Prime 13 Point Pleasant & Brielle NJ

Has anyone eaten at this place, how is it?

No but I’ll definitely be trying this place. I love the fact that they cook the steaks over oak. I will have to dust off the tomahawk. There isn’t much better than a giant ribeye on wood.

Ps…I’ve been wanting a place to make cheesesteak eggrolls for years around here. I came across the idea when eating the eggrolls at christines in Atlantic highlands. Obviously it has been done before but it popped into my head when chowing down on those delicious sausage eggrolls.

Me too. My wife bought something through Groupon, so we will definitely try it, just do not know when. The menu looks great.

How long have they been open? The fact that they are on Groupon is a little concerning. Maybe since the summer is over they want to drum up some incremental business.

I agree. There is a post asking about the place on CH that dates to about 3 years ago, I asked about it a week or two ago on CH and got no response. So I thought I would raise the place over here, where there seems to be more activity. I will post my comments when we do visit the place.

Their Facebook page seems to have a lot of activity.

Chowhound is pretty much dead. An awful website teamed up with terrible moderators isn’t a winning combintion.

Point seems like a hard place to run a higher end restaurant successfully year round. I know Shipwreck gets some love on here. Jr is a fan …or was lol. I miss captains eds. What a cool spot that was…not world class but the fun factor was definitely there.

The z man might have some good Intel on this spot. He is local.

Gee. You forgot the lots and lots of ignorant, arrogant, miserable, twisted and argumentative souls who will pick a fight at the drop of a hat.

That always adds so much to the online “experience” for me.

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Pretty brave to put the number “13” in the name of your resto.

It’s a BYOB, so the Monmouth singularity does not apply. But tough to make it in the steak bus without a liquor license.

Their prices are Luger like and they get some spotty reviews on service and cleanliness, but everyone seems to like the food.

So I would say they are worth a try, and will put them on the list.

Ate there once. Porterhouse for 2 was spot on. The sides weren’t. I’d happily go back as a guest.

Yeah Shipwreck pissed me off on my last visit with increased prices and decreased portion size. I’ve been driving up to New Brunswick to Steak 85, was there last night got a nice Tomahawk blue cheese crusted, solid place.

Being the man of my word which I pride myself in being, I finally got around to giving this place a try. Better late than never! Business entertaining a client and he asked if I knew this place, told him I’ve been meaning to try it for awhile so off we were. Funny seeing my last post in this thread was Oct. 16 and I was complaining about Shipwreck, my feelings regarding them have remained the same.

Unfortunately / fortunately (depending on your perspective) Prime 13 is a BYOB, which is really the reason it took me so long to give it a try. We arrived 6:45pm on a Tuesday night without reservations, surprisingly the place was fairly busy, probably 70-80% full. Thankfully they had a nice 4 top in the corner that offered us plenty of room. We were greeted by the server, a nice albeit “young” woman, we were given water and two pretzel rolls, and our wine was opened. Pretzel rolls were good, they were served with some mustard dipping sauce which I didn’t really care for, would have just preferred butter.

Looking the menu over I did notice none of their steaks (maybe one) of their steaks are actually Prime grade. They are all C.A.B and only their tomahawk ribeye is listed as aged. (again its not prime) Their prices @ $ 97. for porterhouse for 2, are prime aged NYC prices. I’ll be honest the menu really concerned me, I was preparing for a disappointment.

We ordered:

Apps: bacon and raw seafood platter for 2

Entree: Porterhouse for 2 medium rare, side broccoli rabe

When I inquired about how many slices of bacon come with the order the waitress said 2 slices so we placed one order to share. When the bacon came there was actually 3 half slices, so 1 & 1/2 actual slices of bacon. Odd. It also came with some balsalmic reduced onions which were a tasty garnishment. Bacon was a bit over cooked and dry.

The seafood tower at $ 14pp was very good. Only two shrimp, they were jumbo and very good. Oysters were fresh (we subbed the raw clams for oysters so the order had 8 total oysters) and the crab meat was fresh. A decent portion vs. price. The “home-made” cocktail sauce was very weak, I requested extra horseradish and there was a “mystery” sauce served with the platter that just seemed to be tobasco, even the waitress was a bit unsure on what it was.

Although we were served two appetizers we were NOT served any plates. We had to use our bread plates for the app’s and after eating the bacon and onions first we had to request clean side plates for the seafood. As I said the sauces with the seafood were weak.

The steaks came with a house salad which is a typical mixed greens house salad dressed in a vinaigrette dressing. Adequate.

The poterhouse was served cut off the bone and it was a nice sized cut. It is served on a somewhat sizzling plate, in it’s own juices!!! ((BRAVO-BRAVO!!!)) I’m not a fan of the “resting” steak method of serving steaks and they come to the table bone dry, no juices. I’m a Lugers fan, give me butter bath and juices baby. I didn’t taste butter on this one but I was glad to have it’s juices to savor. All in all the steak was VERY GOOD for non-prime, non aged. It lacked that nutty woody flavor typical of an aged steak, but it was still very good. The bernaise sauce I’m assuming home made was excellent as was the side order of broccoli rabe.

The steak is served with room temperature plates, I would prefer a warmed pate.

The place is fairly casual for the price point. It has an open kitchen with a counter top style seating in front of it, I’m not sure if you have to reserve those seats or not, nobody was seated at them during my visit. Overall I have very mixed feelings on the place, it’s pricey especially for the quality (or lack there of) the steak they are serving, they are charging prime aged prices but not serving that product. The CAB steak was excellent, but as I said I’m torn. The service was particularly poor, the waitress didn’t seem to be over 20 years old and her service would be adequate for Outback, not somewhere serving $97 steaks. Additionally there was no floor manager, no body other than the server checked on us. The bus boys are kids and they are clueless, when there are still two un-eaten oysters and several pieces of uneaten crab on a plate, don’t ask if we are still “working” on that. Missing utensils, frequent requests for water or ice etc. made the “dining - experience” less than desirable.

Dinner for two for the above $ 167. w tax no tip.

Bottom line:

Would I return? Yes, I certainly would. Especially still holding the grudge against Shipwreck (oddly the owner of which just recently friended me on facebook out of nowhere. lol ) I would go back, I would try some of their other steaks, now knowing what I"m in for.

Certainly worth a trip for you to draw your own conclusions, just don’t expect a formal dining experience.

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Ok so here’s a comparison I’m currently at Fernandes III in South Amboy, here is their specials. (zoom into center if you can) 2 & 1/2 lbs (40 oz) Porterhouse for $ 40.75!!! Last night at Prime 13 the 44oz porterhouse was $97 non prime / aged. Fernandes comes with salad bar, veggies and potatoe!

4 oz of meat for $50??

(I ordered the tomahawk pics and price to follow)

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UOk well you guys posted about the new location so I took it upon myself to TOFTT !!! This location used to be a Charlie Browns, then an Oyster Bar and lastly a Ale House after that. I had been to the Charlie Browns years ago so I was more or less familiar with it, they did a nice job sprucing it up a bit. They have only been open a week and there were some signs of that but over all it was a good / similar experience to my first time.

I had a couple cocktails at the bar before sitting at our table, for a Tuesday night the place was hopping. Being the new game in town is going to draw some attention, but you would think this was the last place serving booze, the bar was full and the restaurant had a very nice crowd. Eventually we decided to be seated and were brought to a table in the bar. They are going for a more formal feel here, white table cloths, waiters in dress shirts and ties…neither of these were the case in PP location. Waiter greeted us, pretzel bread was served and specials were read, all good so far.

Our decision(s) were (apps):
Bacon
Raw seafood platter (substituted oysters for the clams)

Entrees:
The House (porterhouse for 2)
Lobster mac n cheese
Creamed spinach
Foie gras

The bacon was pork belly (well I guess all bacon is pork belly or is all pork belly bacon?) Anywho…the bacon this time (as I read my review of their other location) was a bit under cooked, more like a pork belly vs. bacon. The fat wasn’t really cooked and it was still in a semi-gelatinous form. Not horribly offensive but also not over cooked like last time, maybe the 3rd time will be the charm. Served with the same onions which were again tasty. Seafood platter was again $28.99 for two and while not priced horrible you only get 2 shrimp (1pp) and the 2oz of crab meat honestly looks silly (small). The oysters were good, the cocktail sauce was weak, we requested more horseradish (which the bus boy was unfamiliar with that horse radish was) and he brought us creamy horse radish instead of pure. ((shrugs…I saved it for the steak))

The porterhouse for 2 seems to have gone up in price ((drum roll please))…$ 119.95!!!
While this does include two sides (up charge of $5.95 for lobster mac n cheese) this is again NOT prime and NOT aged beef. $119. minus $10 per side is still $ 99.95 for the steak alone and I’m sorry but that is way overpriced. The steak was a nice portion/size, it was cooked perfectly and it was overall very good, but I’m sorry they are gouging with that price.

The mac-n-cheese was way overcooked and the creamed spinach was good but a bit too cheesy the foie gras was “ok” but not great. A notable error was in their beers, my colleague is a beer aficionado and ordered a special seasonal beer. When said beer was delivered he knew this wasn’t the right beer. He ordered another glass to see if the bartender poured from the wrong tap, the second beer from the “correct” tap was still not the right beer. He then reviewed the beer menu, decided he knew what beer they were serving him (vs. the one he ordered) so he ordered the beer he suspected was what he was being served, and IT was also NOT the beer they were representing on the menu. The waiter insisted that the kegs were new and the beers fresh and that my friend was wrong, however the woman at the table next to us overheard and agreed, she ordered the same beer and said what she received wasn’t correct either. At some point the gentleman with the woman at the table next to us got up and left the room (which he was doing throughout the night). He returned a few minutes later and explained the lines were crossed, and introduced himself as one of the owners.

Side note: the bar and liquor license is owned by one partner - the restaurant / kitchen is owned/run by the other. This is a marriage of convenience with an empty building and unused liquor licensed and a restaurateur taking advantage of the opportunity. The gentleman was very polite and he wound up comping the 3 or 4 beers my colleague ordered and at least one of my martini’s when I decided to jump on the bandwagon and question if this was really Stoli vodka. I’m assuming this was the bar owner/partner.

Long story short…it’s good, pricey but good but also certainly not exceptional. I will most likely be back sooner vs. later simply because they have a liquor license and I’m a quasi alcoholic who loves consuming beef. I’ve also been pissed at Shripweck Point for a while so this is a few mins closer to home. I cannot type this and give a blanket endorsement to run to this place because honestly they are over priced. I will go alone and try a NY Strip or rib eye and see how things go.

There were two floor managers that I could see, neither ever checked on how things were. The server was good, but we constantly had to request water glasses to be filled and flag people down as we needed things. As I said the place has only been open a week so you expect there to be growing pains. I don’t see how they are going to keep the PP location open, they are only 10 mins from each other and I can’t see there being that much demand, they are cannibalizing their other locations customer base. I suspect if this location takes off they will close the PP location, I can’t see how they are going to keep both open so close to each other.

Like I said, I will be back to report more.

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Went back again last night, all good. I had the Kansas City bone in strip my son had the Flank Steak, both were good. No service issues etc. so another nice meal, will be back.

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Went back last night for a business dinner (sorry no pics) and while the food was “good” I really do have a hard time paying $ 99. for a non-prime non-aged tomahawk rib eye. The steak was good, but they honestly slice it too thin, it was like eating roast beef vs. a rib eye.

The real problem of the night though was a drunk patron at the bar. There was a younger couple at the bar when we arrived for a pre-dinner drink, after dinner when we returned to the bar the couple was still there. By this time though the male was obviously intoxicated. It was unruly to have someone in a restaurant of this nature being as loud and somewhat obnoxious as he was. (he insisted on speaking like Borat from the movie) What really crossed a line was when he “engaged” another couple across the bar who were also younger. You could tell they didn’t appreciate the drunk calling across the bar to them, trying to get the other couple to do Borat imitations etc. It was obvious the other couple was uncomfortable and they did ask for their check and left shortly thereafter. It was then my business associate wanted to address the drunk and tell him to STFU, but I requested he not engage the drunk. (I’m nearly 50 my bouncing days are long behind me)

Anyway, it was obvious the drunk was either friends with the bartenders because as we casually mentioned the intrusiveness of his loud accents etc. the bartenders just smiled and blew our concerns off.

Rarely does something piss me off enough that I actually sent the restaurant an email and will follow up with a copy via regular mail. Management should have stepped in and quieted the person or asked them to leave, but management was nowhere to be found.

If I were to have a similar experience there again, I would likely not go back, especially for a business dinner. A shame.

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Supposedly the Brielle location closed down and they are looking for a new spot in Monmouth Co.

That didn’t take long. Things must be really bad if they are closing down just as the summer season is starting.

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Well as per my last review(s) I feel that location was very poorly managed.

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I didn’t really get the concept of opening a second location just minutes away from the original. The bar made sense but not the proximity to the one in Point. Brielle seems to be a tough place for restaurants to make it. I think that building where Rella’s used to be has changed a few times as well.