Sanzari's New Bridge Inn

[Jason Perlow]

Last night Rachel and I had dinner at Sanzari's New Bridge Inn in New Milford. While I wouldn't call the place a destination restaurant, we had a very enjoyable meal and we would definitely go back.

The New Bridge Inn is semi-secluded off the main New Bridge Road drag that connects Hackensack with River Edge, Teaneck and Bergenfield -- this is an old place, but its just undergone a major renovation by Joseph Sanzari, a major construction player in Bergen County. Sanzari has also recently purchased the building in Tenafly which housed America Restaurant, and will shortly be re-opening it as a Oyster Bar and Grill type place.

The restaurant is very attractive, and has valet parking. Its definitely a high end place, with a menu focusing on Italian specialities and also on steaks and chops. Atmosphere is classy old school steakhousy. Dinner for two, with two appetizers, two mains, one dessert and one glass of wine came to $90. Not cheap -- certainly getting up there towards Manhattan prices, but the quality was up there as well.

As we originally wanted to go to Peter Lugers in Brooklyn that evening but were told the place was booked solid, and Rachel was running late from work, we decided to give Sanzari's a whirl. We were still in a steaky-choppy mood, so we eschewed the idea of having any of the Italian stuff and went straight for the pork chops.

For appetizers, Rachel had some sort of mesclun salad with goat cheese and a raspberry dressing (I thought it was good, but nothing special) and I had the crab cakes, which turned out to have a lot of nice lump crab in it and was served with a garlic remoulade and over field greens -- I thought those were excellent and well worth the money ($14).

Rachel had the double cut pork chop, served with caramelized onions, sweet potato home fries, and mixed sauteed vegetables. I had the wild boar chop, which was accompanied by a plum chutney, a mushroom risotto, and the same mixed sauteed vegetables.

I'm not sure which of the chops I liked better, as both were very good, and nice and juicy. The pork chop was a nice specimen, a good sized portion, and I liked the carmelized onions. The boar chop was also a nice sized portion, the meat was more of a reddish hue and tasted a bit more like beef, and the chop had a thicker layer of fat on top of it. I liked the mushroom risotto but rachel felt it could have been creamier -- however it came in a moulded presentation which leads me to beleive the less-creamines was by design. Both chops were cooked to medium. The sauteed vegetables (squash, carrots, green beans) were nicely cooked without being overcooked. Rachel says she liked my plum chutney more than her caramelized onions. I thought it was pretty sweet but it was a good accompaniment to the pork.

There were other things we could have ordered as sides but we didn't bother.

There was a dessert menu and the server did tell us that most of them were made in house -- but we really weren't turned on by any of the regular choices -- creme brulee, chocolate mousse, profiteroles, ice cream bombe, Italian cheesecake, tiramisu. I'm sure they were good, but we weren't in the mood for standard Italian restaurant desserts. Fortunately, the main menu had a special dessert that evening, a warm plum tart with caramel gelato. This turned out to be an excellent choice, as it easily fed two people and had lots of juicy plums in it (I guess they were able to get a good deal on a couple of flats).

I have only one nit to pick about this place, and it has to do with the beverage selection at the bar. There are no beers on tap, everything is in bottles -- which is fine, except for the fact it is all basic, domestic stuff. No micros, no interesting regional beers, just your basic Bud, Heineken, Sam Adams and Corona. For a restaurant this nice, this happens to be a major oversight, especially since as they already decided not to put in beer taps, its no skin off their back for their beverage director to get a couple of nice micros. The wine by the glass selection is also abyssmal -- a Merlot, Cabernet and a Chianti. A whole three reds (I didn't ask about the whites, but I assume its your average Chardonay and Pinot Grigio garbage). I would have liked to have seen perhaps a sangiovese or a primitivo or SOMETHING a bit more appropriate to the cuisine by the glass.

[legendarystarbolt]

Their website shows a much larger wine list.

http://www.ardore.com/listing.asp?r=sanzar...c=All&m=c&u=all

There was also a review in the Record last Friday.

Sanzari's New Bridge In (Northjersey.com)

Edited September 29, 2005 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Jason Perlow]

They have a comprehensive wine list by the bottle, but not by the glass -- 3 reds and 3 whites. If they had a different list in the bar than they do in the dining room, I was not made aware of it.

EDIT: Indeed, the dining room appears to have more wines to drink by the glass, but there was only 6 at the bar. This however seems quite strange, unless on that particular day they didn't have all the wines by the glass on the listed on the web site, which is entirely possible -- the site could very well be wrong and they may really only have the six. I wasn't even advised of the prosecco or the champagne.

Even with that proportedly expanded list however, I'm not particularly impressed by the selections. A White Zin, two Pinot Grigios and Three Chardonnays? A Merlot, a Chianti and two Cabs? Pathetic. Its not like those wines are anything special either.

[Rachel Perlow]

The restaurant is very attractive, and has valet parking. Its definitely a high end place, with a menu focusing on Italian specialities and also on steaks and chops. Atmosphere is classy old school steakhousy. Dinner for two, with two appetizers, two mains, one dessert and one glass of wine came to $90. Not cheap -- certainly getting up there towards Manhattan prices, but the quality was up there as well.

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Just to be clear, that $90 did not include your wine (which we paid for at the bar, along with my drink) or tip. Total for the evening, 2 drinks, 2 apps, 2 mains, 1 dessert, tax & tip, and valet: $130. (Oh, and despite my mentioning it was Jason's birthday to the hostess, nothing embarrassing ensued, not even a candle in the plum tart.)

We asked for both the boar chop and pork chop (both double cut) to be served medium. The pork chop meat was mostly white with just the barest touch of pink in the middle. The boar chop (a special) was darker meat and much redder/pinker most of the way through. The were both seared and seasoned well on the exterior. As expected, the boar chop was about 2/3 the size of the pork chop, but Jason didn't suffer, he had plenty of my massive pork chop.

One more note about the bar, they do allow smoking at the bar and in that part of the restaurant, but they must have a very good ventilation system. There was a guy smoking a cigar about five feet away from me, which I did not detect until I saw him smoking it. I am usually very sensitive to tobacco, and I did not even smell it on my clothes or hair later that night. (There is a non-smoking dining room, which is where we ate.)

[foodini]

Gee-I felt out of place not wearing a suit from Pasquale clothing when I dined at Sanzari's New Bridge Inn on Saturaday eve. Very impressive face lift (to the building not the clientele) but it still is New Jersey meets the new upscale chain restaurants like Mortons. We get shown to our table for four and it is right by the bar and there is an empty table for 4 in the corner and I ask if we can have it-"sorry that is for 6 and we have a reservation coming in and we will flip up the sides-no biggie-5 minutes later 4 people get seated at it." My wife always orders a seafood salad and linguine with white clam sauce when she first goes to an Italian restaurant-the true tell. I ordered the Zuppa di Pesce all Marechiara and New Bridge Copped Salad. Our friends ordered the exact same thing. Chopped salad was good with creamy blue on the side and a bowl of blue cheese to sprinkle. Seafood salad-nice size portion-fish was a little stanky-could have used more lemon-olive oil. Linguine with clam sauce-nice portion-but lacked spice and flavor-but the pasta was cooked just right. The Zuppa dei Pesce is a very large portion/great presentation but again lacked flavor/zing/mouth feel. The chef needs a lesson in garlic/pepper/onions spice-maybe he is trying to be bland for all the bland NJ mouths but this big mouth wants more spice. For dessert we had Profiteroles-average too soggy and squishey. Being the low life that I can sometimes be I ordered the Tartufo-same as it always is but I love it the same way I love a Dairy Queen cone dipped in chocolate. Yes I will go back to try the meat side of the menu- but it is not a destination point-and when the posers wear out their welcome at Harvest we will dine with all the Bergen County wise guys again.

[Rosie]

Welcome to eGullet foodini and be sure to give us a report on other restaurants that you dine at in NJ.

[menton1]

Great review, Foodini. I would have been a lot more upset than you seemed to be about the 4/6 table issue; And unfortunately, there is a glut now of these "I feel important being here" restaurants in Bergen, such as 90 Grand and Solaia in Englewood, and Tuscany Trattoria in Westwood, where the food is secondary. Seems we can expect more of the same when the re-named America in Tenafly opens.

Have you tried Relish in Sparkill? Much more of a destination place!

Also, do you have a review of Harvest?