Friday 5/10. Going out???

[Rosie]

Are you dining out this weekend? Where? Tomorrow night we are going to Berta's Chateau in Wanaque a town that I didn't know existed until a few months ago.

[NJ2FLA]

Hi Rosie,

Going to check out that Cuban place you mentioned called Martino's tonight.  

-Scott

[Rachel Perlow]

Tonight, we're going to America in Tenafly with my parents. Combo birthday/Mother's Day, get me out of going to brunch Sunday morning thing. We were going to go to Gramercy Tavern on Saturday night, but between our friends dropping out on us and planting most of the garden tomorrow we decided to stay local and cancelled the reservation. I suppose where we go tomorrow depends on how wiped we are from gardening. I drove two hours to Rosemont, NJ, to the Cross Country Nurseries (clickee) today and picked out a variety of chilis and tomatoes to plant. I'll post more about that (I took pictures) in a while.

[Rachel Perlow]

America was wonderful. We have to go there more than once a year. Some items we had were appetizers of duck confit over a mango jicama salad, the best black bean soup I ever tasted (it had bacon and crawfish in it), shrimp that Jason wouldn't let me taste. Entrees included soft shell crabs, diver scallops, poached lobster (not a seafood place, just a table in a seafood mood); I managed to snag half a scallop, heavenly. Kept desserts simple, sorbet, fresh berries. My dad ordered cheesecake, which was more like an individual cheesecake tart with chocolate and raspberries on top (didn't get a taste). With a relatively inexpensive bottle of wine, tax & tip, total was $270 for four. Moderately expensive, but I feel it was worth it.

[Rosie]

Hi Rosie,

Going to check out that Cuban place you mentioned called Martino's tonight.  

-Scott

Scott--Did you like/not like Martino's?

[Rail Paul]

Dee and I visited Bolero in Highlands with my parents on Saturday. Cuban themed BYO, with a wide range of cuban pork, tomal, ropa vieja, etc

Overall, food was fine, service left something to be desired. I'll post a writeup on it after I finish the Santa Fe - Durango - Espanola - ColoSprings epic.

We walked down a block to Orleans (thanks! Mark) which looked jammed, great, spicy smells drifting out onto the sidewalk. Nice area, will definitely be back to explore. Other restaurants in the area inlcude Inlet, Docksider (new place on the water?), and old reliables Moby's, Bahr's, Doris & Ed's, Off the Hook, and Carmine's.

[NJ2FLA]

Re Martino's:

Coming from living down in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area for years I was spoiled with good Cuban food.

I went with my friend who is Cuban and we had the Croquette's as an appetizer.  They are fried and have a minced ham and stuffing inside.  They were good.  Not the best I ever had.

I had the Empanizado steak for my main meal.  It's a pounded thin, breaded steak.  Served with white rice and beans and some sweet plantains.  I found it to be "alright" - the problem was that it tasted like fish.  I have a feeling they may have fried it in the same oil that they did fish.  I told the waiter about it and he said that they have four different fryers in the back or something along those lines.  But did apologize.  The rice and beans and plantains were fine.

We didn't order desert because they give you so much food as typical in a Cuban restaurants.

I'd go back again as I really don't know of many other good Cuban restaurants in NJ.  I thought the older man with the grey hair was entertaining.  

-Scott

p.s. I wish there was a spell check on here!

[tommy]

where is Martino's?  there's a cuban restaurant in ridgewood (el prado), and also a highly regarded place in hoboken (la isla)

[TCD]

where is Martino's?  

Somerville.  it's near shumi.