Ocean Avenue Kitchen, Sea Bright

Overheard a guy coming home on the ferry yesterday talking about the pork chop here. This replaced the Black Swine which closed last fall. BYO only open half the week. Menu looks pretty varied may give it a shot…I’ll give any restaurant with a good pork chop a chance

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I’ll tell you what, I do like that menu. Duck spring rolls look very interesting…I love the soup and salad options, the pork chop and the “prime” NY Sirloin @ $35. could be a bargain. Where did you see they are only open half the week?

(“prime” denotes my skepticism, I’m seeing a lot of places advertising “prime” steaks on their menus which are clearly NOT prime steaks when served, I just learned this from the All Seasons Diner recently)

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It’s at the very bottom of the site:
Open Wednesday to Saturday 5pm to 10pm
Closed Sunday - Tuesday

ETA that menu DOES read well… and BYO to boot!

Similar to the locally harvested clams in one spot. Becoming a popular throw away menu cliche these days. Although prime beef is an egregious one given $$ involved.

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I’m a sucker for anything octopus so that caught my attention, as did the Clams and Chorizo. One can only hope the Wedge Salad actually is one rather than not as was the case in a restaurant that will go nameless (but is the subject of our favorite thread).

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You know I agree on the octopus!!!

That 35 sirloin could be a nice deal as you mentioned, if it is legit. If it is a decent ny strip and prime, that is a low price. I will let someone test it out first :slight_smile:

For 34 bucks that porkchop better be top notch! The one a few doors down is such a good mix of tender and marbled fatty bershire goodness.

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On a sea bright note, they leveled gaiters yesterday. I’m guessing condos are going in?

That reminded me, 2nd Ave is coming back this year, with at least according to their insta…“…a fresh new Caribbean inspired menu…”

Will be interesting to see how than manifests, or if it does. You know when you are on vacation down there and all you want to listen to is reggae, but you get home and somehow Marley after Tosh after Cliff doesn’t feel right as you are sitting in traffic on the Parkway.

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Did you mean 2nd Jetty?

They also leveled the restaurant and the closest building to Ocean Ave at the Beachwalk at Sea Bright (formerly Fairbanks Motel). Pilings are already in for whatever they’re building.

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Yes,

A caribbean place would be really cool! …even if surrounded by concrete and asphalt.

The sea farer could be a cool spot, but with their 13 dollar tiki bar drinks, and barely passable truck food, I’m kind of on the fence. Next time I’m bringing a flask :wink:

After reading the posts about OAK, I decided we should give it a try. We were seated promptly for our 7 o’clock Friday night reservation. The restaurant was fairly empty at that point, but was at about 2/3 capacity by the time we finished our meal. It was just the 2 of us so I can only tell you about a few of the menu items. The staff was attentive and friendly, specials were described with prices, and when our water choice was “tap”, after filling our glasses a carafe was left at the table. The bread basket we got had a small crock of caponata and sliced bread – very tasty.

I had the Grilled Octopus – listed under SMALLS – and it was cooked just right. The octopus was tender and the greens had just the right amount of dressing. Hubby had the 5 Lilly Soup, a classic onion soup, we he liked and declared to be flavorful and not salty. For our mains/LARGE, I had the Lamb special and he had the Chicken Pot Pie. I was served 4 lamb ribs with asparagus (4 spears) and mashed potatoes. The Chicken Pot Pie is served in a crock with a Puff pastry topping. The lamb was served rare, as I had requested, and I was happy to say that “I ate the whole thing.” Often I find restaurant portions to be too big, but I thought this one was just right. Hubby liked his dish and said it had lots of chicken in it but said he thought it was a little bland. He told this to the manager/owner(?) Pat who stopped at our table to see how we were doing. Pat also told us that they are closing for two weeks and that, I think, there hours may be changed when they reopen.

We ended the meal by sharing the Banana Bread Pudding with bourbon sauce. It was really good!

When I told our waiter that my coffee was lukewarm warm, he apologized and said a new pot was being brewed. The second cup was just what I needed to go with the sweet dessert.

All in all, we were happy with the meal, the prices and the service. We will go back.

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I had drinks with friends this weekend at the Driftwood tiki bar, Nauti Bar. One friend was raving about OAK to me. It was too loud and too busy for details. Between her and this, I’m looking forward to trying it.

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Was there on Sunday and had not so positive experience:

  • they ran out of duck spring rolls and pork, that’s exactly what we wanted to try.
  • with only 4 tables seated we were waiting for 10 min. for someone to offer us water and uncork our bottle of wine. My husband motioned the manager and informed him of the situation.
  • clams and chorizo came without bread to mop up the sauce. We got the bread basket when we were almost done with the appetizers
  • the other 2 appetzers (octopus and fried eggplants) were just OK, nothing to rave about
  • steak (as in steak frites) was grossly under seasoned, nothing good coul be said about fries or overall presentation.

Based on the previous reviews, I guess it was not my lucky day :frowning:

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I have not encountered any problems like that in my four visits. They were closed on previous Sundays. They were closing for 2 weeks Sunday being their last day but that does not excuse all the problems u in countered. I am shocked to hear that because they always when out of there way to see that every thing was alright in my prior visits!

Cozy place low key need reservations on weekends! Great farm to table byob! Limited menu but expanding as place open just couple mos. all pastas served al dente excellent! Appy fried shrimp in tomato paste awesome! Soup “five lilies” (similar to fresh onion) great. Fresh wild salmon done to perfection. Prime pork chop like butter. Chicken savoy balsamic vinegar (like Ponti’s used to be) . Top it off with double espresso , fresh berry cream tart or apple bread pudding. Show me the couch! Back 4 times that good & half the price of Angellicas! 5 stars !

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Welcome to Hungry Onion, BigG! Thanks for posting; we love new faces here. Are you in Monmouth County? If so, as you cruise through this board, you’ll see there are a lot of us in the area, but we do have people from all over on the site and on the NJ board.

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Hey @BigG welcome to Hungry Onion!!! Please make yourself at home look around and let us know if you have any questions.

We have the following thread for newbies if want to tell us a little more about yourself, but there is no requirement if you prefer staying low key

Let's introduce ourselves and get to know one another better

Welcome again!

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Anyone been here lately? Looking to give it a shot now that local summer is in effect.