Chart House Restaurant (chain restaurant)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price, & Staff

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Positive: Excellent view of the water with a large array of seafood and delicious, warm chocolate lava cake.

Negative: Mediocre tasting food.

Overall: Large, high quality seafood selection with excellent ambiance. The food taste, however, is average.

Revisit:  Not again.  Despite the great quality and large selection the taste is just not good enough, and even the excellent ambiance does not make up for it.

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UPDATED APRIL 4, 2012:

I had the chance to try the Chart House Restaurant in Philadelphia overlooking the water and Camden NJ.  The restaurant had the same, excellent ambiance I remembered from their other restaurant in Northern NJ.

I enjoyed the Calamari appetizer and thought it was great.  The Macadamia crusted Mahi with Peanut sauce and Coconut shrimp with crab fried rice were both of excellent quality but the taste was mediocre at best.  In fact I thought I made them better at home.  The chocolate lava cake was as excellent as I remembered it from my prior visit.  Since the restaurant wasn’t as busy, the service was excellent and the server was very helpful.

Although the seafood selection is pretty large with many great things available for pescovegetarians on the menu, I would not be coming back due to the lack of taste. 

FROM APRIL 7, 2010:

Does your family always go to Halal only restaurants?  Are you tired of going to restaurants that always look run down?  Do you want to take your special loved ones to a nice restaurant on an important occasion?

If you answered yes to any of those questions then Chart House Restaurant is an excellent place for you and your family to try. More than half of the menu is seafood and everything tastes delicious.  The best part is that the food does not have a “fishy” taste as it is seasoned very well.

I recently tried this place with my family and absolutely loved it. It is located in Weehawken, next to the Hudson river, with the most beautiful view of The New York City skyline. They offer outdoor seating after Memorial Day Weekend, which is a great option to have. They also have a brunch buffet which costs $35 per person, a great price for the food and the unobstructed view of the city.

My family and I did not choose to do the buffet. We ordered the spinach and artichoke dip with crostinis for appetizers (this was one of the specials of the day) and we all loved it! We also ordered Clam Chowder which was great too but had too much clam meat for my taste. For the entrees we ordered different types of fish including the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi with Coconut Rice, Parmesan Sea Bass with Fettuccine, and Flounder stuffed with Crab Meat. My favorites were the Parmesan Sea Bass and the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi.I am really picky with seafood and this has become one of my favorite seafood restaurants as all the fish were fresh and tasted very good. We also ordered the coconut shrimp for an entree. For those that do not like fish, this is always a safe option. All the entrees were normal proportions and could be finished by an average person. They weren’t extremely large and sharing may not be an option if you are moderately hungry.

The last thing we had was the Chocolate Lava Cake which was just mouth-watering and is definitely a must have! (Although maybe the Grand Lux Cafe probably has a better tasting lava cake.) Just remember to order this with the rest of your food as it takes 30 minutes to make. Our waiter did not tell us about this until we were ready to order dessert. This was the downside to this restaurant. You pay $40-$50 per person to dine but don’t get that kind of service. Our waiter only came to us to take our orders and to give us our food. It was hard to get a hold of him because we would hardly see him near our table; he did not have many tables that he was serving either. He did not even come to ask us if we needed anything, something that’s expected from waiters at all restaurants. Despite the service, I highly recommend this restaurant because of the delicious food and amazing view of NYC. It would also be nicer if you go at night rather than the day.

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Chart House Restaurant Website

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Grand Lux Cafe (New York/New Jersey)

Rating: 

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Original and delicious baked to order desserts.

Negative: Very busy at lunch/dinner times and desserts take 30 minutes to be made.

Overall: Great place for baked to order dessert in a grand setting that must be tried if you come within 15 miles of any of the locations!

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craving donuts?  molten chocolate? strawberries?  pineapple?

Grand Lux Cafe is my go to restaurant for desserts whenever I am in Long Island, Paramus, or even Las Vegas. They have baked to order desserts which take half an hour to make so you have to order them when you order your entrees.

Let me start with the Molten Chocolate Cake. This is one of the best lava cakes i’ve ever had. It is served very hot with vanilla ice cream. What makes it really good is the quality of the chocolate that they use and the hotness of the chocolate liquid inside. Another one of my favorite is the beignets that they sell with 3 dipping sauces. Please be aware that one of their dipping sauces has alcohol in it so make sure to tell the waiter before hand!  These are also made fresh and are very warm. The only way I can describe them is that they are in between zeppoles and donuts. I recommend them highly if you are in a group of 4. For 2 people, these are a bit too much because I believe you get 6 for one order.

I have also tried the pineapple upside down cake which is not bad either and only recommend it if you are craving a pineapple dessert. The strawberry shortcake is also delicious for all you strawberry lovers. The ambiance of the restaurant is great as well. The decorations are very grand just like they say it in their name “Grand Lux.”  If you want delicious, baked to order desserts and live close by definitely try this place out!

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    Grand Lux Cafe Website

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Sabrina’s Cafe (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Delicious, unique breakfast and brunch items for all taste buds to enjoy.

Negative: Lots of meat filled dishes on the menu so be careful and ask for help.  Also, long wait times so call ahead!

Overall: The food tastes good and the environment is perfect for a weekend brunch with friends and family.

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Thinking of going to the Italian Market on the Weekend? Well don’t forget to stop in at Sabrina’s Cafe for brunch!

I went to the cute cafe located by the Italian Market with a wide variety of options for a perfect weekend brunch whether you’re with family or friends. There are two other locations as well, one by the Art Museum and one by the Drexel Campus.There is a long wait so make sure you call ahead before you go to get seated faster (they do not accept reservations but you can call ahead the same day).

I would recommend their Hunter Pence’s Lets Eat Stuffed French Toast with cream cheese, mascarpone, apricot, topped with peach-apricot syrup (note that the serving size for this is more than enough for 2 people). If you love stuffed french toast and want something sweet, you should order this. As for the eggs, if you like mexican food, I would recommend the poached eggs with beans, guacamole, and peppers (note that you can get vegetarian sausage with this). If you like corn bread, then I’d suggest The Phantic’s Belly Shaking Egg Breakfast. The potatoes that come with the eggs taste very fresh and have a home-made touch.

The restaurant also has lunch and dinner options and other appealing breakfast items such as Breakfast burritos and Challah French Toast.  Overall, I would recommend this cafe as the food taste goods and the environment is perfect for a weekend brunch.

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Sweet Revenge (West Village)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Uniquely delicious cupcake flavors and a wide variety of non-alcoholic drinks.

Negative: Bar type atmosphere with expensive dishes.

Overall: Great place to go with friends for dessert and non-alcoholic drink if you want to try a new type of setting.

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You want to try a high-end cupcake place with a delicious non-alcoholic drink with your friends at a bar?

Sweet revenge is a very unique and small cafe in the Village. It has many different kinds of signature ‘Artisan’ flavors.  This place is actually a bar/cupcake place so that people who drink can have wine with their cupcakes and pies.

However, for those who don’t drink alcohol they have a bunch of non-alcoholic drinks as well. Some of these nonalcoholic drinks include their South African rock shandy and American rock shandy. You can also have frozen hot chocolate which is pretty bitter and probably made from dark chocolate. They also have a bunch of coffees, teas, lattes, milk, lemonades, and sodas. They are known for the cupcakes and pies.

The signature flavor which I enjoyed was something called Sweet Revenge which included peanut butter cake, a ganache center, and peanut butter fudge frosting. We also had a chance to try there very rich and delicious Bird of Paradise cupcake which consisted of lime chiffon cake with mango butter cream and fresh lime zest. They have a variety of other unique signature flavors including ‘Pure” which consists of Mexican vanilla cake and Mexican vanilla buttercream as well as ‘Dirty’  which consists of Valrohna Cake with dark chocolate truffle.  I also tried their ‘Crimson and Cream’ which has raspberry red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was very unique compared to other red velvet cakes I have eaten. However, it did have somewhat of a raspberry flavor to it. They also have some pies which I did not have a chance to try.

I think overall that this place is a very interesting and unique place to go to especially if you want to have a quick delicious cupcake with a nice non-alcoholic drink. You can always check their website to see what kind of nonalcoholic drinks they have. When comparing this to other cupcake places like Magnolia, Crumbs, and Georgetown cupcakes I think this is more of a exotic cupcake place. However at the other places the cupcakes have the usual delicious flavors.  Therefore, this place definitely has more of a unique experience than other places.  By the way, the owner is very nice and the service is excellent, which makes your experience there soo much better!

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Sweet Revenge Website

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