Looks like a good place but always wary when people with zero restaurant experience open a place, let’s see if their food overcomes the inexperience.
I will probably try sometime in May. I do love that kind of food.
So just back from extended vacation & zero food in the house GF suggested the new Seafood Buffet at American Hotel in Freehold. I wasn’t expecting anything more than average as we had been eating really good seafood in St Kitts but the price & location fit my mood.
I was pleasantly shocked. Great quality fresh food and they kept refreshing the food all the time. The mussels marinara were outstanding, the stuffed halibut was great and the seafood boil & the mini crab cakes were great.
Paella was ok but the lobster Mac n cheese was really good.
Unfortunately this buffet is scheduled to end next Friday.
As an additional plus the bartenders here are quite good and knowledgeable.
A minus is the noise level which has always been a problem here but after traveling all day I drank my Manhattans and enjoyed my food.
$65 a head plus tax & tip for me it’s worth it.
I’m still annoyed about paying for parking in Freehold and really don’t want to walk around town to the free parking.
I did notice many empty spots in the Market Yard parking lot and I parked only a few feet from the restaurant.
Re ending Friday: Obviously a Lenten thing.
I guess so I’m not familiar with most religions customs
Just found out that the Seafood Buffet will continue until further notice. So I’m not going this Friday but I will definitely revisit soon
With regard to news above (Nov 2023) about Crown Palace in Middletown, that location is being renovated and has a Trattoria Toscana sign. About time we got an Italian restaurant in the area 
For those who reacted as I did, this is the Middletown location of Crown Palace - NOT Marlboro! (It’s a long way back to Nov posts)
Him not listing the ls location as an asset is shady. I always assumed the plan was to own the rb spot and then sell the LS land. Something is up here it appears based off this article
Drongo did say “Crown Palace in Middletown”.
We had a spectacular time at the NJ Food and Wine Festival Saturday night at the magnificent Crystal Springs resort in Hamburg, NJ. Many thanks to Chef Antonio, from one of our favorite restaurants, Fiorentini. We were just at Fiorentini Friday night, and Chef Antonio mentioned that he will be working at the Festival the next day. He said that Crystal Springs offered him tickets at 50% off to give to friends and family. He very generously offered them to us. So instead of paying $175 each, I was able to get the 2 tickets for $175 ($87.50 each). We went to the Grand tasting which included amazing bites from around 30 of the top chefs in NJ, and some great wines and spirits, including our favorite wines from Caymus. This was a food lovers paradise. There was live entertainment, and a magnificent ice sculpture by the raw bar, which had real whole fish and bottles of wine encased inside of the bricks of ice. I don’t think we had one bad bite all night. It was nice to talk with some of the talented chefs including David Viana from Heirloom Kitchen and Lita, Bryan Gregg from Blue Morel, our friend Antonio and his lovely wife Brenda, from Fiorentini, and others. A couple of the more creative presentations were Chef Robbie Felice’s (from Pasta Ramen) Teriyaki Wagyu short rib with pickled fennel and parmigiano served in a mini ice cream cone!, Chef Andre (from Andre’s) ‘Duck in Doughnuts’ which was made to order. It was both sweet and savory with the duck stuffing. Our friend Antonio (from Fiorentini) made a crispy phyllo tartlet with melt in your mouth wagyu tartare, onion veloute, and sea urchin.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures due to the large crowd.
Below is a link to the grand tasting menu with all of the chefs and the bites that they prepared.
Catbird Asbury Park (from the former owner of Medusa) is in soft opening mode. I haven’t been yet, but people I follow on IG were posting pictures of their spectacular pizzas and saying they haven’t skipped a beat. Can’t wait to have those again! Medusa was in my regular rotation for years.
Dinner Service Hours - Week of May 6th
Wed - Sat 4 pm - 8:30 pm
WOW! That sounds like quite the food orgy!
Yes, it was a real food lovers dream! Besides the awesome food, it was so cool to be up close with all of these amazing chefs, and to get to talk with them.
This will be crowded in summer though I think location is not great.
Looking forward to giving it a try! Thanks for heads up!
My wife and I were regulars at Medusa and have been looking forward to Catbird. I do fear that parking will be a nightmare. But that’s NJ in general.
50 locations is a small fraction of the total (according to Wikipedia was >700). But Red Lobster seems to be on a downward spiral. Soon to be “Dead Lobster” rather than “Red Lobster”? According to my records, I last went to Red Lobster (in Iselin) more than 20 years ago, so personally I won’t miss it!
I can say in all honesty, I have never “wanted” to go to Red Lobster. I also haven’t been in years and when I would go it would be at the insistence of my kids, who use to like the place. Now all grown up, I don’t think I’ll ever have a reason to go back!
