THE CROWD Noisy and festive some children. THE SPACE Spacious two-story, 210-seat dining room with stunning ocean views. In the end, that’s what the ocean does, too, at Stella Marina. The cool custard glows beneath the chandeliers, but the perfectly ripened strawberries steal the show. Choose instead the chocolate gelato the apple budino (like ciabatta bread pudding with custard, walnuts and vanilla gelato) Valrhona chocolate polenta cake with its scoop of pistachio gelato and amarena cherries or the fruit tart, its buttery shell filled with pastry cream as backdrop to a panoply of blueberries and raspberries.įor real sublimity, order the zabaglione. Contorni (side dishes), like the long, slim platter of crisp-tender broccoli rabe with roasted garlic ($9), help balance a meal.Īs for desserts, skip the tiramisù with its too-liberal dusting of mouth-puckering cocoa, and the cannoli, with shells closer to brittle than crisp. The rib pork chop, though beautiful with its stuffing of fontina, prosciutto and spinach, seemed heavy. The sweet white flesh of grilled branzino played well against roasted potatoes but dwarfed the few asparagus spears alongside and pan-seared salmon, encrusted with toasted and chopped pine nuts, was served on a too-small portion of succulent spinach. Escarole was better represented with cannellini beans in a core-warming soup. The escarole, with its red onion, pecorino, walnuts and shaved fennel dressed with red wine vinaigrette, failed to achieve the same alchemy. The Caesar salad was a fine example of what can happen when the simplest of ingredients are expertly combined. Calamari, though touted as superlative by the waiter on our first visit, was unremarkable. In one small ramekin, the pieces of pink tentacle were served along with morsels of potato and Cerignola olives in another, the thin slices of whelk were enhanced by slivers of celery and bits of onion. Both the octopus in sherry vinaigrette and the scungilli in lemon vinaigrette were tender and delicious. Mansfield’s oregano-flavored Sicilian vinaigrette. Tuna carpaccio, from the specials list on a weekend night, was an exquisite composition, the almost buttery fish set off by a few capers, a frisson of micro arugula, pine nuts and Mr. Their working partners are Kenneth Mansfield, who was chef de cuisine at Scalini Fedeli in New York, and Dennis Tafuri, a former owner of Cask 591 in Long Branch.įirst-course offerings are delightfully expansive. The brothers also own Sirena Ristorante in Long Branch. The restaurant, which opened in November, is owned by Michael Cetrulo, owner of Scalini Fedeli in New York and Chatham and Il Mondo Vecchio in Madison, and his brother, Joe Cetrulo, who owns La Campagna in Morristown and Millburn. Then there’s the setting, at the south end of the Boardwalk, cozied up to the remains of the vast and storied Casino structure, with stunning, unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean and the sky above. There’s the effervescence of a full house and a good time: Diners are laughing and sharing plates (a very good sign), and waiters are a friendly, efficient blur. It was created by a constellation of restaurateurs who know the Italian culinary tradition and deliver it with assurance in a dramatic space lined with huge windows. TELLA MARINA in Asbury Park is a masterly juxtaposition of the built environment and the natural world.
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