Cat’s out of the bag: Juicy, flavorful seafood offerings, highlighted with chorizo, are served in large portions at moderate prices here in South River.
By: Faith Bahadurian
I have a delicious secret to share with you: The Portuguese Fisherman in South River is a gem. Of course, to those in the know this is not exactly news, as the place has been in business since the mid-1970s. Manuel Silva bought the restaurant from family friends about a year and a half ago, and his son Mark proudly tells me it is one of the older Portuguese restaurants in the state.
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The Portuguese Fisherman |
South River, a gem of a town itself, is easily reached by following Route 535 (the Cranbury-South River Road) until you have crossed Route 18. Once a bustling shipping port and home to a succession of hard working Eastern-European immigrants, its fortunes faded as the factories closed. But now the pleasant streets of row houses and elegant turn-of-the-century homes evoke the days of the walk-everywhere lifestyle, and seem poised for a comeback.
The restaurant offers a full service bar and two banquet rooms, including an upstairs hall seating up to 180. The lower walls of the downstairs dining rooms are lined to the hip with colorful Portuguese tiles that evoke sunshine and salt air, and the emphasis here is on seafood, although the menu sports both "do mar" and "da terra" sections. Softly polished plank floors and simple table settings create an old-world feeling, with nice linens and attentive service.
The wait staff on the night of my visit was all male, and it felt like a close-knit family affair, as it seemed everyone helped everyone else. I arrived with my brother and sister-in-law for our reservation and we were promptly seated and brought water and good bread. Although the menu offers some non-Portuguese entrées, such as veal or chicken francaise or marsala, we stuck with the Portuguese dishes and had a great meal at bargain prices.
First, salads arrived, crispy and fresh, served with a crock of thick orange dressing, which I passed up for simple oil and vinegar, brought on request. Then the parade of appetizers began, and our table was all but buried under metal servers, platters, bowls, dishes and glasses. Let it be said at the outset: portions here are huge, and what I took home provided two dinners and a lunch.
Picadinho Misto ($14), a stew of pork, squid, shrimp and Portuguese chorizo sausage, was enlivened with cuts of sour pickles and olives, proper ones with pits, as opposed to those mushy pitted ones sold at salad bars. It could easily have sufficed for an entrée for two or three.
We polished off all the clams Portuguese ($10), clams in the shell in a light tomato sauce (and more chorizo) that we sopped up with bread; this one especially pleased my brother. And the traditional Portuguese soup, Caldo Verde (a mere $2), was a revelation, a delicate potato-based broth with finely julienned collard greens and tiny chunks of you guessed it chorizo. When we remarked that the soup is usually seen with kale, the waiter agreed, but said collards more closely resembled the cabbage used in Portugal.
Our entrées were gargantuan. When we ordered Bacalhau Assado ($18), broiled salt cod with garlic, peppers and onions, the waiter warned us it had skin and bones. "Bring it on!" we responded. What arrived was a huge serving the size of a small loaf of bread, heaped with charred peppers and onions, and very juicy. The skin (on the bottom) and easily picked-out bones had kept the meat moist and succulent.
The all-seafood paelha ($21) also pleased, although it did not have the "socarrat," the caramelized crust of rice that is considered desirable in paella (the more common Spanish spelling). Ours came in a large metal pan, and was chock-full of a half lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels simmered in saffron rice. While the small half-lobster was a little dry, the rest of the seafood was cooked à point.
Angus Na Casserola ($24) was billed as a house favorite. This showstopper was a thick boneless cut of Black Angus steak, finished with garlic butter, sizzling in its terra cotta platter. Of course, it was bigger than the platter, so the ends lolled over the edge. The waiter deftly cut it into several pieces, just like a Florentine steak, for easy sharing. The steak came with a side dish of rice and excellent freshly made hot potato chips. My sister-in-law said those chips rivaled the ones her father used to make for her to take to the movies when she was a child in South River.
The wine list is a small treasure, too, a modest (and modestly priced) selection of red and whites from around the world, but mostly featuring Portuguese reds and whites. I can’t wait to go back and delve into those reds (which "soar" as high as $48), but this night my brother and I shared a bottle of classic white Casal Garcia Vinho Verde ($16 bottle/$9 half), while my sister-in-law opted for a house red ($4). When she didn’t like the first one she tried, it was willingly replaced with one more to her liking.
After all this, we still managed to enjoy flan ($4) and oozing chocolate ecstasy ($6) with good coffee for dessert, along with complementary almond liqueur from the management, who must have enjoyed our obvious enjoyment. Now the secret is out. I urge you to take a summer evening drive up to South River to experience this wonderful restaurant.

