Molly Pitcher Inn Dining Room- Red Bank, NJ
Molly Pitcher is an exquisite hotel and restaurant on the Navesink river. Serves spectacular dinners and Sunday brunches.
You may think that this is just an elegant hotel on the Navesink River used for weddings and occasions, but it is also a spot that serves up a great menu. The beautiful view of the river may be a reason to draw one there, but you won’t be disappointed in your dining experience either. The Molly Pitcher Inn is a home run.
The Molly Pitcher inn can be anything you want it to be; it can be a hotel, a venue for occasions, a brunch spot, or an amazing dinner location. If you’re coming here for brunch or dinner, I would recommend making a reservation because tables fill up fast! This review is solely on their dinner, but I can tell you from experience that their brunch is nothing to sneeze at either. Let’s begin. I would first like to make all the males aware that if you’re dining in their dining room for dinner, you must have a jacket. This is not a casual place where jeans and a button down will fly. Us women can dress anything up from a pair of leggings and a cute shirt to a casual dress, but I would think it’s safe to say that jeans are absolutely frowned upon.
Our first round of drinks was Prosecco for me and a dirty martini for Paul. Paul’s martini did not taste good, and he attributed that partly to the bartender and partly to the rotten olives in his drink. It pains me to say this right off of the bat here since the overall dining experience was good, but it is unacceptable for bartenders at an establishment like this to give rotten olives. This isn’t some cheap pub where someone randomly orders a martini. We also had the Malbec wine by the glass. I love that they also had J Lohr cabarnet on the menu. It is always hard for me to pass that up, but I did this time for Malbec, which was great. |Upon being seated, you get a fresh, hot roll with butter on the side as well as an amouge bouge. That night, the amouge bouche was ahi tuna with a wasabi sauce over it. I was in heaven just from that one bite. Obviously, it is helpful to be a tuna lover, but outside of that, the flavoring was just perfect.
For an appetizer, I had a bibb salad and paul had the asparagus risotto. For those of you who have read multiple reviews, you know that one of Paul’s favorite foods and dishes to critique is risotto and braised short ribs. Well, he ate both tonight. He said the asparagus risotto was one of the best risottos that he has ever eaten. It was perfectly made, not too hard or overcooked, and very tasty. My salad was tasty as well, but I’m not a huge fan of bibb lettuce. Bibb lettuce, while light and tender, are also overly large and almost soggy to me. This is not the restaurant’s fault, just not really something I prefer. For our entrees, Paul had the Asian glazed petite beef short rib which consisted of shitake mushrooms and green onion risotto in teriyaki and ginger reduction. The risotto was again made perfectly and the short rib was very tasty and tender. When the meat just falls of the bone when you put your fork into it, you know it was made well. I had the roasted French breast of chicken with caramelized vegetables. The casing of the chicken was perfectly crispy and seasoned. The applewood smoked bacon taste lingered after each bite, which added a nice touch. The chicken was fresh and not too dry, which is big for me when eating chicken without sauces. The vegetables made me feel like I was eating a chicken soup minus the broth. It was an assortment of small pieces of celery and carrots. Overall, it is a good dish for the picky eater. I had the hazelnut cheesecake for dessert. I’ve had better cheesecakes in my time so I am not going to overly tout this. It was just average. Paul had the Tahitian Vanilla crème brulee, another one of his favorites to eat and critique. He enjoyed it enough to eat it all, but not enough to give it a top 5 rating of all the crème brulees that he has eaten. However, it does the trick.
The atmosphere here is beautiful. The dining room windows are all glass, which leaves you with a spectacular view of the Navesink River. The dining room is elegant, yet small. The view here really takes the cake; it is one of a kind and adds to the romance!
Our waiters and servers were very attentive and the hostesses were accommodating as well. The vibe is so nice here due to everyone’s attentiveness and the natural light shining through. The bar area gets very loud and very busy, so it may take a little longer to get a drink there, but that is not out of the norm.
The Molly Pitcher Inn is a little pricey, but I think you’re paying for good food and a great view. It is somewhere that is easy to overlook in Red Bank, but I definitely think it is worth a visit!
