HUDSON Restaurant Week: Summer 2014

Summer is most definitely in full swing— it’s hot, muggy, sunny and almost uncomfortable.  Every year it seems like everything goes downhill after the Fourth of July, but the summer Hudson Restaurant Week is just in time to turn the summer around.  The food and restaurant celebration begins next week on July 28 and runs through August 8, spanning Hudson County with participating restaurants in Hoboken, Jersey City, Weehawken, Edgewater, Bayonne and West New York. It’s perfect for any foodie on a budget with seriously discounted prix fixe meals: lunch starting at just $13 and dinner beginning at $23. The restaurants offering the tasty deals present a diverse range of flavors and cuisines, but are unified by Hudson County’s rich community.

Take a look at my previous Hudson Restaurant Week experiences to see what restaurants have offered in the past and maybe even for a little inspiration:

3Forty Grill, Hoboken

A&W Steakhouse, Bayonne

Bistro La Source, Jersey City

Brass Rail, Hoboken

Clinton Social, Hoboken

Dino & Harry's, Hoboken

Elysian, Hoboken

Hamilton Inn, Jersey City

Haven Riverfront Restaurant, Edgewater

Las Olas, Hoboken

Light Horse, Jersey City

The Madison, Hoboken

Maritime Parc, Jersey City

Marty O’Brien’s, Hoboken

Sabores, Hoboken

Skylark on The Hudson, Jersey City

The Stewed Cow, Hoboken

Sushi Lounge, Hoboken

Check out the Hudson Restaurant Week website to get all the juicy details— the restaurants, their menus and pricing. Don’t forget to follow along on facebook, twitter and instagram for my restaurant week updates and adventures. Stay tuned, delicious Hudson Restaurant Week moments to come! 

*Note all images are from hudsonrestaurantweek.com

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HudsonRW: Bistro La Source

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Bistro La Source is a sweet little eatery on a corner in the Paulus Hook neighborhood, that transports its diners to Europe. The bistro is part of a small dining district boasting some of Jersey City’s other favorite dining establishments. The small restaurant has a little front bar lined with mirrors, recalling the French bistros of Paris, and dotted with fairy lights like the glittering of the Tour Eiffel.

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The restaurant participated in Super Week to finish up Hudson Restaurant Week, with a three-course prix fixe at $25 and wine pairings for an additional $16. The atmosphere friendly, the food delicious, and the price amazing—it was the perfect end HudsonRW.

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The small table had a simplicity that emanated an elegance that rests on the tip of the tongue. The little water glasses just big enough to hold three sips and the rustic bread and cool butter felt like laissez-faire. The dishes were just as effortless and delicious.

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The escargot and chicken liver and foie gras mousse were casual but foreign at the same time. The textures and smells entice— buttery, luxurious, exotic and rich. The escargot were garlicky orbs, tender and hot, and chewy. The mousse, paired with a robust Bordeaux, was fluffy and decadent, perfect on the toasty baguette with the sweet tangy pickled onion and the grainy fig mustardo. It was meaty, heavy and light like a guilty pleasure. Even the thin broth laced with white wine, butter, and garlic, from the moules was flavorful and satiating. Appetizer portions were just enough to capture all the layers completely.

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Pretty butternut squash agnolotti, paired with a sweet and wet Moscato, lined the long plate in a single row, each delicately overlapping its neighbor. The pool of beurre noisette was heavy with the warm flavors of sage and earthy grana padano cheese, but missing salt. Inside was a thick creamy light orange filling, close to a creamy sauce, with the faint color of butternut squash. However, the winter squash’s flavor was missing from the dish, but its sweetness swam in and out.

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The Alsatian Choucroute Garnie entrée was a very different kind of dish, demonstrating a German heaviness and lacking the graceful refinement. The plate was laden with smoked bratwurst, pork loin bacon, and knockwurst, with potatoes, carrots and Reisling braised kraut. Each meat was salty and savory, but also merged perfectly with the tangy sweet kraut. This dish was weighty and round, with various textures and subtle flavor profiles.

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Dessert was contained, simple and classic. The crème caramel had a slick texture but the custard tasted too eggy, interrupting the burned sugar caramel flavor. The apples in the Jersey apple crumble were not sweet, but soft and a little tart, and the cinnamon gelato smoothed. The chocolate mousse had rum inflections, but was dense, chocolaty with a few white chocolate disks and a dose of heavy whipped cream.

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The food was absolutely delicious and the atmosphere was inviting.  The menu items are constructed with care and high quality ingredients, while the service is direct and courteous. Bistro La Source is a little treat, a small gem creating comforting food that takes you away without going too far.

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HudsonRW: the Stewed Cow

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Thank goodness for Hudson Restaurant Week’s Super Week. To celebrate the Super Bowl coming to Jersey, some restaurants participating in HudsonRW have extended their deals through game day (eee!).

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Off to the Stewed Cow, a relative newcomer to the Hoboken scene, for Super Week. HudsonRW at the Stewed Cow included two options: three course prix fixe for $25, or $35 for a libation pairing. The color scheme of the place is dark, but the details are inviting, reminiscent of a contemporary old west. The Stewed Cow is a land of strong bourbons and hardy dishes— a watering hole for the urban cowboy. And somewhere in the back is a mechanical bull that gets plenty of action every night.

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Appetizers

Buffalo Calamari

This was super fresh, super yummy, and also super spicy (to me)— fried calamari with a spicy twist. The blue cheese crumbles were at first jarring (Scott Conant says that cheese and fish is a big no-no), but buffalo is automatically paired with blue cheese.

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Cheesy Tater Tots

A mini cast iron pan overflowing with greasy, golden potato pillows, topped with an inexcusable amount of cheese. It was hot and salty, starchy and what cafeteria dreams are made of.

Bourbon Chili and Chips

Like the other oversized appetizers, this was what you would expect, but it had the most complex flavors. The wet chili had a little pile of shredded cheese on top, but nestled in the warm sauce was thick chunks of braised beef, making it hearty and rustic.

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Entrees

Fish Tacos

The two tacos were topped with a bunch of shredded cabbage, adding a freshness and crunch that was missing in the marinated mahi mahi. A red onion here and chunk of tomato there comprised the salsa, but the tangy crema fresco muddled all the flavors.

All American Burger

It was big, juicy, and basically just right. Just a regular burger done decently.

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Cajun Fettuccine with Grilled Chicken

The rough and ready Cajun spices blended right in. The thin creamy sauce coated the fettuccine, adding not quite enough heat. Peas were frequent, while big chicken pieces seemed far and few between.

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Desserts

Warm Cookie Dough

This was the most undercooked cookie like ever, but it was hot and delicious, with the  harmony of white and brown sugars and chocolate chips. On top were two large baubles of melting cookie dough ice cream, indulging in a double dose.

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Borubon Pecan Pie

As all pecan pies should be, this one was sweet, meaty, dense and delicious.

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Fried Oreos

Memories of the shore came to mind, but this heavy, dough reincarnation of the favorite burst bubbles. The gooey chocolate cookies were lost in a puffy orb of oil-saturated dough, which made them hard to enjoy.

In the moment, the food was delicious, satisfying and addictive. I could not put my fork down gorging on little potato nuggets and spicy tentacles, or rest my taco on the plate or even give my spoon a breather when there was cookie dough childhood reveries to be had. There was nothing truly out of the ordinary at the Stewed Cow, other than the extremely friendly and eager staff, but at the same time, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about bourbon, and comfort, and having a good time, which I totally did! Next time the bull!!(?)

Keep up with all the #HudsonRW adventures and everything in between on facebook, instagram, twitter, yelp and pintrest! So sad that I am running out of time, but so happy there is Super Week!

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HudsonRW: Haven Riverfront Restaurant

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To avoid an hour wait for a table in the dining room, we sat in the lounge of Haven Riverfront Restaurant and Bar, after the hostess assured that there was the same menu and the same full service there. Little did we know that that service was going to be rapid fire. The Hudson Restaurant Week menu offered some dishes from the regular menu, but also had additions that were specific to the special $38 prix fixe.

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The very pretty monochrome butternut squash ravioli prix fixe appetizer was inharmonious. Crunchy, meaty walnuts added the textual contrast but the sharp white sauce met with the sweet butternut squash filling with a sudden uncertainty. However the pretzel-crusted calamari demonstrated duplicity of textures from the crispy dark pretzel coating and the perfectly tender octopus beneath. Though the calamari lacked salt, which would heighten its flavors, the zesty marinara sauce and spicy aioli added punch.

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The garganelli pasta Bolognese on the prix fixe, though not on the regular menu, came before we had finished our appetizers. It was just a deep bowl of pasta, overwhelmed by overly acidic tomato sauce and dry cubes of pork. The overcooked spiral pasta did not soak up the excess sauce, but only swam in it, and the ample amount of parmesan could not mask the poorly prepared pork.

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Even the hanger steak entrée had a few missteps despite its contemporary plating. The steak cooked just fine, lacked the salt needed to bring out those meaty flavors. However, the roughly mashed potatoes were bright and created a good balance with the meat. On the side of the plate, like a slimy afterthought, sat a thick tasteless chewy mushroom, which added nothing to the dish. Neither did the parsley emulsion; it was just a pretty color to add to the dull browns. 

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A mildly sweet rice pudding, served with a red ball of cherry sorbet and a spattering of crunchy granola was offered for dessert. The pudding was wet and loose, not as decadent and luxurious as expected. The tang of the cherry sorbet brought the rice pudding alive, yet there was far too much granola.

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The chocolate pot au crème was very dense and heavy, but the espresso cream and salty caramel pieces on its top layer stole the show. It was foamy, creamy with a subtle hint of coffee, and crystals of salty caramel candies made for a near perfect combination. Underneath the chocolate was smooth, dense and pudding-like, but almost too chocolaty.

Unfortunately the aesthetic of presentation throughout the whole meal was quite uneven. The butternut squash looked beautiful in their minimalist presentation, while the calamari appetizer appeared minimal. Same with the entrée duo— the hanger steak was like a piece of art, colored sauces and perfected staging, while the pasta was thrown in the bowl with too much sauce. The deserts also seemed to be on two different levels of attractiveness. 

Haven fell flat. The service was poorly timed—drinks were a bit slow, appetizers came out quickly and the entrees came out even faster. Also the dishes did not rise to their full potential as they had been described in the menu. It appears the new restaurant has a few hiccups to smooth out, but there is promise in Haven.

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HudsonRW : Skylark on the Hudson

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At $13 for a prix fixe lunch, Skylark on the Hudson treated its customers well for Hudson RestaurantWeek. The restaurant, a self-proclaimed fine diner, combines tables, booths, neon lights, various patterns and large orb lights, to create that diner aesthetic. A wall of windows overlook the Hudson River, making the eatery seem even larger, lighter and more playful.

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Even though the regular menu looked like a jumble, there are a wide variety of elevated diner dishes from familiar sandwiches to hefty salads and fancy main courses. Visually the HudsonRW menu was more straightforward, listing highlights. But each plate had a clean presentation and none of the mess of a traditional diner.

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The crab cake appetizer from the regular menu was tasty, but the fresh buttery popcorn heavily dusted with Old Bay seasoning added something a little different. The popcorn was playful pairing with the sophisticated crab cake. Even the french fries served with the prix fixe corned beef Ruben, were a step above your typical diner fare. These were thick, supple and soft on the inside, with a thin layer of crunch and felt like home away from home.

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However, the chicken quesadilla one of the appetizers on the special menu, did not offer anything different or exciting. It was just a cheesy quesadilla, with a good crunchy texture on the outside and an oozy cheesy and warm barbeque sauce center. It was just large enough to get a taste of the favorite.

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The corned beef Ruben was only half a sandwich for the restaurant week special, but it made an impression. Though the sandwich is a diner classic, the quality of the ingredients made Skylark’s Ruben so much more than a slippery diner specialty. Somehow the ratios were perfect, letting the chewy pink meat of the corned beef shine. The bread was super crunchy not greasy, to counter the melty cheese, the thin layer of tangy sauerkraut and just enough Russian dressing.

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A shrimp scallop provencal on the regular menu offered a deep bowl of wet risotto delicately topped with tender shrimp and scallops. The dish was attractive, rich with the aroma of a beurre blanc and the sea. The seafood flavors seeped into the pool of vegetable risotto below it, creating another dimension and layer for the seemingly straightforward dish.

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The apple strudel, a dessert offering for the lunch prix fixe, came hot, with a tiny orb of ice cream on top of the buttery layers of pastry. While the doughy elements tasted luxurious, it was dense and chewy and the apples were washed out and lackluster.

The dressed up diner definitely has a dense menu which mixing diner favorites with an elevating flourish. Skylark on the Hudson manages to make some of their dishes interesting, either by adding something new and playful or doing the classics super well.

Keep up with all the #HudsonRW adventures and everything in between on facebook, instagram, twitter, yelp and pintrest! Let me know what places you are going to try too!

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