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Restaurants
Due Mari
City:
New BrunswickCounty:
Middlesex CountyPhone:
732.296.1600Price:
$$$Cuisine:
ItalianKey:
Due Mari
78 Albany St.
New Brunswick
732.296.1600
New Brunswick got another stylish restaurant with first-rate fare last year when this sister restaurant to Bernardsville’s Due Terre opened in the space that had been Nova Terra. Even though the emphasis is on seafood, this modern Italian restaurant excels in pastas and meat dishes, too. Both restaurants share the same management and kitchen teams, but thankfully the New Brunswick spot affords a quieter dining experience than its boisterous older sibling.
You can begin a meal here with sfizi (“whims”), shareable pre-appetizers of, say, rainbow-colored baby beets with Gorgonzola. But they’re unnecessary, since the house furnishes excellent focaccia and cannelini-garlic dip. Plus, you really should save room for at least one pasta and an entrée. Since we also ordered salads (the Caesar comes with succulent white anchovies), we took our server’s advice and ordered one pasta for the table. All are made fresh in-house daily, and the Robiola ravioli with mushroom ragu, asparagus, Parmigiano, and truffle oil is a tour de force. No more so, though, than the fava bean agnolotti with black trumpet mushrooms in a creamy pecorino fondutta. Each ingredient makes its delicious presence known without overwhelming the others.
That is true of the seafood entrees, too, in which at least five diverse flavors work together like a seasoned dance troupe. Scottish salmon remains succulent beneath its pistachio crust as it cavorts with the bold flavors of black garlic tapenade, wild greens, Maitake mushrooms, and roasted tomatoes. Branzino (European sea bass), expertly grilled and filleted, does a star turn with Caribbean white shrimp, broccoli rabe, and black olive vinaigrette.
Desserts display the same level of synchronization and sophistication. While the soufflé-like chocolate budino is an assured crowd pleaser, the lemon soufflé cake with raspberry yogurt and basil crema — more of a stretch — is even better.
Such charms compensate for a few flaws: a sometimes heavy hand with salt, a market salad that lacks a kick of acid, and a room that is almost unrelentingly brown. On the other hand, the coffees are excellent, the wine list exciting (especially when it comes to Italians beyond Chianti and Super Tuscans), and the service hits that sweet spot between professional and affable.
