Warren Deli and Grill

It's typical for us to want hoagies on Sunday, when many delis are closed, so we took the opportunity of Martin Luther King, Jr. day to try a new place out.  My husband wanted specialty sandwiches, so I found this place online.  A littler further than we'd normally travel, but this place was great.  I had a Roma Panning (breaded eggplant, roasted peppers, pesto, and mozzarella) while my husband had an enormous daily special sandwich.  The place is nice and clean, and has a wide variety of chips and drinks.  We also tried the macaroni salad and the pasta salad.  My husband exclaimed that the macaroni was perfect, while I enjoyed the pasta salad more with its black olives, green peppers, and yellow squash.

It's a little out of our way, but we were really pleased with our trip to Warren Deli!

Zeppelin Hall

88 Liberty View Drive Jersey City, NJ

 Somehow I haven't reviewed this place. It came onto my radar several years ago when a coworker who lived in Jersey City mentioned it. I knew it was a place I'd enjoy, and suggested going with some friends. These friends mentioned their preference for the Beer Garden in Hoboken, so my visit here was delayed some time.  But over the summer, and then again in the fall, some of my work friends were able to get together for a night out here.

Over the summer, we were able to sit outside.  This was lovely, especially since we could see the skyline of Manhattan.  The crowd was strange though; it was mostly folks coming home from work and they were young and very well paid (if judgments can be made from the quality and style of their clothing).  But feeling extremely out of place did not put a damper on our fun.  We had a great time, enjoying all kinds of food and drink.

I was super enthused to see that they serve Currywurst, something I discovered in Berlin.  But during the week, they apparently don't serve the kind I know.  I went ahead and tried this different kind of wurst and while it was good, it wasn't what I remembered and loved.

On our second visit, I WAS able to get Berliner style and it was fantastic.  Not what I remembered, but still good.  We also tried the pretzels on the second trip, and it was fantabulous.  The second trip was on a Saturday night, and the crowd was much more family oriented than it was on a random summer Wednesday evening.

We had a great time at Zeppelin Hall!

Pithari

28 Woodbridge Ave Highland Park, NJ
http://www.thepithari.com/

Pithari has been on my restaurant list for a very long time; their restaurant looks super inviting and interesting and Greek food is always delicious; they have the added welcoming benefit of my favorite shade of blue as the main color scheme.

My husband and I had a day off without the kids and decided to go to a movie and a nice lunch.  We chose Pithari and what a treat it was.  The weather was still nice, so we were able to dine al fresco on their nice patio, which overlooks the neighborhood side of the restaurant rather than the busy traffic-y side.  Since it was a day when most people were at work, we pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves, so service was especially awesome.

When we sat down, we were given some of the most delicious pita I've had in my life.  I could have made a meal on it, and it's inspired me to try to make my own one day.  We were also given an olive plate which was a nice touch.

Since we were there for lunch, we intentionally chose smaller plates.  I selected the Chicken Souvlaki platter, and oh my word it was so good.  The tzatziki sauce was unbelievable, and scooping it up with that amazing pita was pure heaven.  The chicken was slightly overdone for my liking, but the rest of the dish more than made up for this. I can't remember what my husband had, but he was a pretty happy camper.

Great meal and I can't wait to try it one day for dinner!

Catherine Lombardi

3 Livingston Avenue 
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
http://www.catherinelombardi.com/sle/cl/

Wow, it's been such a long time since I've posted.  Life.  We have, however, continued to try new restaurants and have continued our quest for the best pizza and bagels in NJ.

For our anniversary, the universe, the school district, and my parents gave us the best anniversary gift possible--school was closed for our kids while open for us (teachers) so my parents took the boys for a few nights that coincided with our anniversary.  So we wanted someplace special that would not be good to take the kids and decided on Catherine Lombardi, a long time wishlist holder.

We arrived too early (darn teachers) and they were still having a staff meeting, but we were seated at the bar.  As is our way, we chatted with the bartender, who suggested this amazing champagne based cocktail.  We were having a great time and they left us alone until it was official opening time (props for serving us in the bar despite not quite being open).  

My husband wasn't feeling great so we skipped the appetizer course and ordered dinner.  I tried the waiter's suggestion of a wild board ravioli and my husband had something he raved about.  I appreciated the wild board ravioli's extravagance but wasn't a super huge fan.

As I said, we were celebrating our anniversary so it was super nice when the waiter brought out a special dessert for us.  It was a really nice, really thoughtful gift.

We had a great time at Catherine Lombardi, and could go on and on about how great the service was.  The restaurant was really cozy with two fires blazing and the swanky decor.