Restaurant David Drake
A Rating and Review

Restaurant David Drake
1449 Irving Street
Rahway, NJ
732-388-6677

Price	Expensive
Fare	American
Restaurant Rating
Food	4 Stars
Service	3 Stars
Decor	3 Stars
Overall Rating	3.5 Stars

Restaurant Review

Restaurant David Drake is destination dining experience ---- The best new restaurant to come to New Jersey in recent years. Restaurant David Drake is set in a refurbished early-19th-century building with warm, deep reds and gold's on the walls and original wood beams.

There are intimate dining areas that seat a total of fifty, including a private table for eight in the wine cellar. There is a small bar on the second floor.

It has the feel of a New York style restaurant, without the New York attitude, yet cozy and romantic.

The restaurant is located across the street from the train station, with parking deck conveniently located around the corner from the restaurant, in a neighborhood that is in it's infancy with urban renewal.

David Drake, who is also an owner, had been a chef at the Stage House Inn in Scotch Plains, the River Cafe in Brooklyn, the Ryland Inn in Whitehouse, and the the Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick.

The dishes are creative American, although there are French and Spanish influences. The trademark of Drake's cooking is with the vegetables. As Drakes says, "it's trying to utilize them more and more and relying less and less on the protein, whether it's fish or meat".

Some of the popular favorites, starting with the appetizers, include Maine crab salad, with pickled cucumber, mango and a lemon grass reduction, potato gnocchi and frogs legs, and Foi Gras. The popular entrees include; braised pork shoulder and tenderloin, the cumin-spiced loin of lamb, and the sautéed skate wing, perhaps the best in New Jersey.

Don't hesitate to try their succulent desserts; The favorites include chocolate coulant, their signature dessert, is warm and flavored with caramel chocolate sauce, the banana mousse, and the licorice scented bread pudding.

There is an exceptional wine list, as well as a number of very good vintages by the glass.

The service is professional, well trained, but not pretentious.

Although, some of the tables are close, the room acoustics are excellent and good for intimate dinner conversation, or romantic setting.