Joe Pesce

Seven Layer Chocolate Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday to us! Our birthdays fell on the weekend of the biggest winter storm the north east has ever had in the month of October. Now for South Jersey, it wasn't too bad. We had slick roads here and there, a couple of patches of black ice, and a wee bit of accumulation. However we made the decision to not go to a dance competition in North Jersey due to, what we gathered, some pretty nasty weather. That being said it was technically my birthday so we opted for a Silver Spoon instead of our usual Jersey diner. I chose to go to Joe Pesce which is a little intimate seafood restaurant in Collingswood, NJ right on Haddon Ave. I had heard personal stories from outside parties that they can mess up orders or completely forget an order as well. But, I wanted seafood, darn it! So we went.

The snow was thick, heavy, and wet when we ran from our parking spot a block away into the Joe Pesce and we were instantly greeted by the man I assume is the owner. He took very good care of us making sure that the rest of his staff was attentive and helpful. He might have done a little too much over managing in the beginning when he told us all of the specials for the day (which he had memorized like a Shakespeare soliloquy). At the same time, it appeared we were the first guests of the night so while the rest of the staff opened bottles of wine, brought over an ice bucket, and tidied up the rest of the restaurant, the owner made sure we were taken care of.

Grilled Octopus

We started off the meal with a grilled romaine salad (I'll let Chi expound on this one) and some grilled baby octopus which came in a pleasant white sauce. We have admittedly eaten an unusual amount of octopus in the past few months for a couple that resides in Cherry Hill, so we are undoubtedly starting to learn who has the best octo. Unfortunately for Joe Pesce, in comparison to the other two restaurants that have served us this gastropod, theirs comes in third place. The poor little guys were over grilled and the only one that was marginally tender was the largest one on the plate. The problem was that since every octopus was a different size, they ended up cooking everything for the same amount of time, but different thicknesses of meat will cook at different rates (it's a surface area to volume thing). The largest octopus was very good, though. It had a great char on it with a superb grill flavor, but the other little ones brought down the entire dish.

Whole Dorado in Scampi Sauce

For my main course I ordered the whole fish of dorado in a scampi sauce. My fish was not deboned at the table but whoever finished the deed behind the curtain did a decent job. I found maybe three bones in the entire dish, but having caught and filleted fish myself, I know that sometimes bones are missed, and I also know to eat deboned fish carefully. The sauce was delicious and light and really complimented the buttery, oily taste of the dorado. The meat was very tender and the quantity surprised, since the last time I ordered whole fish I was left hungry. There's not much else to say when you're served quality seafood. You can tell the fish is fresh when it's not fishy.

First of all, I apologize for the poor quality of photos. Joe Pesce's is very dark with soft lighting which is a great settling for intimate dinners, but not so much for amateur food photography, especially when you just have your smart phone. I wasn't brave enough to use my flash.


It's a small restaurant, with plenty of staff- it seems as if there is one main cook with a myriad of waiters who also finish meals, filet whole-fish, slice up salads, etc. The low bar/exposed kitchen wall allows you (if you wanted) to walk up and watch your meal being cooked.


Their specialty is fish, cooked to order either as the whole fish or a filet, with a choice from several saucy finishes. I want to say that the menu pairings of fish and flavors was thoughtful, but I can't fully recall because we all ordered specials. In fact, I'm not even completely sure that we opened our menus. Just to give you an overall sense of our fishy adventure, Chris's father ordered the Mediterranean Branzino, his mother ordered the (wild [really?]) salmon, Chris ordered the dorado as referenced above, and finally I ordered the strange monk fish  It's apparently a pretty ugly fish- but I believe in inner beauty tastiness.

Beautiful Monkfish 

The appetizers we ordered were specials as well and the one I found particularly tasty was their grilled romaine salad (with crab meat/shrimp) in a homemade Caesar dressing. "I know it's Romaine," the waiter said, "but trust me."


We did and noms ensued. Firstly, presentation-wise, this salad is very daunting as it's a full (large) head of romaine that comes out hot, hot, hot, but not still crunchy with very little collateral wilt. Our waiter put in the extra effort to divide it for the four of us, and even though it serves two, I would say that all four of us received a very good amount. The dressing was creamy, but tangy which helped cut the grilled flavor and kept the salad from tasting too rich. Honestly, I found the crab and shrimp to afterthoughts to the actual salad, which is good in the sense that they accomplished in making the romaine the focus.

Monkfish's Side of Zucchini and Potato

Though the lighting is humble, this is a picture of my monk fish as it came out to me on a bed of arugula with a mango topping (like a chutney). Simple, but all that was needed since it turns out this type of fish is very hearty. The filet tasted like it was dark meat, with a distinctive strip of fat (almost of tendon-consistency) throughout the middle. It was very strange textually, but definitely kept me interested. Since then, I've learned that monk fish is often referred to as "the poor man's veal/lobster", depending on your personal experience. I would definitely agree to this in saying that it felt like i was eating some strange hybrid of fish and meat, which was probably the thing that turned me off (since I don't eat meat). Overall, the flavors were delicious, and I ate all of it happily.

Sides were yummy- but expected and boring. Mash potatoes were creamy and not too bland, and not too salty. Zucchini was grilled well, but at the end of the day, it's a cheap vegetable side. I would have preferred some dark greens to go with the dark fish, but maybe I'm thinking too inside of the box.

We then ordered two desserts on top of our meal; the cheesecake and the chocolate cake. The cheesecake was a healthy serving (one giant piece served as two). It tasted like three quarters creamy cheesecake and one quarter creme brulee, like they had torched the top of it a bit. As for the crust, it was a classic, thick graham cracker crust. A very decadent and filling dish. The chocolate cake was impressive itself. It was seven layer chocolate cake that managed the impressive feat of having a very rich dark chocolate flavor balanced with sweet, milk chocolate tones which kept each bite from becoming dull and redundant.

Additional Notes: Classic BYOB in Collingswood, so drink up but get home safe. It's a small space so make sure you make reservations ahead of time. The price is what you would expect for a menu that is comprised of mostly specials that are completely original and homemade.

Marlton Diner

Flashy

The Marlton Diner's reputation precedes it with its multiple accolades as "Best of [insert location]" by a few local papers, including the Courier Post. One gets the sense that it knows just how popular and appealing it is, despite not being around as long as its competitors in the area. But just like the popular kids of our pasts, I felt the attitude to be complacent, vaguely shallow, and with a skewed sense of what things actually cost. It gleans off of Route 70 (in Marlton) like a prized baby blue convertible. (Yes, I quoted Santa Baby, but yes, it was kind-of teal).

French Toast, Eggs Over Medium

Chris's parents took us out for Saturday breakfast and since they paid, you would think I could just focus on the experience and critique the quality of food, but I can't. While breakfast meals cost about the same as they do at any other diner, many items didn't come in the popular combos that they traditionally do, or at those combo prices. For example, I ordered their french toast which came out to a little under $6, but as you can see, there's only the (3) pieces of toast, with butter and individual packages of syrup. I ordered a side of two eggs over medium, which cost me almost an extra two bucks. It wasn't terrible, just clearly not a bargain, which is something I've come to expect (perhaps unfairely) from diners. Plan your meals carefully and they can cost the same as they do anywhere else, but double check your sides, especially your meat-based ones.


I will say that the french toast was delicious with the pefect ratio of toast to egg. I think that I would been happier if they had just upgraded me to a bottle of syrup on the table instead of packets tacked on the side, but since I like my toast more buttery than sweet anyways, I can't really say it hindered my enjoyment. As usual by over medium eggs were runny and boring. But maybe ordering eggs over medium is boring...

Exhibit A

I wanted to order their french toast and eggs special (with coffee and juice) and then order a side of sausage. The combo of just french toast and eggs was eight dollars, a side of sausage was four dollars. Four dollars for sausage links. Four dollars. Until this diner, the most expensive side of sausage I've seen was two dollars and fifty cents. I guess having a building painted like a '50s Chevy made the Marlton Diner feel entitled to overcharge it's customers. Now that I've gotten that off my chest I must admit that they seated us rather quickly for showing up on a busy Saturday morning, and our waitress was very patient with our slightly indecisive party. The atmosphere was pleasant enough with classic diner feel and booths packed with families and old timers, the Marlton Diner clearly has their own set of regulars.

French Toast with Four Dollar Sausage

With good company at the table our food seemed to come out fairly quickly. Three pieces of french toast bordered by four sausage links. I'm a butter and syrup man, so I slathered up the slices and went to work. Let me tell you, this french toast was good enough to stand up by itself and I would go back to the Marton Diner just to order a short stack. There were three things that made this french toast better than other diners. The first key for yumminess is thickness of the bread. Most diners advertise super think slices of Texas toast. Well, that means the egg won't be able to get to the middle of the bread (there's a surface area to volume ratio theory that is important for diffusion) and that means half of what your eating is a core of warm bread. Marlton used more than Wonder Bread, but they didn't over do it, which made their french toast one hundred percent french toast. The second high point of their french toast was the perfection of "toasting." The Marlton Diner made sure that the outside reached it's nice golden brown exterior without overcooking the middle of the french toast remained soft, moist and delicious. The third golden start I'm going to give them is for not skimping me on butter. The amount of butter they gave us looked like miniature fluffy clouds. As for the sausage (the four dollar sausage) it was mediocre. Nothing about it screamed "I'm better than Jimmy Dean!" which solidified my previous statement, I would come back to get just the short stack of french toast.

Additional notes:
Apparently the Marlton Diner doubles as a museum and contains an antique cash register and jukebox, but don't touch them. Also, they sell giant, soft chocolate-chip cookies, buy one. The place was family-friendly full of Halloween decorations with clean, dry booths. If you can get over the $4.00 a side thing, might be worth a trip.

All Sides are Four Dollars

Like Mean Girls, being popular comes with rules. No subsituting your potatoes for fruit cups (waitress denied Chris's mother), or sharing (unless you want to pay $2.00 a plate), and always, always wear pink on Fridays.

Calorie Counting is No Way to Live