Kerry392

My husband and I are looking for a restaurant to meet his parents for dinner that is roughly halfway between North Jersey (Paramus area) and Philadelphia suburbs (West Chester area). Trenton/ Princeton seem to fit the bill.
We like basic food (American, Italian)- nothing very fancy. Can anybody reccomend any restaurants? We are looking for something that is somewhat upscale, not a chain.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Kerry392

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SusieQQ

Try asking on this site:

http://www.nj.com/forums/restaurants/

Cicerone

I don’t know quite how to respond to “upscale” but “not fancy” written in the same sentence…but a very good restaurant in a really interesting setting is Rat’s, it is in Hamilton and is on the grounds of J Seward Johnson’s Ground for Sculpture. It is worth going early to take a look around. You can see menus on the website. According to MapQeust, this should be just over an hour from West Chester and about 1.5 hours from Paramus.

Rat's Restaurant | Tel. 609.584.7800
16 Fairgrounds Rd. Hamilton, NJ 08619
Email: [email protected]
http://www.ratsrestaurant.org/ratsrestaurant.php

For info on the sculpture garden, to http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/.

You could also try the tap room in the Nassau Inn in Princeton. Good restaurant that is not too fancy and Princeton is charming. http://www.nassauinn.com/

smeadows1978

Theresa's Cafe on Palmer Square

The Alchemest & Barrister (But make sure you sit in the dining room.)

Camillo's Cafe in Princeton Shopping Center (This one is BYOB)

And the Bent Spoon or Halo Pub for dessert!

All of these places have webpages so you can see menus, prices, locations, and reviews.

lizziea06

The Yankee Doodle Tap Room in the Nassau Inn sounds exactly like what you're looking for. It's in a very historic hotel in the center of town, and serves good American food. It's named after a huge original Norman Rockwell painting hanging behind the bar. This is a great area of Princeton to take an after dinner stroll. Here's the link w/ directions and a menu:

http://tinyurl.com/yxmvoz

stevefrat

It's been a while since I've eaten here, but I think the Mediterra fits your requirements. Have a look at their website:

http://www.terramomo.com/restaurant/...rra/index.html