Freddie’s Tavern

A neighborhood joint with both escargot and profiteroles on the menu, in Ewing.

By: Jeff Milgram

   EWING — Every town should have a neighborhood joint like Freddie’s Tavern in Ewing: the food is good, prices are reasonable, the portions are large and the staff is friendly and efficient.
   Freddie’s is like a favorite sweater — it’s not the latest in fashion, it’s a little worn for wear, but you feel warm and comfortable while you’re wearing it.
   The restaurant is made up of several cozy dining rooms and a small bar. The decor is negligible, with the walls covered in a light green herringbone wallpaper and nondescript artwork adding splotches of color. The most interesting part of the decor is a board that lights up to tell the waitresses when their orders are ready. Tables are covered in crisp white linen tablecloths that are changed with military precision before customers are seated.
   Freddie’s is a high-volume restaurant and it caters to a mature crowd. It’s a neighborhood place, so hardly anyone wears a jacket and tie. In fact, Freddie’s is so casual that some customers come wearing jeans and T-shirts.
   Service was friendly and efficient considering the fact that our waitress had to cover a lot of tables. Freddie’s is basically an Italian restaurant with some continental and American favorites. Pasta dishes cost around $11 and entrees between $13 and $23. Desserts are the cheapest around — in the neighborhood of $3. Everywhere you look you see people sitting down with enormous portions of food.
   Freddie’s has a limited wine list, and an even more limited number of wines available by the glass. But, again, prices can’t be more reasonable. I’ve always had luck with Freddie’s appetizers. This visit proved to be no exception.
   I’ve always been a sucker for stuffed mushrooms, but usually they are disappointing. Not so with Freddie’s. Large firm mushrooms are stuffed with a zesty mixture of breadcrumbs and sausage meat ($5.95).
   Plump, tender escargot ($6.95) — out of their shells — come swimming in a potent garlic and butter sauce with triangles of toast. They are wonderful. Thankfully, there is plenty of bread on hand to soak up the sauce.
   Not to be outdone are artichoke hearts stuffed with creamy crab meat and then broiled with butter ($6.50). The artichokes are tender, but still maintain their texture.
   The complimentary salad is pedestrian — iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, shredded carrots. Dressings come on the side, which I hate because it’s impossible to coat the veggies uniformly. I tried the blue cheese, which is $1.50 extra, and found it to be very good, with nice chunks of blue cheese.
   Entreés, unlike appetizers, are hit and miss. Some work perfectly, others don’t.
   One that works is Veal Genovese ($15.75), tender pieces of scaloppini with sautéed mushrooms, artichoke hearts and shallots in a wine sauce.
   Stuffed flounder ($18.25) is a big slab of fish wrapped around lump crab. The dish is technically perfect — the fish done, but not overdone. But the stuffing is salty but bland, and it doesn’t have the firm texture of lump crab.
   Cowboy Steak ($21.95) is an oversize, thick-cut rib steak served with cloves of roasted garlic and natural juices. The steak is high-class and delicious. But it was cooked medium, not the rare I ordered, and so it lost some of its juiciness.
   I thought the roasted garlic was a cool idea — it would be heavenly spread on the steak. But that was not to be: the garlic wasn’t roasted enough to be spreadable.
   Accompaniments are afterthoughts. Spaghetti came with an objectionably sweet tomato sauce. Green beans with tomato and onions are cooked to death. French fries, however, are crisp and greaseless as possible.
   Desserts are another mixed bag. Profiteroles — and where else can you find profiteroles on the menu? — are flaky creampuffs filled with vanilla ice cream and then drenched with chocolate sauce. It is a messy, gooey concoction, and I loved it.
   Cream cheese cake ($2.95) was a disappointment. It was neither creamy nor tasty, and seemed to be in a style that was not quite New York and not quite a ricotta cheesecake. It was the worst of both.
   Tiramisu ($3.10) was creamy, but all in all, it was nothing more than a standard version of a dessert that is so ubiquitous it has become a cliché.
   If you’re looking for haute cuisine, Freddie’s is not the place to go to. But if you’re hunting for good food at reasonable prices, than Freddie’s is where you want to be.