We recently celebrated our sixth anniversary! It unfortunately fell on a Monday and the weekend prior we had sick kids, so we ended up celebrating the weekend after. We had a reservation to dine outside at Summit House in Summit, NJ, but of course the weather had other plans this past weekend, raining on and off for a lot of it. They called to let us know that they were closing the outside dining but they could shift us to indoors. So, for the first time in almost 16 months, we ate indoors.
While everything was shut down, we actually ordered carry out from Summit House several times. And we’ve also been there several times before then. The period during the shutdown was actually helpful for us regarding that, allowing us easier access to several restaurants we very rarely are able to go to. Sadly they’ve discontinued their carry out program.
We found ourselves seated in the area in the front the restaurant just a bit in front of their bar seating. Since it was a Saturday, the area was hopping. We both ordered from their cocktail list. I tried their vodka based cocktail which included a Summit House made limoncello and blackberries. It was nice and light for summertime, and hard to go wrong with the fresh limoncello!
We were most interested in the appetizers so ordered several. The crab salad was prepared with a burrata foam, warm creamed leaks, burnt scallions and a rutabaga gremolata. I really liked this dish. Sometimes the extra ingredients overpower the crab — and oftentimes it’s because they’re trying to skimp on the amount of crab they give you! Thankfully that was not the case here. I liked the mix of elements here. I wouldn’t have minded the usual consistency of burrata because I love it so much, but the foam was really interesting. I did think that it started to liquify a bit, so I didn’t love that, but it worked well for when i took bites more quickly.
We also got the seared tuna. They served it seared with a peppercorn crust, fermented chili vinaigrette bok choy, broccoli, sauce tonnato and black sesame crisp. The flavors here were all really interesting – I especially loved the bok choy with the seared tuna. The black sesame crisp added some nice visual drama, but the flavor didn’t do much to build on the dish. We weren’t quite sure the intention there – perhaps more visual versus flavor? The crunch was nice – just wanted some more flavor, too. The crust on the tuna was also nicely done. We’ve had some pretty bad tuna, so it was nice to finally find a good one!
Our third appetizer was the crispy octopus. We love octopus, so it was hard for us to pass this one up! It was served on top of okonomiyaki, crispy shallot, sambal bawang and garlic chip. I’d honestly never tried okonomiyaki but all of this worked so well with the octopus, which was very nicely done. Okonomiyaki is like a vegetable pancake, so it had a bunch of interesting thinly sliced veggies fried up into a crispy patty. The flavor on this overall was a winner. Definitely very heavy on the garlic, which we love but could be a turn off for some.
For our main course, we ordered the cappelletti, which was served with smoked ricotta, 12 month house made lomo, Italian crunch asparagus, toasted chili and spring alliums. They warned this one had some heat, which made us even more interested in ordering it. The heat on the dish was nice. I loved the lomo, which was thin, crispy and flavorful. The smoked ricotta added a nice touch of cool to balance the heat. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. I couldn’t get enough of it. The asparagus on this was so nicely done. Asparagus with the wrong sauce can end up soggy so loved that not only was that not the case here, it was actually crunchy!
Before dessert, we ordered some whiskey. T tried the Nikka Coffey, which was excellent. I tried High West’s Yippee Ki-Yay Rye, mainly because I’d never heard of it. Turns out it’s been discontinued, so was glad that I got to try it – even though I have to admit as an avid High West lover, it’s not my fave. For dessert, we ordered the pistachio ricotta semifreddo, which was served with cardamom frosted grapes and a pretzel strudel. Dessert left us a little disappointed. They only had one server who was managing the entire front of the house. He unfortunately forgot to put in our order, so we were waiting for quite a bit and then they rushed out our order. Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t semifreddo – it was full-on freddo. I really liked the grapes and the strudel, but the semifreddo consistency was way too frozen for us to really get the true intended experience there.
Overall, dinner was a great experience. It was refreshing to get back out and do something more “normal,” even if dining inside a restaurant felt anything but. Maybe several months from now it well, but not there yet.
Summit House – Springfield Avenue, Summit, NJ – 908.273.6000; Reservations Required
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