Home to the more affluent residents of the Jersey Shore, Rumson, N.J., sits along the banks of both the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, where sailboats and luxury yachts navigate the channels out to the coastline. Visitors wanting to enjoy a meal while watching the sunset along the river have several options available.
Located in a rustic, two-story Craftsman-style restaurant overlooking the Navesink River, the Salt Creek Grille serves upscale casual cuisine based on American grill standards. Open seven days a week for happy hour and dinner, a champagne brunch buffet is also served on Sundays. Starters include mini fish tacos, sliders, house-made potato chips and lobster bisque. Salads run the gamut from a spicy barbecue chicken to a warm pear and goat cheese and a salad topped with slices of fried chicken. Burgers, French dip, a miso-glazed Atlantic salmon, portobello mushroom sandwich and the "Best Pork Chop on the Planet," appear on the dinner menu along with premium steaks and several vegetarian entrees. Dessert choices include a chocolate ganache soufflé, apple tart and crème Brule. An extensive martini menu appears alongside an award winning wine list. Reservations are recommended, particularly on the weekends, and a private dining room is available for special occasions
Salt Creek Grille
4 Bingham Ave.
Rumson, NJ 07760
732-933-9272
saltcreekgrille.com/rumson
Reviewed by the New York Times, critic David Corcoran praised the owners of Undici for having "transformed a sprawling two-story Victorian into a movie-set Tuscan farmhouse." Inside, the colors are warm rusts, maroons and ambers that frame exposed brick walls, artisan stonecrafting, tile work and dark wood. Fresh produce, curing sausages and fine cheeses decorate the welcoming bar upon entrance. The ambiance of classic Italian cooking continues to a straightforward menu of house-made pizzas and pasta, cheese and meat boards and several salads. Non-pasta entrees include osso bucco, sea bass, a stuffed pork chop and a polenta-crusted sole dish. Undici is open seven nights a week for dinner and serves lunch Wednesday through Sunday, offering a smaller antipasto and salad menu along with pastas, steak, fish and Panini sandwiches. Corcoran further comments that Undici "delivers solid, straight-ahead, high-priced favorites that don't break any molds but go down nicely with the atmosphere."
Undici Restaurant
11 W. River Road
Rumson, NJ 07760
732-842-3880
undicirestaurant.com
Settled in with a view of the Navesink River, Barnacle Bill's flaunts the seafarer theme throughout the restaurant with wall hangings of ship's wheels, portholes and other decorative tools of life on the sea. The restaurant is open for dinner seven nights a week, brunch on Sunday and serves lunch on the weekends. Live music is featured in the bar next door during the evening. The food here is standard seaside fare with most entrees running under $20 in October 2010. Standard dinner service includes surf and turf, swordfish, brook trout, crab cakes, scampi, pasta dishes, eggplant parmigiana, London broil, burgers and a selection of deep fried seafood and chicken fingers. Starters range from Manhattan clam chowder and mussels stewed in marinara sauce to steamers and hot wings. The lunch menu features Philly cheese steak, an open-faced Reuben, pulled-pork sandwich and a steak sandwich along with burgers and salads.
Barnacle Bill's Restaurant
1 First St.
Rumson, NJ 07760
732-747-8396
barnaclebillsrumson.com
