Nova Terra

This Latin-themed restaurant tempts the palate with lime-jalapeño-garlic seasonings.

By: Kate and Tom O’Neill
   Hip and fun, Nova Terra offers very good Latin- themed cuisine, music and drinks. It’s located on busy Albany Street across from the Johnson & Johnson Headquarters Tower in New Brunswick, and the entrance opens on the large circular bar that is the restaurant’s lively center. To the left, a frosted glass partition screens dining tables and large booths from the bar. To the right, scattered tables offer spots for cocktails or dining close to the bandstand, where there’s live music — with a Latin beat — on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
   We were pleased on our Sunday evening dinner to find the Maracas Trio playing and taking requests. The music sounds even better with a tropical drink. Bar specialties include the mojito, with a stalk of sugar cane as a swizzle stick, and the caipirinha, made with cachaca — a rum-like Brazilian liquor distilled from fermented sugar cane juice. Mixed with lime juice, it is served here in a glass with a sugar-coated rim and has a sweet, intriguing taste that disguises its potency.

Nova Terra

78 Albany St.

New Brunswick

(732) 296-1600

www.terramomo.com/restaurant/novaterra

Food: Good to very good

Service: Friendly, well-trained

Prices: Appetizers $7-$11, entrées $16-$28 (paella, minimum of two people, $20 per person), desserts $7

Cuisine: Latin, prepared with select ingredients, and plated with elegance

Vegetarian Options: Appetizers and salads; entrées could be adapted

Ambience: Stylish, upbeat

Hours: Dinner: Mon-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5 p.m.-midnight, Sun. 4-10 p.m. Cocktails: Thurs.-Sat. until 2 a.m.

Essentials: Major credit cards accepted; full bar; wheelchair accessible; on-street metered parking or public lots; reservations recommended; helpful Web site.

Directions

   The wine list is extensive and offers vintages from many countries. With our meal, we enjoyed an elegant albariño with crisp, light floral tones from the Finca de Arantei ($11/glass).
   The menu features high-end, often intriguing, pan-Latin choices not easily found in this region. In addition to single appetizers, diners can consider plates to share, which is one way to make your party as lively as the restaurant itself. Possibilities include the palm appetizer, which at your discretion may involve rice croquettes, yucca buenuelos (dumplings), corn tamales, assorted antichucos (skewers) and empanadas (small turnovers filled with ground beef, onion, raisins, hard-boiled egg and olives), with pico de gallo on the side ($10 per person). Another attractive choice is mussels en padilla, served in a garlic-rich cream sauce, that includes chopped jalapeño peppers and tomato ($15). Appetizers for one include fried calamari, served with chipotle marinara or aioli with habanero peppers ($9).
   Not to be missed is the briny and tangy marisco veracruzano ceviche ($10), a raw shellfish combination marinated in lime juice and jalapeño peppers. The acid in the lime juice "cooks" the shrimp, calamari, mussels and small scallops in the dish.
   The regular menu lists 10 entrées, which naturally include paella, with its rich mixture of shellfish, chorizo sausage, chicken, vegetables and Spanish rice. While we didn’t sample the paella this time, we were encouraged that the menu noted, "Please allow 30 minutes for preparation" ($20 per person, minimum order of two).
   Meat eaters will find plenty of choices here, like the marinated beef skirt steak served with rice and black beans, and chimichurri, Argentina’s garlicky answer to pesto. Wednesdays offer rodizio, a wide selection of meats carved right off the skewer.
   Our meal began with marisco veracruz ($10) and crab tostadas ($11). The marisco (shellfish) included crabmeat, mussels and shrimp, and were served in a martini glass swimming in a mildly spicy red sauce, like the spicy tomato juice in a Bloody Mary. It gained added interest from the bright taste of fresh cilantro. Crispy crab tostadas ($11) were packed with high quality crab meat, a balanced mix of leg and lump.
   We enjoyed one of the evening’s specials, arroz con pollo ($21). The generous serving of saffron rice was loaded with chicken and chunks of tomato and graced with a stem of cilantro. Although the chicken was drier than it should have been, the dish was rich and satisfying.
   The moist and delicate mahi mahi ($23), a menu regular, contained both light and dark meat, adding visual interest to the superb flavor and texture of the dish. Topped with a light dollop of mango salsa, the mahi was perched atop deep, rich sautéed kale and a yucca pancake with a pleasantly crisp crust. The grace note was the festive drizzle of pineapple rum that arced across the plate.
   The dessert menu includes six choices. Postre de crema de leche ($7) was served with macerated cherries that combined well with the ultra-smooth creamy filling, enhanced by vanilla. Chocolate truffle terra cotta ($7) was an unparalleled dessert: dark chocolate encased in a not over-sweet praline shell.
   Two perfectly prepared coffees capped off this fine meal: an espresso ($2.25) and a macchiato ($2.50) — an espresso "marked" on the surface with a dollop of hot milk — that was richer, more satisfying and less filling than a cappuccino might have been.
   Nova Terra is part of the Terramomo Restaurant Group, which includes Mediterra and Teresa Caffe in Princeton, Eccoqui in Bernardsville and the Witherspoon Bread Company. The group raises its own vegetables organically, serves its own bread and uses first quality Griggstown Quail Farm chicken. Owners Carlo and Raoul Momo have an Italian mother and a Chilean father, and their restaurants reflect their Italian-Latin-Mediterranean heritage.