New Brunswick: Due Mari Pesce e Vinoteca, from the Due Terre people Options

[Rail Paul]

The Artful Diner mentions a new restaurant expected to open this weekend. I've been delighted with Due Terre, so if this is anything like the Bernardsville place, it should be great.

78 Albany Street in downtown NB.

Due Mari

Artful Diner

[Daniel]

That's exciting.. NB needs some new blood. Catherine Lombardi's seems to be one of the only Italian choices in town and it seems rather expensive and boring.. Though there is also Panico's and now Panico's and Panico's brick oven.. Has anyone been to Panico's Brick Oven? Looking forward to giving this place a shot.. Thanks for the heads up..

[Rail Paul]

Karla Cook likes it a lot. She lovingly describes the menu, and the pasta dishes.

I get over to Due Terre (its sister restaurant in Bernardsville) regularly, so this increases my interest in getting to Due Mari. I'm not enamored of Cook's scores, but her narratives tend to mirror my experience.

Servers are eager and friendly; their enthusiasm translates to respect for Bill Dorrler, the executive chef, whose work also stars at a sister restaurant, Due Terre, in Bernardsville. One waiter lovingly described the entire assembly of a rolled swordfish dish; another waxed practically poetic about a creamy pasta loaded with wild mushrooms and its head-turning aroma of white truffle. A casual question about differences in the lowest-price wines on the list drew the sommelier to our table.

Then there were those artichoke hearts. Part of a nine-item menu of sfizi (roughly translated as whim or craving), they were one of three standouts sampled; the others were ceci bean salad with mint, parsley and lemon and zucchini with garlic and toasted bread crumbs. Don’t miss them, but be aware: They’re offered along with drinks, long before the menus arrive, and at $3 to $6 per bowl, it’s easy to spend dinner money on a few cravings and a whim or two.

That would be a shame. Consider the antipasti. The vinaigrette-marinated and grilled octopus, a table favorite, had tender morsels laid on a bed of barely bitter radicchio along with olives, pickled peppers and little chickpeas, then melded by more vinaigrette. The tuna crudo was a smart presentation of sliced fish alongside flavorings of pequillo pepper, fried capers and a house-made citrus oil. A dish of somewhat undercooked Mediterranean mussels was so uninteresting that it seemed an anomaly, with a curiously tepid green onion purée and tasteless pancetta.

Pastas are seaward-leaning; of the seven listed, three contain seafood, and a fourth offers lump crab meat and sea urchin roe as optional additions. We opted instead for the ricotta gnocchi with tomato and basil (sans urchin or crabmeat), the pappardelle with Bolognese sauce, and the aforementioned garganellli mixed with prosciutto, a profusion of oyster, cremini and shiitake mushrooms and the signature aroma of white truffle. All were excellent; the garganelli, as the server promised, was swoon-worthy.

NY Times

[Daniel]

I will be heading over here soon for someone's birthday party. Has anyone heard anything about this place.

Due Mari Pesce E Vinoteca Restaurant New Brunswick, NJ

[Rail Paul]

I will be heading over here soon for someone's birthday party. Has anyone heard anything about this place.

Due Mari Pesce E Vinoteca Restaurant New Brunswick, NJ

due mari

[rozrapp]

I will be heading over here soon for someone's birthday party. Has anyone heard anything about this place.

Due Mari Pesce E Vinoteca Restaurant New Brunswick, NJ

We haven't been yet, but people we know who have say the food's excellent. Here's a thread about it on Chowhound: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/578616?ta...ts;results_list

Btw, you might want to ask the admins to correct the spelling of the restaurant's name in the title. It's Due Mari.

[RPMcMurphy]

I have heard it's not bad from other people "in the industry". Only negative I've been hearing has been service, but I think that's the case for many New Brunswick places as they mostly attract college staff.

It's next on my list of places to try. The space is really nice and the bar area is nice as well.

[g.johnson]

Only negative I've been hearing has been service, but I think that's the case for many New Brunswick places as they mostly attract college staff.

[Daniel]

Had a pleasant dining experience at Due Mari Pesce. Though, I dont know if I would rave about the place, I thought it was good. Some parts were very good, other parts, not so good. How's that for eloquence?

I felt the layout of the restaurant really worked.. The main bar area is really perfect for the after work crowd.. It is a huge circular bar in the middle of the room.. Off to the left, the main dining room is really cozy. There are booths that fit 6 people very comfortably and I especially enjoyed that they are completely partitioned off.. This worked especially well for my parents who often complain about the noise level. Even as the dining room got into full swing, we were isolated from the noise.. Seating also very comfortable..

When you first sit down you are presented with a Sfizi menu. These are supposed to be small starters that arrive immediately while you are making decisions. We started with a few..

From left to right you have an artichoke salad, a cold ricotta with tomato sauce, and a swordfish salad of sorts..

The artichokes were ok, the ricotta cheese was actually wonderful.. Mixed with a little cream, it was my favorite thing I ate that night. The swordfish tasted of the refridgerator. It was soggy. Very disappointing way to start the meal..




The parents were ordering for the table so we followed their lead.. Next up was fried mozzarella.. The waiter actually described this dish to us because it was a special.. More than twice, he described this dish as three pieces of mozzarella with prosciutto in between.. I even heard him describe this dish to the next table as three pieces of mozzarella.. Each time two pieces came out. Used a panko breading I believe, could have been fried a little longer.

The dish was good.. Fried mozzarella, did not disappoint. Was not amazing but, fried cheese, how bad can it be..



Next up Gnocci.. Ricotto gnocci with mushrooms and truffle oil.. Truffle oil was subtle and not offensive. The gnocci was not so light and airy but, it was a really nice dish.. My favorite dish of the night was Miss K's simple dish of Spaghetti Bolognese.. This dish reminded me of the tarajin from N. Italy. It was the exact dish I had at this wine shop out there.. My favorite and best executed dish of the night was a dish thrown together for a child...




Next up were the entrees.. I ordered the crisp chicken dish.. I normally never order the chicken but, I was hoping for it to deliver on the crispy description.. It kind of did.. The top piece was cooked well.. The bottom pieces were soggy and over cooked.. It was really average.. I felt like the restaurant was like, we have to add a chicken, how can we justify charging a lot of money for it.. Mission not accomplished.








For dessert we had a hazelnut gelato that was really good.. The tiramisu was very good and could have fed three or four.. This was my favorite dessert.. The bannana thing was ok...


Service was annoying, rushed, and unskilled.. I wouldnt mind it if they were not trying so hard. Though we did not order a bottle of wine, I could tell this is the type of place that would pour huge glasses to try and get rid of the bottle..

Miss A had ordered a Kir, no one in the restaurant knew how to make one.. Our waiter who previously worked at Long Horn Steakhouse was pretty certain the drink did not exist.

The same waiter that told us about the three mozzarella discs coming on the appetizer also describe a special soup incorrectly to one table.. He described the soup to us as coming with Sherry and Fennel.. I remember because I was thinking this soup sounded like an Italian She-crab soup.. Then moments later, he desribed the soup as coming with brandy and something else to someone else..


Waiters would burst into the conversation to try to sell alcohol when there was clearly alcohol left in glasses.. They tried to take Miss A's quarter cup of wine more than three times.

Service was rough around the edges. I wouldnt mind it, if they didnt present themselves as a classy spot..

All in all, I would go back but, not rush. It's overly proper, its expensive, dishes do not feel comfortable. The ricotta is great. It's good addition to NB.


I think a business lunch of a simple pasta plate would be great.

[yvonne johnson]

Daniel, Due Mari Pesce is the same as what I think of as Due Mari downtown NB? Have had drinks several times at their huge circular bar (with huge generous platters of salami, cheeses, olives, v good dips and toasts, all free--also eaten oysters (paid, and v.v. good at the bar), but had no idea they emphasized fish on the menu there.

[Daniel]

Daniel, Due Mari Pesce is the same as what I think of as Due Mari downtown NB? Have had drinks several times at their huge circular bar (with huge generous platters of salami, cheeses, olives, v good dips and toasts, all free--also eaten oysters (paid, and v.v. good at the bar), but had no idea they emphasized fish on the menu there.

Yes, yes.. Same place.. I had did not know they were giving things away at the bar.. Sounds like a good deal.

[RPMcMurphy]

artful diners review

http://blog.nj.com/artful_diner/2009/04/du...swick_revi.html