Luca’s Ristorante
1 Walter East Foran Boulevard
2019 State Route 27 (Location visited)
Somerset, NJ
Back in my old days of computer gaming (early 1990s), there was a magazine called Computer Gaming World (CGW). Gaming in the old days… 256 colours in 640 x 480. I am digressing here… So, what that (now defunct) magazine has to do with food? It just happens that until the later days of the magazine, it never gave a rating. It gave the games highs, lows and a general thought of the game and the writers opinion, leaving up to the reader to then decide whether he/she should get the game or not. You can say that my writing style is heavily influenced by this magazine. OK, what that has to do with food, some of you might still ask. Again, one thing I tried to do on this trip was to try different cuisines. Short of East Asian (other than Ichi Umi) and African, I have bounced back and forth. Today, it is about Luca’s Ristorante. The reason I came here? Because of all the high marks given by people, which led up to it being the number 2 restaurant in New Jersey, according to Urbanspoon…
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Tagged as:
Italian,
New Jersey,
Pasta
Ichi Umi
6 East 32nd Street, New York
352 Menlo Park Mall (Location visited)
Edison, NJ
As I have done in my last previous business trips, in that wish to make comparisons between sushi found in other cities and Vancouver, I did some quick search around and two places that kept popping out: Minado and Ichi Umi. There was a third restaurant I wanted to try, Mr. Pi Sushi, but, given the popularity of the previous two, I thought, hey, that is what people like so let’s go to one of these! And, out of the two, I ended up going to Ichi Umi mainly because that was the closest one (of course, “close” is a relative term given most of the drive was highway). However, there was something I neglected to do, not to mention something that was giving me bad vibes about this place: it is located in a mall. To make a really bad analogy, the two sushi restaurant in Vancouver that are in large malls (as far as I know and not counting the small stands) are Sui-Sha-Ya and Kawawa Japanese Restaurant. Both are all-you-can-eat and, out of the two, I have only been to the former (mainly due to peer pressure). As for the later, I will just refer to Sherman’s visit… But, back to Ichi Umi.
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
New Jersey,
Sushi
McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood
Hundred of locations in the US
400 Commons Way (Location visited)
Bridgewater, NJ
I am not a fan of malls. While I do go there for other reasons, if given the options, I would rather be somewhere else. However, when you are not in a major city, sometimes you can’t help it, specially when you are not from town. Also, a lot of restaurants would choose them as a spot to open. It might be a gamble for independent ones; not necessarily so for chains which has a corporate backing behind it. The major mall in the area happens to be Bridgewater Commons and one night I chose to drop by. Food court? Check; however, I went somewhere else instead. While there was other sit down restaurants there as well, I couldn’t find them (it happened they were partially “detached” from the main mall). Hungry, I ended up going to the one I was able to find: McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood
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Tagged as:
Chain Restaurant,
Fish,
New Jersey,
Seafood
White Manna
358 River Street 
460 Tonnele Avenue (Location visited) 
Jersey City, NJ
Yes, this is the reason why the White Castle post was called “Battle of the Whites”! As mentioned previously, I asked Christina of Pizza & Bagels for suggestions on places to eat in New Jersey. She wasn’t the only source for these places. I also asked fellow blogger Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures for suggestions. One of his suggestions? White Manna (the store is displayed as “White Mana” but, for consistency purposes will use the double n). But, wait, isn’t White Manna in Jersey City? Yes, it was 50+ Km from where I was staying and, despite it was pure highway, it is still 50+ Km! However, this isn’t the first time I have done such drive for food (Ah-Beetz, anybody???), not to mention I thought I should make the most ouf of this trip! So, here it goes, White Manna!
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
New Jersey
White Castle
Hundres of locations in the US
5151 Stelton Road (Location visited)
South Plainfield, NJ
When I was in Panama, if you wanted burgers, the only options were fast food chains (we had the usual MickeyD’s, BK and Wendy’s, with brief stints from Hardee’s and other shops). After I moved to Canada, I became a bit more conscious of the fact there were more shops in addition to the ones found there. I mean, why should I? Back in Panama, while they filled a niche, there were better food (in either mom-n-pop shops or street vendors, et al). So, when I saw there was a movie called “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”, my first thought was “White Castle? What is that?”. Of course, I found out eventually but, alas, my curiosity to find out what was actually served in White Castle couldn’t be satiated…
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Chain Restaurant,
New Jersey
Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon
Several locations in the US
1271 US Highway 22 (Location visited)
Bridgewater, NJ
Did I mention I ate a lot of beef on this trip? 
Similar to my post yesterday where I went to Famous Dave’s BBQ for meat, on my last night in New Jersey, I decided to go for meat, again – this time in the form of a steak. Lone Star Steakhouse was the place I ended up going just because it happened to be on the way from my customer’s site back to the hotel. But, being a chain restaurant, I was sure there will be some gotchas. The question was instead if these were tolerable…
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Tagged as:
New Jersey,
Steaks
Pooja Cuisine
1075 Easton Avenue
Somerset, NJ
As mentioned previously, in this trip, I wanted to try different types of cuisines. So far, we have had diners, burgers, Latin American (Cuban), Southern/Soul and BBQ – in that order. For this post, though, I will have to break that sequence because of tomorrow’s post. As a sneak peak, it is about burgers (yes, again but… Let’s just say wait until tomorrow). But, other than that small burger detour, I kept that different cuisine line of thought. In this case? Indian food in Pooja Cuisine.
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Tagged as:
Curry,
Indian,
New Jersey
