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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Matchbox 369 (Washington DC)

Rating: 

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

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Positive: Nice location and atmosphere with good desserts and brunch items.

Negative: The Pizza can’t compare to NY Pizza.

Overall: I wouldn’t come back to this place unless if I wanted to try their brunch menu or have some dessert with friends.  Beware of long lines!

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LOOKING FOR high quality pizza in dc?   try this place first.

I went to the crowded Matchbox restaurant located in a busy area of downtown Washington DC, Chinatown.  I had to wait 45 minutes to get parking and another 45 minutes for seating on a Sunday afternoon!  By the time I finally got seating I was thinking to myself that this pizza place better be worth the time and effort.  So now you may be wondering… was it worth it? Well it wasn’t! It was neither amazing nor bad though.

I will admit that the pizza was unique in that the one that we ordered had a spicy sauce but I didn’t think the quality of the cheese was that great. It also wasn’t warm when it arrived probably because the waitress was so busy that she forgot to check on the pizza.  Everyone knows the best pizza is hot with cheese dripping all over the place. Well that wasn’t happening. Another pizza we had ordered had potato chips on it and was pretty unique and decent tasting.  I, however, wouldn’t go back for the pizza. 

They did have a large non-pizza menu as well and maybe if you are in the mood to try something else there and you can withstand the wait then go for it.   The dessert was good but not great.  They had fresh cinnamon donuts which were great.  They came with a Cholula dipping sauce which may contain alcohol so be careful!  The molten chocolate cake was dry and cold – not something I expected or liked.  We did see that someone had ordered fresh cinnamon rolls from the brunch menu which both smelled greatly appealing and looked delicous.   On the bright side the atmosphere was nice so its possible to go there with friends.  Hey, after NY style pizza I dont think you can get anything better, except for chicago deep dish pizza or Papa Tomato’s in NJ.

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Matchbox Website

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Naked Chocolate Cafe (Philadelphia) – CLOSED

PLEASE NOTE THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED DOWN & wILL BE RELOCATING AS PER THEIR WEBSITE.

Rating: 

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

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Positive: Delicious European chocolate drinks open later than other similar cafes.

Negative: Somewhat pricey for the sizes of the drinks.

Overall: Great place to try if you love chocolate, and if you especially like hot chocolate drinks.

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smooth creamy European chocolate?  yes!

This fine cafe is situated at a great location on Walnut street next to Tutti-Frutti frozen yogurt within a building consisting of many offices. When you enter this small cafe it is reminiscent of many of the cafés you see throughout New York and Philadelphia. There is a nice counter with a variety of homemade chocolates of various kinds as well as various chocolate drinks and desserts, including cupcakes. The sitting arrangement is very comfortable and typical of what you may find at a nice cafe.  On one side of the store there are many small circular tables with two chairs by each, in the middle of the store there is a more comfortable sitting arrangement with cushioned chairs, and at the back of the store there is a soft couch with a center table. Overall the service is very good with staff who are willing to give appropriate advice when you are deciding on what to get.

The negative, though, is that the bathroom is located in the basement of the building which takes a few turns and going down stairs to get too.  The classic hot chocolate here is one of the best I’ve had especially if you get it with some milk, American style.  The dessert menu consists of various Mouse cakes, fudge cakes, cupcakes, etc.  I enjoyed their Mocha fudge cake, although it did end up becoming too chocolaty to handle while sipping on some hot chocolate.  The prices overall are slightly more than I would want to pay, but probably appropriate for the area in which this location is situated.  The petite hot chocolate, by the way, is way too small and I would recommend the next size up. Another advantage of this place is that most other places like this cafe close by 8pm and this stays open till 11 pm.  When I went to this location there was a long line around 9:30pm, signifying how much people like chocolate and this cafe.  If you are in the area with friends and want to get together at a nice cafe definitely try this place out. Its better suited for groups of 4 but not more than that. If you like chocolate, especially high quality european chocolate, this is a place to definitely try!

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Naked Chocolate Cafe Website

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