I haven’t been to The Captains Inn since sometime around 1987 or so. and I didn’t like it too much back then. I haven’t been back there until last night when the skies promised rain but gave us sunshine in our eyes while we sat on the outdoor deck that overlooks the back bay across the street from the main restaurant.

Most Tuesday evenings I ride my motorcycle along with my friends and we always wind up at a new spot to eat and have a few beers. Tonight was different as it was supposed to thunderstorm all evening, so we decided to take four wheels instead of two to be on the safe side.

The suggestion for us to meet at The Captains Inn brought along some anxiety for me as my last memory of this place wasn’t a good one. Not to say that the food was terrible, but it was just so so and the atmosphere was old and seashore smelly. But this night would be a first for me as I had never visited their outdoor bar and grill.

Upon arriving, the place looked pretty inviting with the music playing and the sun sitting low on the bay reflecting what was left of a great day. The place is set up nicely and very spacious with a lot of seating both open air and covered.

The five of us are greeted by a young girl who takes our drink order and leaves us menu’s. Not expecting too much I figure this place to be a burger and fries or sandwich spot, so I peruse the menu in search of something chicken. I order up a chicken panini which is dressed in field greens, bleu cheese, olives and tomatoes. I opt out on the bleu cheese as I am not a big fan of this molded variety.

Drinks and sandwiches arrive promptly and we continue to order a couple more rounds, being that we aren’t riding the bikes tonight. All in all the food was pretty good and the service, although not extremely friendly, was okay. Here’s the thing I just don’t understand about young waitress’s serving a group of guys. Where’s the smile, the flirting, and the over the top attention? Don’t these girls know that the tip is going to be based on them playing it up a bit?  I just can’t figure out why a girl wouldn’t go all out to be over friendly in hopes of getting a bigger tip. It really couldn’t hurt. Someone should start a service that trains a wait staff on how to serve customers based on the clientele. You have to treat a guest differently based on who they are. When I waited tables in college I would always lay it on extra thick when I had a table with all women. They loved the extra attention and it almost always netted me a bigger tip. One other thing that really ticks me off is a waitress/waiter that doesn’t have answers to my questions. This one waitress didn’t know that a pint was the same as 16 ounces so we didn’t expect too much from her.

So what’s the deal lately with keeping drink prices off the menu? How about the shock when the bill comes and the price of the drink is ridiculous? Too late now to send it back. We happened to order three Mojito’s that were served in a 7-8 ounce plastic cup with not so fresh mint. The drinks were weak and very sweet and not what a good Mojito should be, but until the check arrived it was forgiving. The Mojito’s, as it turns out are $8.50 a piece. Whoaaaa! I have had Mojito’s in 4 star restaurants that cost that much and they are perfect too. Bad move on the drink pricing Captain.

So what can you expect to pay for four sandwiches, an order of fried clam strips, a side of onion rings, 12 beers( only two in bottles, the rest are draft in 12 ounce cups), and three Mojito’s? Does $125.00 sound right to you? We probably wouldn’t have ordered the Mojito’s if we knew the cost of each up front. Being that the food cost us roughly $50.00 the bar bill was pretty high.

With the tip, we were set back $30.00 a piece. Man I could have had a really nice dinner and a glass of wine somewhere for that much. Live and learn, as they say. Too bad because the food and atmosphere were pretty good and I probably would have paid a return visit.

Regular guy rating   * * 1/2 ( don’t sucker punch me with the drink prices!)

The Captains Inn

Lacey Road

Forked River NJ

As most people know, New Jersey is the diner capital. Unfortunatly for me, on this day, I chose the wrong time to visit one.

Feeling hungry and on my way to work, I can’t help thinking about a stack of pancakes with some fresh fruit.  A visit to our neighborhood diner is in order to satisfy my craving. I order up a short stack with banana’s, strawberries and blueberries and can’t wait to sink my teeth into them. Last night wasn’t a good night for dinner so I wake up hungry and craving some ‘ cakes.

As I sip a hot cup of coffee my waitress sets the plate in front of me. At first glance I am impressed at the amount of fruit that is piled high over my ‘cakes. At second glance I realize that the fruit, other than the banana’s, isn’t fresh.  Disappointment begins to set in as I attempt the navigate thru the mushy and hot blueberries to search out the ‘cakes. Even the strawberries were like tasteless shaved strawberry ice. To add insult to injury, I am served whipped margarine in a cup instead of butter. I hate margerine and especially on pancakes.

Trying to make the best of the situation and still hungry, I make it to the pancakes beneath the frozen fruit mess. The ‘cakes are always tasty and I make sure to eat the banana’s with each mouthful.

So how does this story get worse? How about the price they charged me for 2 pancakes and frozen fruit. How does $8.79 sound for that short stack mess. I can not believe my eyes and realize a lesson is hereby learned. Total for ‘cakes and coffee amounts to $10.49. I know I will never eat here again, especially since the waitress sees I didn’t eat all the fruit and charges me full price anyway.

How is it that when a customer isn’t satisfied, the waitress doesn’t make it a point to address the issue at hand to make it right or at least remove something from the bill to ease the distress. This is why I write this stuff, more for a warning shot to potential customers to these establishments.

Regular Guy rating * *

Bay Ave Diner

Bay Avenue

Manahawkin New Jersey

Quaint little towns always seem to have at least one restaurant that clearly stands out. Meils is one example of just such an establishment.

I have dined at Meils at least four times that I can remember and perhaps at least one more time that I can’t recall, but each time did not disappoint. Although small and crampy, the atmosphere is mom and pop, old style homemade dining. And the food….is exactly that.  Big portions of very tasty and some clever, combinations. My favorite over the years has always been the meatloaf. I make it a point to eat at Meils every time I visit the New Hope/ Lambertville/ Stockton area.

This time I made it there for breakfast, a first. Three friends and I set out from Manahawkin NJ on a very frigid Sunday morning on motorcycle, for a long awaited first spring ride. With the cold breeze threatening to make our trip shorter than we would like, we persevered until finally an hour and a half later we arrived.

First order is to drink as much hot coffee as possible to warm our frozen extremities. Our waitress promptly delivered the goods along with menus. At first glance something changed from what I remembered about Meils…their prices. I have to say that I was very shocked at the prices for the breakfast items. My last recollection of Meils was fantastic food at very, very reasonable prices. It has been some five years since my last trip to Meils so I thought that the popularity of the place created a sale and the new owner changed the menu. As I found out later, the same owners are still there after some 18 years, so that wasn’t why the prices were so much higher than I remembered. For example..Ham and eggs, with two sides $11.00.  Omelets ranged from $14-$18. I stopped short of reading the whole menu because no matter how good the breakfast might be, I can’t see spending this much money on eggs. That being said, the ham and eggs were delicious. I opted for the home fries and a Cinnamon Butterscotch scone as my two sides, with a side of salsa for my eggs. The salsa, which I love to eat with eggs, was fresh with the much needed addition of Cilantro. Anyone who eats salsa knows that fresh Cilantro really sets it off and separates the good salsa from the just so so salsa. I am a baker/chef by trade and I have to say that the scone was as good as any I have made in my own shop. Served up warm and flaky with a side of jam, it definitely made the meal better than if I had it with toast. The breakfast took quite some time to serve (about 25 minutes) and the place wasn’t jamming so we couldn’t understand why it took so long, but once we started eating , we soon forgot the wait time. By the way, all the dishes were garnished attractively and overfilled the plates. Also the bacon is the best any of us ever had, and describing it just wouldn’t cover how good it was.  If you love bacon, you have to order up some on your visit.

So what does it cost for great food, great service ( the coffee kept flowing with out asking) and great atmosphere. Well for us, including tip, $80.00. I told you it was pricey. Although the food is excellent, I don’t know how they justify Manhattan Hotel prices. If I were to say how much it should have cost us, it would be more in line with $60-$65 including tip. So, a bit costly but at least you are getting a meal that leaves you full and satisfied. Nothing worse than overpriced bad food, so it makes it a little easier to accept the bill.

Regular guy rating * * * 1/2 ( only because of high priced menu)

Meils Restaurant and Bakery

Bridge & Main
Stockton, NJ 08559
(609) 397-8033

My friends and I eat breakfast out every Tuesday morning, usually in the same place but lately we’ve been trying to find some new places to go. So I print out a coupon from Restaurant.com ( which in itself is a great place to visit and take advantage of) for Granny’s Kitchen and proceed to place it on my refrigerator for almost 1 year before finally using it on this past Tuesday.

Granny’s is in Lakewood on the Bricktown border in the Home Depot plaza on Rte 70 east Since Granny’s is in a town some 25 miles from my neighborhood, I don’t have any sense of what type of place it is.  Upon arriving and at first glance it appears that Granny’s is a diner/luncheonette (remember that word?). Upon entering the first thing you notice is a broken down and cluttered wind break area between the two doors that lead to the seating area. We are seated quickly (and given menus) at a table that does not fit three men of our stature, so we move to another table that allows more elbow room.

Ordering takes awhile since the menu is pretty extensive and two sided, but we navigate to the Steak and Eggs which seems to be a good deal compared to the other breakfast specials and regular meals. We order three Rib eye steaks and eggs, all med rare, all over medium eggs, which also include toast and home fries. Vinny, as I like to call him, can not just eat breakfast but has to order some types of sides to start. Usually toasted corn muffins are his preference as it is today. He also orders a short stack of ‘cakes as Gus orders up a side of potato pancakes.

The corn muffin arrives first and we all agree that it tastes like fish oil. Not a good muffin at all. Eggs are being served as we set aside the muffin.  The steaks turn out to be cut “thinner than the slices of toast”,  a quote from Gus, and our eggs are browned and yolks are dried up. The home fried potatoes are a mix of what looks like old and new. some of which are blackened throughout. As it is we proceed to eat most of the food served to us and complain as we do that we won’t be returning to feast here again.

Okay so lets look at the good first. The waitress was friendly and competent. The food was served quickly and nothing was incorrect or missing. Now the bad. The eggs were overcooked, the steak was about 3 ozs, pre cooked weight, the potatoes black and white. The pancakes were average but as Vinny noted the syrup was very good. “Thick”, he said. The potato pancakes were the type that are served in almost every place in New Jersey. Frozen, pre-made and fried in deep fat and served up with apple sauce and sour cream. No comment.

So there you have it, although as bad as the meal was, it wasn’t as bad as the run down and dirty dining room. The over head fans were thick with dust, the air registers were black and the walls were in desperate need of new paint. The type of walls that had pictures framed in dirt from being there so long.  I almost feel bad writing such a bad review but I can’t find anything that would make me return for a second try.

Too bad because the wait staff was very nice and deserve a better working environment. It would definitely make for better tips. It almost seems like the owner has given up on his investment and refuses to put any effort into cleaning up.

For three steak and eggs, one short stack, one potato pancake, two corn muffins and  three iced coffees, a grand total of $42.23. With the Restaurant.com coupon we save 50% which puts us at $21+. We drop $30 on the table and bid the place ad

Regular Guy rating * 1/2

Granny’s Kitchen

Rte 70 East

Lakewood New Jersey

Tonight my friend and music editor for this site, are dining together. He is in town for a visit and wants a steak dinner but I draw a blank to where we can find a good steak. On our way up rte 9 I spot the Lighthouse and remember in years past, having a good meal there.  If you have ever been to the Lighthouse, it is hard to determine if it is a restaurant with a bar or a bar with a restaurant. Tonight sadly, it is a bar with a restaurant.

It is a very busy night for the Lighthouse crew. People are lined up at 6pm for tables. We happen to get lucky and land a deuce without wait which is great because we are hungry. Our waiter, who never told us his name, brings us menus and promises a return for a drink order.  Tonight’s specials include, what else,  but a steak dinner.  Ny strip steak with mushrooms, bacon and crumbled bleu cheese, served with jumbo grilled shrimp, vegetables and a choice of potatoes or onion rings. The description makes us immediately opt for two orders.

While waiting for the meal, we are served our salads. Mine although a little warm, is the best of the two. My friends salad looked like half had slid off the plate before it reached our table.  Where’s the bread we ask and the waiter returns with a warm basket of french style bread.

The salads go down and the bread disappears but the entre’s are now in front of us. To both our surprise, the steak is buried beneath a layer of bleu cheese sauce, which is extremely thick and overflowing the plate. In this sauce are my mushrooms and bacon, both of which a very hard to find. A very disappointing start when your really craving a steak. I proceed to scrape off the sauce to look for my hopefully, buried treasure below. The steak is done medium rare which is how I ordered it, so that is one for the plus side. The steak is also tender and flavorful as it is dredged in a Cajun sprinkle. Proceeding to the onion rings brings more sorrow than glee. They are cold and mushy, which are a very bad combination for such a great side to a steak dinner. The vegetables are over seasoned with salt and can not be eaten.

Grilled jumbo shrimp sounds great to me, if in fact you GET grilled jumbo shrimp!!!! If you know shrimp, they are sold in increments of size ( amount) per pound. Shrimp that are considered under 15 or U15, are in the jumbo category, although closer to U12′s are really nice for jumbo shrimp. In fact at my wedding I insisted on U12′s for the shrimp cocktail bar which was the hit of the event. My friends still comment on how great the shrimp were.  If you want to leave a lasting impression with shrimp, serve  U 12′s, or don’t do it at all.

Our shrimp were probably in the 16-21 range. Good for those shrimp rings in the supermarket that you see in the freezer sections, but bad for a steak and shrimp dish.  Serve me 4  jumbo shrimp instead of 6 or 7 smaller ones. The bigger ones always taste better and make a much nicer presentation. I eat most of my steak and leave the rest on my plate.

Upon clearing our dishes the waiter asks if everything was okay and we hesitate and reply it was “alright I guess”. The waiter takes our plates  and leaves without question about our reply. Too bad because this is the only way a kitchen gets feedback for its hard work.

Price for both steaks, a diet soda and a Corona beer $52.00. Add a $10 tip for mediocre service and there you have it.

Regular Guy rating * * 1/2

Lighthouse Tavern

Rte 9 southbound side,

Barnegat New Jersey