia a few months ago with a couple of friends. (After a late-afternoon concert at NJPAC.) On the way in, you walk past the glassed-in kitchen, with big grills. Great appetite stimulant.

The chorizo app there came sliced, and was the ground-meat type. Very juicy and flavorful. We kept looking at what other tables ordered, and were astonished at the size of the dishes. We ordered maybe 2 dishes for the 4 of us -- and still had trouble finishing. One was a seafood-and-rice dish, that had a WHOLE lobster, and tons of shrimp, clams, and mussels. I think it came with a mountain of sautéed potato slices. Don't remember much else, other than boring iceberg lettuce in the salad, and mediocre bread. Still, we really enjoyed the rest of the food.

[jhlurie]

You should NEVER put up with bad bread in a Newark restaurant. Never.

The steak was the "smallest" dish, and as Rachel said it probably could have been re-sized by request since it was by the pound. But it was a big boneless fillet cut, so it was virtually all edible, short of a little fat as a connector in the middle of the fillet (the fat on the outside had obviously been trimmed). Rachel and Jason's dishes both seemed massive.

The chorizo portion was HUGE. Two FULL sized sausages--each seemingly big enough to be a complete lunch for one person.

The dessert portion (the berry flambe) would have clobbered one person. I'd guess it to be normally sized for two (still slightly hungry) people.

The fritas Jason (unneccesarily!) ordered on the side were a surprisingly small portion. I think neither Rachel nor I spoke about them because--at best--they were average.

[Jason Perlow]

Jon is right about bread in Newark -- the town is chock full of Portuguese and Italian bakeries, and its very easy for a restaurant to secure fresh bread. If the bread is stale I would say something about it, IMMEDIATELY.

[Haggis]

Though not in Newark, there used to be a very good Spanish restaurant not far away called Meson Madrid. Fabulous crustaceans, including particularly good garlic shrimp as an app. Anone know if this place still exists, and what town it is in?

[jhlurie]

It's in Palisades Park. Frankly... at least in my opinion... it was never great. "Okay" is the best I could grace it with, at least compared with most Newark places.

[Jason Perlow]

It's in Palisades Park.  Frankly... at least in my opinion... it was never great.  "Okay" is the best I could grace it with, at least compared with most Newark places.

It used to be good but we stopped going there because they started to overcook things.

[Rosie]

Meson Madrid--Palisades Park. Don't know if it is still there or not.

[Haggis]

It's in Palisades Park.  Frankly... at least in my opinion... it was never great.  "Okay" is the best I could grace it with, at least compared with most Newark places.

Thanks for the speedy reply. I remember it being considerably better than the Greenwich Village vicinity triumverate of Riomar, Sevilla, and El Faro, but you're probably right - I need to sample Newark's offerings.

[Jason Perlow]

If you dont want to make the schlep to Newark, I would check out La Posada in Teaneck, which does a very good job of approaching Newark-style Iberian (in some ways they actually surpass it) and also offers a really good Mexican menu as well. We've reviewed it in the Jersey board as well.

http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?s=...39&hl=la+posada

[phaelon56]

QUOTE (jsibley @ Jan 15 2002, 09:27 AM)

I met a Portuguese man who has lived here for a while who recommended the following restaurants in Newark (I haven't tried them yet):

Seabra's Marisqueira (this is the only one I had heard of)

I have eaten at Marisqueira on two or three occasions and it's my favorite of all Newark restaurants - still hoping to hear feedback from others as there were so many dishes I wanted to try but couldn't as I was not wiht a group.

Meson Madrid in Palisades Park - a forum regular reported having a medicore meal and the worst service he's ever received at this place. He acknowledges that it was a few years ago but caveat emptor (the name was not identified in the forum but I did get this info via email in an offline exchange).

Iberia and Iberia Perninsula are two different restaurants but said to be the same owner/family. I like the atmosphere at Iberia better but on the one occasion I ate at Peninsula the food seemed a tad better. It's probably all in my mind like most everything else....

[Rachel Perlow]

Re: Iberia - I know there are two of them, but I assume she means Peninsula because that is the one on Ferry & Prospect, the other one is about a block down from there.

[phaelon56]

Yes... they are on separate but adjacent blocks and on opposite sides of the street. For some reason my aging mind recalled them as being across from each other. A friend of mine swears that they're owned by the same people but they are different in style. I liked the atmosphere at Iberia better but the Paella Valenciana at Peninsula seemed to have a slight edge.

My visit last night was to have a solo dinner at Marisqueira. I was tempted by the fish specials, especially a "cod salad" that looked interesting. The bread was amazing and they put a small pitcher of water on the table - great for us chronic H2O drinkers. Salad included with the meal was an assortment of mixed leafy greens (no iceberg that I could detect) with exceptionally fresh tomato slices, sliced white onions and it had a green that looked like watercress. Dressing is never discussed - they simply bring oil and vinegar to the table. I started with the Sopa Do Mar - a seafood soup[ with a reddish brown puree that's thinner than bisque but incredibly rich and flavorful. Small shrimp and some other seafood (I'm thinking cockles as they were on the menu that night?) were piled up in the bowl and there were a couple thin but decent sized crab legs thrown in. I don't care for small crab legs - so much mess for the meat involved. At $6 per bowl this soup is nearly a full meal with the salad but I ordered an entree knowing I'd take half of it home. By the way... they no longer offer the pureed version of Sopa Do Mar - it was thicker and had no chunks of anything - just an incredibly rich and garlicky broth with homemade croutons - I really wish they'd kept it on the menu.

Moved on to the entree. Due to budget I was opting for a lower priced dish. I'd already tried the cubed pork, clams, potatoes and lemon combo that is a traditional dish and soooo tasty. Settled on pork chops. They were suitably large and meating and nicely seasoned - not as salty as rodizio meat but a tad salty on on the outside. Cooked just a tad too much for my liking but a good deal at $12.95. Sides wre a few giant slices of horribly overcooked carrot, some nicely cooked and fairly fresh broccoli, a big pile of white rice with three olives (?) and a hyge mound of mediocre frozen shoestring french fries (they were not hot nor were they crispy enough). All told.... not quite up to the level of my previous experiences there but still a good value. Their Paella Valenciana has crept up to $21.95 and i don't think it's any better than anyone else's in Ironbound. It is a nice place for solo diners though because thet bright and tidy bar area is polulated almost exclusively by people ating dinner at the bar - it's really not a drinking hangout at all.