PDA

View Full Version : Good Food Princeton NJ and Washington DC



San Onofre Guy
10-16-12, 7:32pm
My wife and I will be spending two days in Princeton and four days in Washington DC next month. We are looking for recommendations for fine dining in Princeton. While we are primarily plant based eaters, we will eat meat and fish especially at higher end dining places that have great cuts and are known for excellent preparation. We don't mind paying top dollar for great food. We can cook well and we tend to view eating out as an opportunity to explore and we would rather pay $40-50 per person and have a really good meal than $20-25 and have a so so meal that we could prepare on our own at home and enjoy a better meal. What are your suggestions for Princeton?

We will be with family in Washington and staying with a family member on deployment in her apartment in Alexandria. We will eat in all breakfasts and probably half dinners but eat out at lunch. Suggestions on great value for the dollar but great food at the same time. We like different ethnic foods.

Thanks in advance.

catherine
10-16-12, 7:55pm
I live just outside of Princeton, and the latest and greatest restaurants are Peacock Inn (definitely fine dining on the traditional side) or elements (a little more au courant).

One of my other favorite spots in the area (it's actually about 20 minutes from Princeton) to spend some time is the Grounds for Sculpture. It is just a magical place. The restaurant there, Rats, is very well respected.

If you like fish, I'd go with Blue Point Grill.

Let me know if you want more choices, but those are my choices. There are some other older, more traditional restaurants that are good, too,

Tussiemussies
10-16-12, 8:47pm
You can also buy a Zagat book which rates all the restaurants in particular states. I would follow Catherins's recommendations though for Princeton. Zagats also has a website if you do a search for them...

pony mom
10-16-12, 9:58pm
Grounds for Sculpture is a really cool place to explore, and the restaurant is supposed to be on of the best.

mtnlaurel
10-17-12, 8:26am
This is one of my all time favorite Greek Restaurants and it is in Alexandria
Taverna Cretekou
818 King Street
http://www.tavernacretekou.com/ (http://www.tavernacretekou.com/)

I have found lots of great restaurants through yelp.com

In Princeton.... it's not fine dining, but if you have a casual night - Conte's Pizza is fun, it gets crazy busy on Fri/Sat though
The inside looks like a VFW to me.
The crust is very crispy.
http://contespizzaandbar.com/Home_Page.html

Stop in for drinks at Yankee Doodle Tap Room
http://www.nassauinn.com/princeton-restaurants/
The food is overpriced and 'meh' to us though

San Onofre Guy
11-13-12, 12:40pm
Thanks for the suggestions. We stayed at the Inn at Glencairn which is between Princeton and Lawrenceville, highly recommended. We met friends for drinks and dinner at I forget the name of the brewery on the main drag in Princeton, good beer. We also had a drink at Yankee Doodle but our best meal was at Acacia in Lawrenceville, Wild Boar and Lamb. If you plan on dining in Lawrencville bring your own bottle as due to the prep school, it is a dry town.

We arrived after Sandy and got on the train one hour before it started to snow!

Trees were down all over and we drove through Lambertville with no elecricity but across the river in New Hope we had a great lunch.

Tussiemussies
11-13-12, 12:42pm
Glad you enjoyed your visit. :)

catherine
11-13-12, 7:32pm
Great! Yes, the Inn at Glencairn is great--they have great afternoon teas. And you probably had beer at Triumph Brewery--love that place! Great beer! Yankee Doodle is great to see the Norman Rockwell over the bar, but the food is ok, so it's a good thing you went to Acacia. I'm going to try it out.. never been there.

New Hope is awesome. Glad you had a great time!

San Onofre Guy
11-14-12, 12:29pm
Catherine,

I think you are confusing the Inn at Glencairn with another place. The Inn is only a B&B and serves food to guests. My sister in law did mention a High Tea place near Lawrenceville where they went once. You are correct with the Triumph Brewery.