Headed to NJ - pick my eating/drinking spot...

Headed to NJ tomorrow, staying in New Brunswick.

Have a list of the below, wondering what is the best place to eat. I've been to Harvest Moon and found it passable but not amazing...

If it has to be a brewpub, Triumph. If you're just looking for watering holes, probably the best local dive with great craft beer is Northside Lounge in Manville. If you like creole, check out Old Bay right in downtown NB as the tap list is rather good. There's also a place on Easton Ave called Stuff yer Face and they've got a good taplist and decent Stromboli.

Bobby_M said:

If it has to be a brewpub, Triumph. If you're just looking for watering holes, probably the best local dive with great craft beer is Northside Lounge in Manville. If you like creole, check out Old Bay right in downtown NB as the tap list is rather good. There's also a place on Easton Ave called Stuff yer Face and they've got a good taplist and decent Stromboli.

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By "dive" re: Northside Lounge, is there any decent food there? I'm traveling with a coworker so food quality is as important IMHO as beer...

I've been to Old Bay -- that might be an option again, as the food was excellent and the beer list pretty good too.

Jj bitting has some really good food and pretty good beers. The manager there is really nice. If you get talking to him he might take you on a personal tour/tasting. Got to have a couple beers not open to the public when i went there.
Triumph has really good food and beer. Just expect to pay a little more for the fancy food. Nice town to walk around in too. There's a small liquor store on the street behind triumph that has a small but good selection. Also check out the cupcake store a couple streets up from triumph. They won on cupcake wars a few years ago.
If you're willing to drive the distance to triumph I'd recommend maloney's irish pub in manalapan. They have a lot of really good beer on tap. Plus some really good irish food.

Harvest moon is meh. Central jersey is severely lacking in quality brew pubs. Theres a brewpub in old bridge that NJ Whales meets at and Basil Ts in red bank but I've never been to either of them. If everything wasn't so expensive and impossible to do because of red tape here there'd be more craft brew pubs and taprooms. Instead we get Applebee's on every corner.

Of those 3, Harvest Moon has the best beer JMO.But I have to admit it's largely cause I love their Double Simcoe. JJ Bittings I was a little disappointed in the offerings when we went in the fall. But Bittings food is outstanding. As I understand it with them though, other seasons have been better (my brother confirmed that) but I wasn't happy with my flight that I got from there. Triumph is good but it's Princeton so things are a bit more expensive for not necessarily better quality.

NJ has many great beer bars for craft beer as well. Maloneys which was already mentioned in this thread is fantastic, they have an insane number of taps (I think like 75 but I could be wrong) if you go to Harvest Moon you can walk down George St. a little bit and check out George St. Ale House. It's kind of a weird bar that's somewhat college but also very beer. They have a small tap list but usually a very good one.

Old Man Raffertys? Right across from the Irish pub mentioned earlier. Good food. reasonable... they have booze too.

PS - Sorry you have to be in New Brunswick. Yuck.

George Street Ale House is a few doors down from Harvest Moon and has a very good tap list. Food is pretty good as well, but it is a little pricey.

I'm a little shocked to hear people say that JJ Bitting has excellent food. It's passable but not excellent. It think the best they have to offer is the Buffalo burger or chicken sandwich. Harvest Moon's food is a little better across the board and I also think the beer is as well.

I have never eaten at Northside Lounge and don't even know if they have food to be honest. Skip that if it's not all about the beer.

Bobby_M said:

I'm a little shocked to hear people say that JJ Bitting has excellent food. It's passable but not excellent. It think the best they have to offer is the Buffalo burger or chicken sandwich. Harvest Moon's food is a little better across the board and I also think the beer is as well.

I have never eaten at Northside Lounge and don't even know if they have food to be honest. Skip that if it's not all about the beer.

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The Key West Garlic Bread is awesome. That may have skewed my overall opinion. I really can't remember what my entree was cause we ordered that and the Speidini (which why dont' they just make that a regular app?

I liked them more than Harvest moon personally, but then again I just get burgers 99.9% of the time so that's what my opinion is based off of. Though I will admit, that the Prix Fix they had for New Brunswick restaurant week was insanely delicious. I think I got was their Petite Tenderloin and for desert it was a bourbon creme broule (sp)

And if you go to George St. Ale House, get the Asian Nachos or whatever they're called. It's so perfect for bar food.

Thanks guys... We ended up hitting Triumph, and I was overall happy with the beers. Their Vienna Lager and IPX (DIPA?) were pretty good... The ESB fell a bit flat.

My colleague and I ended up splitting the fried pickles as an appetizer, and they were good as far as fried pickles go. I had the epic burger, which was really nice.

Overall a good excursion.

I agree that Triumph's ESB is just not right. I also think their IPA is pretty weak; I can't decide if they are going for a small east coast IPA or some sort of bitter english pale.

nutty_gnome said:

I agree that Triumph's ESB is just not right. I also think their IPA is pretty weak; I can't decide if they are going for a small east coast IPA or some sort of bitter english pale.

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They didn't have the IPA on, just the double.

Of course, I realized this morning that I forgot to check whether they had an AHA discount, so I could have saved some money last night and didn't do so

Old Bay has the best tap list in town, and the food is excellent. Triumph is good but in Princeton, ~40 minutes away. Harvest Moon's beer is on par with "average brewpub" quality, and their food is hit or miss.
There's also Mike's Courtside, George St Alehouse, and Stuff Yer Face, all with respectable beer lists.