Three restaurants and some general ob...

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Author Message   Hank Zona Supporter Username: Hankzona Post Number: 5277 Registered: 3-2002 Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 11:52 am:        over the past couple of months, Ive had the opportunity and pleasure to eat at three easy to recommend NJ restaurants...Lorena's in Maplewood, Cucharamama in Hoboken and David Drake in Rahway (this past Saturday). First, a couple of conclusions about NJ vs. NYC dining. The most obvious...BYO options in NJ stretch your dollar and let you be a little more adventurous. That said, the better restaurants with liquor licenses are the ones who do a great job with wine choices and the stock of their bar. A restaurant that only pours wines by the glass that you can buy in most local winestores for a few dollars more than they charged by glass are lazy...and foolish. When most folks realize they paid $8-9 for a glass of wine they can get for $12, I think a little something gets lost. Another observation about NJ dining...as opposed to NYC where you find more consistently good to excellent service, service at most NJ rsstaurants is up and down at best, poor at many. So when we dine in NJ and find the service matches the food quality, its noticeable and noteworthy. Also, comparing top restaurants in NJ to NYC, in better NYC restaurants, I think most dishes on the menu are executed more consistently...in NJ, sometimes how you feel when you walk out of the restaurant depends on what you ordered. I dont think its uncommon for someone to be wowed and someone to be maybe not disappointed, but not as thrilled, because they ordered different things. The restaurants... Lorena's...we loved Jocelyne's..and found it consistently wonderful (and hey, you can walk home afterwards!). Lorena's was just as good, or almost as good (a case of what you ordered applies here)..the care of the service and the quality of the food was obvious. To say its as good as Jocelyne's or even just a smidge off still makes it the best restaurant you'll eat at in Maplewood-South Orange and better than just about any other in NJ. Cucharamama is fun and funky. The drinks were excellent...the wines were priced well and offered a really good selection to complement the Nuevo Latino menu (mainly Central and South American). The food was very reasonanbly priced (the most expensive menu item was $25) and the flavors were great and different than you'll find at most places. It's a neat little place too. We were planning to head back there Saturday but couldnt get a table so we luckily got a cancellation at.... Restaurant David Drake...only fixed price options for dinner starting with three courses for $49. Excellent attention to detail...a really cool restored old house in Rahway, which seems to be undergoing a downtown revitalization of sorts. The food was very memorable and inventive without being ridiculous. I can still taste my food (snail stuffed quail, scallop mousse stuffed skate wing, lime cake with coconut tapioca and basil ice cream and roasted pineapple...yep basil ice cream, and it was amazing). We all shared a cheese plate too and the cheese service was great as were the eight selections. When one of us asked for a L'Orange and tonic, they suggested their own orange infused vodka. Some of the attention was a little fussy, but overall, it was great and we werent rushed out of there..in fact, we sat there for a reasonably paced three hours. The place is also open less than a year too. This was the second best meal Ive had in NJ next to Serenade. It's not cheap but it was a really great dining experience and what we paid per couple compared to what people say they have paid at local restaurants and gotten reasonably good but not great food and spotty service. I think with that in mind, a 25 minute drive to Rahway isnt a problem.   Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 1780 Registered: 8-2003 Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 11:57 am:        We've been to Cucharamama and loved it. I recommend it often. After reading this post and Greenetree's earlier post I think it's time to check out Lorena's. Thanks for the reviews!   Kibbegirl Citizen Username: Kibbegirl Post Number: 373 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 4:32 pm:        Hank, you couldn't be more right on about Lorena's. My friend and I ate there several months ago and boy, was it delish! Everything from the food to the atmosphere was stellar. Such a great location too! It's like having a five star meal in your Mom's fancy dining room. It's so comfortable in there. No one is loud, the waitstaff are on point, and the food! The food is out of this world!   marinab Citizen Username: Marinab Post Number: 326 Registered: 8-2002 Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 11:47 am:        Just wanted to add that Cucharama's is the restaurant of one of our closest friends, the chef Maricel Presilla (she's godparent to one of our children) She's a fabulous chef and cookbook author and creates her own unique atmosphere. Her more casual and original place, Zafra's, is down the block and is also nice, good for a tamale, and easier for bringing children. I believe she'll be opening a store with take-out and some groceries at some point.