When I imagine a romantic restaurant I think quiet and intimate. I bet you do too. But romantic can also mean dining and dancing (which is rarely quiet or intimate) and even a bustling, friendly place can spark romance if you can let your hair (and your guard) down and just be yourself with someone you want to know better. Atlantic City offers restaurants that run the gamut of romantic experience.
And by the way, a number of my top ten restaurants (not repeated in this list) are quite romantic and a few of my Most Romantic (especially the Ram’s Head Inn) could easily make anyone’s Top Ten list. Try them all. If you go once a week you’ve got more than four months of great dining ahead of you.
RAM’S HEAD INN 9 Whitehorse Pike, Galloway, NJ 08205 609 652-1700 Hours: Lunch: Tuesday through Friday 12 pm – 3 pm Dinner: Tuesday through Friday 5 pm – 9 pm. Saturday 5 pm – 10 pm, Sunday 3:30 - 9:30 pm Estimated cost per person for dinner: $35 - $50 The most romantic restaurant in Atlantic City is eight miles out of town. But it’s a trip well worth taking. The trip Executive chef Luigi Baretto has taken includes working at restaurants in Switzerland and Italy. You might want to start your meal with a caesar salad, prepared tableside, followed by sorbet to clear your palate. Then you can enjoy an entrée like pignoli crusted flounder in herbed lemon beurre blanc. Although luncheon attire is casual, for dinner leave your shorts, jeans and sneakers at home; jackets are required for the gentlemen.
ANGELO'S FAIRMOUNT TAVERN 2300 Fairmount Ave, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 609 344-2439 Hours: Monday – Friday 11:30 pm - 3:00 pm, Dinner: Monday – Friday 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm, Saturday – Sunday 4:30 pm - 11:00 pm Estimated cost per person for dinner: $20 – $40 When the locals want a great meal without getting dressed up or spending a lot of money Angelo’s, in Atlantic City’s Ducktown neighborhood, has been the place to go since 1935. This is Italian comfort food at its best. The portions are huge and the menu is long (six steaks, nearly 20 pasta dishes, a baker’s dozen of seafood dishes and eighteen desserts). It’s a big, bright and convivial place so save Angelo’s for a date when you want to spend more time feeding each other than giving each other smoldering looks.
DUNE RESTAURANT 9510 Ventnor Ave., Margate, NJ 08402 609 487-7450 Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 5 pm – 10 pm Estimated cost per person for dinner: $30 – $40 Margate is just south of AC but it’s on the same island. (You did know AC is on an island, right?) Since this small (70 seat), pretty BYOB opened in June of 2004 it’s garnered praise from the press and the locals. With its corrugated tin walls and burlap tablecloths you’ll feel more like you’re on a South Pacific island than one on the Jersey shore, even before you take the first bite of your grilled Tasmanian ocean trout. Dune’s version of the early bird special is a three course prix fixe for $24.95 served from 5 to 6:30. For dessert try an ice cream cone at the Margate Dairy Bar next door.
TOMATOE’S 9300 Amherst Ave., Margate, NJ 08402 609 822-7535 Hours: Monday – Thursday 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm, Friday – Saturday, 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm Sunday 5 pm - 10 pm Estimated cost per person for dinner: $20 - $45 What? Another Italian restaurant? Not so fast smarty pants. Yes, they do serve a few Italian dishes but this trendy and eclectic eatery is light on spaghetti and heavy on the sushi and sashimi (more that three dozen varieties). Start with the Vietnamese spring rolls or shrimp gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and then pick your continent. North America? Long Island duck or a New York Strip Steak. South America? Chilean Sea bass (with little neck clams and garlic green beans). Europe? Chicken Catalan (with butternut risotto and broccoli rabe). That’s one way to take your date around the world.
THE BACCHANAL Caesars Atlantic City, 2100 Pacific Ave, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 609 348-4411 Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 6 pm – 10:30 pm in the summer. Friday and Saturday only in the off season. It’s best to call ahead around the beginning and end of the summer season. Estimated cost per person for dinner: $65 If your idea of romance includes an orgy, consider The Bacchanal at Caesars. No, we’re not talking sex; that’s not on the menu here. I’m talking about decadent dining in the style of Rome declining. It’s a fabulous six course prix fixe meal with continually flowing wine and champagne served by “wine goddesses” clad in ancient Roman attire. There’s also continuous entertainment from wandering musicians, magicians and jugglers. Not decadent enough? How about a shoulder rub while you’re dining? Seriously, it comes with the meal.
STEAK 38 & MICKEY'S RAW BAR 3700 Brigantine Blvd., Brigantine, NJ 08203 609 266-4400 Hours: Lunch in Mickey’s Raw Bar 11 am to 2 am, Dinner, both rooms from 4 pm to 2 am Estimated cost per person for dinner: $20 – $30 As you take Brigantine Avenue over the Absecon Channel have your companion flip a coin. Heads it’s prime rib and pork chops at Steak 38; tails you belly up to the boat shaped Raw Bar next door for some clams casino and oysters Rockefeller. Either way, if you don’t stuff yourself too much you can do some dancing to live music in the bar area accessible from both venues. Despite the name, Steak 38 also features seafood like crab imperial and the “clam bake”—a one pound lobster accompanied by mussels, clams, shrimp and fish steamed and served in one big pot.
OLD WATERWAY INN 1660 W Riverside Dr., Atlantic City, NJ 08401 609 347-1793 Hours: Daily 5 pm – 11 pm in the summer. Shorter hours and week in the off season. It’s best to call ahead around the beginning and end of the summer season. Estimated cost per person for dinner: $25 – $40 If you take the White Horse Pike (called Absecon Boulevard as you near AC) into town you may notice you pass over a pair of little islands. That’s the Venice Park neighborhood and it’s the home of the hard to find (before MapQuest and Google Maps anyway) Old Waterway Inn. On a summer evening you might enjoy the sesame-encrusted mahi-mahi as you watch the sunset from the outside deck. On a cold winter’s night you might prefer a bowl of lobster and corn bisque over by the fireplace.
ROYAL ALBERT'S PALACE Trump Taj Mahal, 1000 Boardwalk & Virginia Ave., Atlantic City, NJ 08401 Hours: Lunch: 11 am – 3 pm Dinner: Sunday – Thursday 5 pm – 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 pm – 1 am Estimated cost per person for dinner: $25 – $40 An Indian restaurant in a casino called the Taj Mahal. Who’da thunk it? If your only experience with Indian cuisine is the increasingly common buffet style this attractive casual dining restaurant will pleasantly surprise you. The naan (flat bread) is hot and buttery and with a menu you’ll actually learn the names of the dishes you like. (It turns out that delicious green goop I’ve been eating at the buffets for years is called saag, and it’s so mild I never realized it’s spinach!) As you might expect, in addition to delicious chicken and lamb dishes there is a large selection vegetable dishes, ideal for carnivore-vegetarian couples.
MIXX The Borgata, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City 08401 866 692-6742 Hours: Lunch: 11 am – 3 pm Dinner: 5 pm – 11, followed by dancing Estimated cost per person for dinner: $25 – $40 Mixx really is a mix. It’s a restaurant and a dance club. The cuisine is Latin and Asian. Even the place settings include both silverware and chopsticks. And there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the food is good and it’s a great place for dining and dancing. The bad news is it’s not romantic in the quiet and intimate way and they don’t take reservations. Still, it’s been a hot ticket since opening night and it’s been treading the fine line between trendiness and pretentiousness ever since (e.g., the sea bass ceviche isn’t $8.00 on the menu, or even 8. It’s EIGHT). Sheesh.
BRÛLÉE: THE DESSERT EXPERIENCE The Quarter at Tropicana, 2801 Pacific Ave., Atlantic City, NJ 08401 609-348-6700 Hours: Monday - Wednesday 7 pm – 11 pm, Thursday - Fri 7 pm - 10:30 pm, Saturday -Sunday 6 pm – 10 pm Estimated cost per person for dessert: $15 – $30 Now here’s a romantic idea. After dinner at one of the other restaurants on our list take your sweetheart to a restaurant that serves nothing but dessert. Brûlée bills itself as “equal parts European cafe, lounge, live television studio kitchen and pastry laboratory.” Everything is made in house and if you like a little entertainment with your dessert you’ll love the tableside flambeés. The pièce de résistance is the three course “Crystal Menu” For your dessert “entrée” try the Brownie Extraordinaire. It comes with an atomizer filled with port wine you can spray on the brownie! (And you can take the atomizer home with you.)
The Top List of Romantic Restaurants - Atlantic City, NJ