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Spring Lake The Mill at Spring
Lake Heights Overlooking its own mill pond and with especially good water vistas from its main dining room and outdoor deck, the former Old Mill Inn is known for Spring Lake’s most appealing waterfront dining – even if it is only a view of a lake. A classic on the Jersey Shore, it was rebuilt and enlarged following a fire in 1985 and underwent another facelift in 2003, plus a name change that recognized the fact it really wasn’t an inn with overnight accommodations. The lobby, bigger than many a restaurant, opens into an elliptical bar and lounge area, surrounded by two large dining rooms. The main dining room is elegant with a high coffered ceiling and upholstered chairs at well-spaced tables, many with great views of the water. Best of all at midday is a window table in the lounge, away from the hubbub and seemingly perched over the water beside a flotilla of ducks. We enjoyed a spicy Manhattan clam chowder, an abundant arugula and endive salad with shaved pears and candied walnuts, and two crab cakes on a pool of herbed cream sauce, nicely presented with a side of vegetables. For dinner, owners Tamar Tolchin and Anthony Cirillo recommend any of the fresh seafood dishes, the extra-crispy roast duck with raspberry-port wine sauce and the prime rib with horseradish sauce. The choices are legion – nineteen entrées on the regular menu plus 21 more on a “comfort menu” that’s amazingly affordable ($12.95 to $17.95) and available any night but Saturday. Start with lobster bisque, carpaccio or a lump crabmeat cocktail. Finish with the specialty cheesecake, chocolate-raspberry cake or key lime pie. The wine list is extensive. (732) 449-1800. www.themillatslh.com. Entrées, $17 to $35. Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner nightly, 2:30 to 10 or 11. Sunday, brunch 11 to 3, dinner 11 to 9. Closed Monday except in December.
The cream-colored room with burgundy accents is a picture of French elegance with a marble floor, upholstered armchairs, and four crystal chandeliers that coordinate with the long-stemmed crystal vases and wine glasses on the tables. Chef Scott Giordano took over in 2004 following the departure of chef-partner Mark Mikolajczyk, who wanted his own enterprise after making the restaurant one of New Jersey’s best during a six-year tenure. The signature dish is panko-crusted swordfish stuffed with lump crabmeat and topped with crispy shrimp. Another favorite is Norwegian salmon served with cream cheese and chive whipped potatoes and a carrot purée. Other main courses could be pork tenderloin with peach barbecue sauce, veal chop with porcini mushrooms and herb-crusted rack of lamb. Start with a crab and brie quesadilla, stuffed ostrich or the “panache of appetizers:” a jumbo lump crab cake beside a duet of grilled shrimp and a wild mushroom salad. Desserts could be a fresh berry beggars purse, chocolate soufflé or tarte tatin. For a sample of Whispers at its best, try the chef’s extravagant six-course tasting menu ($60). (732)
974-9755. www.whispersrestaurant.com. Entrées, $25 to $33. Dinner
nightly, 4:30 to 10. Closed Monday and Tuesday in off-season. BYOB.
Ensconced in the walkout lower level of the century-old Sandpiper Inn is this 96-seat gem, a U-shaped room that’s mostly windows, with a glimpse of the ocean in the distance. One side is the patio room with an original Spanish tiled floor, live plants and even a bird feeder to convey the feeling of being outdoors. Innkeeper Rosemary Richards designed the club room on the other side to impart a golf club atmosphere in forest green and creams. Both are soothing settings for the refined fare of chef Mark Mikolajczyk, who trained at the New York Restaurant School before working at the famed Bouley in Manhattan. He took over the inn’s restaurant in late 2004 in partnership with Dave McCleery, his longtime sous chef and former pastry chef at Whispers. They named their new endeavor for Mark’s favorite mushroom. The black trumpet figures in his signature appetizer, pan-seared scallops over a rock shrimp potato pancake. The crab spring roll with a spicy vegetable vinaigrette is another favorite. The chef’s signature entrée, nori-crusted swordfish on a tower of crabmeat, spinach and potato, came with him. Updated entrées include pan-seared fluke with brown butter sauce, de-shelled lobster in saffron beurre blanc in an egg-roll pastry, pesto-stuffed pork tenderloin and grilled New York strip steak in a port-wine demi-glace. Desserts might be tarte tatin, a trio of crème brûlées served with sugar cookie spoons and “a tasting of chocolate” – a warm bittersweet chocolate tart served with a minted chocolate hand-rolled truffle and homemade white chocolate ice creams. (732) 449-4700. www.theblacktrumpet.com. Entrées,
$16 to $29. Dinner nightly, from 5. BYOB. The
Breakers Hotel The Seashell Room at the ocean end of The Breakers Hotel is Spring Lake’s most glamorous dining scene. It also has the best head-on ocean view of any restaurant in town. The room is summery in beige and salmon with unusual carved shell-back cushioned chairs at crisp-linened tables bearing Lalique-style glass candle holders. The local consensus is that the food plays second fiddle to the setting. The extensive Italian/continental menu has stayed proudly the same since 1982 because, the chef says, “we know it works for our clientele.” And it works for him, embracing all the standards from flounder française and shrimp marinara to lobster fra diavolo, from steak giambotta to veal rollatini. Combo platters pair boneless chicken with veal marsala and shrimp parmigiana with veal parmigiana. There are basic pasta dishes, and predictable appetizers like hot antipasti, shrimp cocktail and eggplant rollatini. Chocolate-banana-daiquiri layer cake is the most exotic dessert. A pianist entertains nightly in the lounge. Breakfast and lunch are served poolside on The Veranda. (732) 449-7700. Entrées, $16.95 to $23.95. Lunch
daily from 11:30. Dinner nightly, 4:30 to 10 or 11.
New owners have upgraded the highly regarded dining room in the Hewitt-Wellington hotel, across from the lake but lacking a water view. Instead, the focus is on the food and on the serene ambiance. The cream-colored room with burgundy accents is a picture of elegance with a marble floor, upholstered chairs, and four crystal chandeliers that coordinate with the long-stemmed crystal vases and wine glasses on the tables. Chef-partner Mark Mikolajczyk, who trained at the New York Restaurant School followed by a stint at the famed Bouley in Manhattan, turned this into the area’s finest restaurant. His signature dish is sautéed swordfish stuffed with jumbo crab meat, topped with crispy shrimp and accented by a soy glaze. Other main courses could be pan-seared Norwegian salmon fillet, Long Island duck breast with dried cherry sauce, porcini mushroom-dusted veal chop, and herb-crusted rack of lamb. Start with a crab and brie quesadilla, stuffed ostrich with hoisin glaze, pan-seared quail or the “panache of appetizers:” a jumbo lump crab cake beside a duet of grilled shrimp and a wild mushroom salad. Desserts could be panna cotta with a poached pear, chocolate soufflé or a classic tarte tatin. For a sample of Whispers at its best, try the chef’s extravagant six-course tasting menu ($60). (732) 974-9755. www.whispersrestaurant.com.
Entrées, $25 to $31. Dinner nightly except Tuesday, 4:30 to 10; fewer
nights in off-season. BYOB.
Four sisters who grew up in Spring Lake opened this small restaurant with innovative contemporary fare, incongruously served amid vestiges of its former status as a luncheonette. “We used to come in here when we were kids,” said Culinary Institute of America-trained chef Marianne O’Hearne, spokeswoman for the four. She and Kristine Dier, who had cooked in the area for years, staff the kitchen, while Suzanne O’Hearne handles the front of the house and an out-of-town sibling oversees the business end. The O’Hearne sisters retained the prominent lunch counter but upgraded the rest of the place with tables on two levels. White linens, oil lamps and fresh flowers are the norm at close-together tables, some in the rear along a side banquette. Family pictures and memorabilia are displayed in a handsome built-in bookcase running the length of the side wall in front. The short dinner menu changes weekly. Typical starters are mussels steamed with lemongrass and ginger, Maryland crab cakes with chipotle aioli, and a salad of avocado stuffed with crab meat and mango salsa. Entrées could be herb-grilled Chilean sea bass with roasted pepper coulis, roast chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and prosciutto, and peppercorn-crusted New York strip steak with a Chinese five-spice sauce. Desserts include carrot cake with maple cream cheese icing, mocha fudge torte with white chocolate sauce, and apple-blueberry crisp with vanilla bean sauce. Lunch selections intrigue as well, among them a grilled chicken, bacon and avocado salad with lemon-yogurt dressing, an open-face blue cheese sandwich with pears and walnuts, and a sweet potato, apple and cheddar turnover over greens. (732) 449-1909. Entrées, $16 to $21. Lunch,
Tuesday-Saturday 11 to 3. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday 5:30 to 8 or 9.
Saturday breakfast, 8 to 11. Sunday brunch, 8 to 2. BYOB.
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