Smart wine and food choices (comprising a sort of world tour of food hits), good prices and friendly service in a comfortable setting make this restaurant a welcome alternative to New Brunswick’s pricier restaurants.
By: Pat Tanner
Gaebel’s |
NEW BRUNSWICK The menu at Gaebel’s, the newest addition to New Brunswick’s restaurant scene, is so appealing I could almost believe it is the result of a particularly savvy focus group. You name it steak, lobster, sushi, satay, crab cakes, variously crusted ocean fish, roasted free range chicken it’s all here, and at a fair price.
Gaebel’s opened in February in the space that had last been the River Club and has elder siblings in Hoboken and Warren, from whom it has learned winning combinations. Our appetizers alone comprised a sort of world tour of food hits. These included six expertly constructed sushi tuna rolls ($4), a Middle Eastern platter featuring hummus, babaganoush and falafel ($7), and a New American salad of baby spinach and goat cheese ($7). Caesar salad ($6) satisfied the classicist among us, albeit updated with caperberries and roasted red peppers.
We could easily have organized an alternative world tour with the Gaebel’s egg roll, Prince Edward Island mussels and tenderloin carpaccio. For the most part, these and our eventual entrée choices pleased much of the time, with occasional glitches. The babaganoush contained way too much, way too pungent garlic, although the hummus was perfect in this regard. The accompanying pita and olives had the taste, texture and appearance of having come directly off supermarket shelves.
When the kitchen sticks to the basics it soars, as it did with the tuna rolls and a steamed Maine lobster, the latter a special that ran $28 for a 1¼-pound specimen. The spinach salad had fresh baby spinach and excellent-quality goat cheese in a bracing black pepper vinaigrette. But the kitchen sometimes loads too many things onto the plate and not all of the same quality which muddles the effect. That same salad contained beets, figs and walnuts.
A generous hunk of blackened Atlantic salmon ($16) came nicely seared with chile oil and plated with a constellation of flavorful ingredients, among them a thick black bean puree, charred tomato bits and a julienne of tomato tortilla chips. One not-so-flavorful component was an unattractive, dry toasted blue corn cake.
Steaks are a great buy here, even though sides will cost you extra, as in time-honored steak-house style. They start at $13 for an 8-ounce filet mignon (or $18 for the 12-ounce), but also include T-bones, rib eye and New York strip. A monster 42-ounce T-bone is $43. We tried the smaller filet, a tender piece cooked precisely as ordered, its flavor merely ordinary.
One particularly good buy was a dinner special of two 1-inch thick grilled pork chops, nicely charred on the outside, juicy inside, that came with smashed potatoes, sautéed onions and mushrooms in a creamy wine sauce, and a mix of summer squash with baby carrots all for only $16.
Like most of what we ate, it was a lot of food for the money and enjoyable, but not terrific. The potatoes were dry and dense, the sauce salty in the extreme. Desserts followed this pattern: good, but just a little on the heavy side or marred by clunky execution. They included apple-raisin strudel with soggy phyllo, a leaden flourless chocolate cake and a very wet Frangelico cheesecake (each $6).
Our youthful server, Rachel, hit exactly the right degree of friendliness and helpfulness without being intrusive. The décor seems to aim at youthful insouciance, with a retro teal blue and cranberry color scheme, accented with orange, no less, straight out of the ’60s.
I was particularly taken with Gaebel’s wine list, which includes 20 by-the-glass selections. In addition to the usual Chardonnays, Merlots and Cabernets, it offers up-and-coming varieties like Australian Shiraz (syrah) and California Sauvignon Blanc. We enjoyed the fruity, Riesling-like Jepson Viognier from California ($7.50 a glass; $32 a bottle) and Marcus James Malbec ($5; $22), a dry, intense red wine from Argentina.
Smart wine and food choices, good prices, friendly service in a comfortable setting all these make Gaebel’s a welcome alternative to New Brunswick’s pricier restaurants.
For directions to Gaebel’s, click here.