Dauphin Grille

I found out about Dauphin Grille through a website listing places serving organic, sustainable food in NJ. Only a few items on the menu have these qualities, but I wanted to try the restaurant regardless. Wednesdays feature the Bistro Night Special, so I made sure to go on this day of the week. For $ 25, you get an appetizer, entrée, and dessert.
When my boyfriend and I walked into the restaurant, there were only two people in the room, including the bartender. (Being in an empty restaurant was weird but to be expected for winter in Asbury Park.) He kindly got us menus and drinks as we waited for the server to arrive. Our server Jenn was very nice and had helpful suggestions. On the day we went, the chef was updating the menu from autumn to winter, so there were no vegetarian entrees listed. Jenn spoke to the chef, who was able to create a dish for me, which I greatly appreciated.
For appetizers, I ordered a baby kale salad, which was very flavorful. My boyfriend ordered the «angry» lobster pizzette, which could have been a meal in and of itself, but was very good. He also ordered the flat iron steak, which he said was well cooked. For dessert, we ordered a chocolate terrine and crème brûlée. Both were delicious, especially the terrine. My boyfriend’s entrée would normally have cost $ 24, so the Bistro Night Special turned out to be a really good deal.
Overall, there was great seasonal food, good service, and good music (not live).

Great food and our server Jennifer was so wonderful and helpful.
Also nice live music.

The Dauphin Grille is my new favorite restaurant. My boyfriend and I were pleasantly surprised. The food was excellent, and the staff were very friendly. The atmosphere was upscale trendy with out being snobby or pretentious. The butternut squash humus was amazing, my boyfriend had the bacon and egg appetizer and the elk dinner and said it was one of the best meals he had ever eaten. The food was def worth the money we spent. We will be treating ourselves to The Dauphin Grille again and very soon.

mediocre food, bland and hotel-​restaurant like… they try hard — but that is so not good enough. all that flourish for a bland Caesar salad… there are ways to make food simple and tasty. The Dauphin Grill charges as if it did — but chose the other way … pity…

The BEST hamburger… that’s right B E S T. The flavor isn’t overwhelmed with cheese spices or anything, crispy and buttery tender.

This place is a solid choice for anyone seeking a more adult serious food experience than your typical jersey shore boardwalk fare. The dishes are always well presented and executed. For asbury park, this is as good as it gets. Service can be slow but YOUR AT THE FRIGGIN BEACH!

I’m surprised that there are not that many reviews of this place. If you’re looking for an upscale dinner out, this is the place. The drinks were divine and the portion sizes were good. For dinner I got the skirt steak. It was delish and huge! Definitely didn’t need the starter salad with this meal. The bread at the beginning of dinner was warm and served with eggplant tapanade. My friend ordered a pudding dessert that was still served frozen = FAIL.
Warning: Manhattan prices at the shore. Stars deducted for a clumsy waitress that got the order wrong. Also, the kitchen was out of star menu-​items (on a Saturday night at 8PM). All in all a good experience. Off the beaten path too. Nice live jazz playing in the background.

Great evening. $ 4 appetizers. Ian gray was a great waiter, very attentive to our needs.

We just had a fantastic meal at the Dauphin Grille — and Ian Gray was the best!!! We’ll be back!

Very poor food. We ordered a burger rare. It was served well done. We sent it back and returned overcooked again. French fries were cold and soggy. My chicken wrap had dry overcooked chicken. Don’t eat here as there are lot’s of decent places nearby.
Did I mention, the burger was $ 15 and so was the wrap. Bad food at high prices!
I felt screwed, but not in a good way!

Asbury Park better known as Mini Manhattan. For some reason business located in the park have no problem charging NYC prices — So finding a good deal is a treat and the all day «Happy Hour» at the Dauphine Grille makes it affordable. ½ price items from the bar menu gave a nice selection of appetizers, soup and sandwiches.
Pull pork sandwich was really good and the french fries with the frizzed onions mixed through made them different than the average fries. I would have gotten the wedged salad if they offered dressing other than french. $ 8 martini (it is still mini Manhattan) were excellent. Service was very good. Looking forward to the Dauphine Grille this summer when the outdoor area is open. If they have a special deal on the dinner menu I’ll be back to eat in the dining room, until then I’ll stick with the Sunday Happy Hour.

This review must be considered in the fact that we dined here one of the days of the Light of Day Festival. So it was packed with way more people that would normally be there.
However, given that the place had no regular service and only first-​come seating in the crowded bar area, it is absurd that they had one server for the entire place. She was working her butt off but there is no way to keep up with that demand. So the food and drink. Drinks were good, if a bit pricey and the one I ordered (old fashioned) not made with the liquor that I requested. Deviled egg app was great. Wife’s wrap, according to her, was very good. I ordered the Berkeley Burger. Apparently they market this as some kind of house specialty. I ordered the burger medium-​rare. It came out medium-​well and charred and dry around the whole edge (which was oddly flattened). If you are going to offer a specialty burger made with «kobe» and brisket and charge $ 15, it better be awesome. They barely even put any of the toppings on the burger… cheese, onions, etc. were barely evident. And this while the owner is in the kitchen cooking.
So in addition to this, while we’re sitting there (right after we got our food), the greasy, open button shirted manager (?) comes over and puts a «reserved» sign on our table and walks away. Then for the remainder of the time we’re there he stares at us and talks loudly to some people about how «I can’t seat you because they won’t leave.» He made comments like this several times. We hadn’t even finished eating or gotten our ($ 90) bill. This was probably one of the most unprofessional restaurant staffers I have ever encountered.
This was not how we envisioned capping off our day of participating in a post-​Sandy beach and town clean-​up.

Stopped in yesterday afternoon for some drinks and munchies — got lucky and hit the Sunday all day happy hour!
This place is located in the Berkeley Carteret Hotel (may be a different name at this point) and it is an old time bar. The setting a little dark and the aquarium in the seating area could use a little cleaning action, but the service was good and the offerings good as well. Our bartender was Kaitlin and she was great.
We opted for the stuffed, fried olives which were a little overdone but good as well as an order of hand cut sweet potato fries — good as well. The house wines were adequate and the happy hour prices were nice. As an added bonus, they also have bingo in the bar every Sunday so we played a few games.
Nice place for a drink and the dinner menu looked nice with some carry over from Langosta and Trinity and the Pope.

I expected more from the cuisine than
what I experienced at Dauphine, especially considering the price. My
plate (pork chop) lacked any color
life to speak of. Everything
on my plate from the pork, potatoes, to
the broth was the same
color, which just happened to be the same color of the walls.

Had a wonderful meal last night here. Although there is an outdoor seating area with koi pond, we opted to sit in the air-​conditioned dining room. Nice banquet tables with plenty of space.
We started with the chilled fresh peach ‘shooter’ soup. Shared a delicious mussels app in a spicy, garlic tomato thick broth with grilled bread — even ate all the broth! I had the special home made crabmeat ravioli in a thick lobster sauce with fresh corn and lots of fresh herbs from their garden. My husband had home made pasta with giant grilled shrimp in a peppered sauce with fresh peas. Could barely eat all these huge bowls of fresh pasta dishes.
A light and nicely sweet fresh Jersey peach tart had a berry sorbet and almond cream compliments.
Highly recommend going here. AND the wine list was extremely varied, and fairly priced. We found a new white chardonnay blend from Lodi, California that went really well with all our food.

I really wanted to love this place. Dauphin Grill is owned by the same restaurant group as local faves Langosta and Labrador Lounge and Labrador is one of my very favorites. Alas, I can’t recommend this spot. The first time we went, service was so abysmal and the food was so mediocre, that the manager invited us back for a complimentary do-​over.
Still, the second time around, the food was good, but not great, and the service was still super slow. Add to that the fact that it is pricey and, unlike Labrador Lounge, not BYOB, I cannot recommend anyone eat here when there are other, better options nearby. I certainly won’t be making a special trip to Asbury to eat there again.

The seasonal taster was a hit with us particularly the variety. Scallops were first rate with the beet risotto. The beef short rib was very tasty also. They made a big effort. There were signs that the chef might have been young as some of the early courses needed work but with the groupon package we got, it all worked out as something special at a price we could afford. Restaurant layout was attractive with mostly tables but there was an open booth style arrangement on the side which we gratefully chose so we could pin in our two year old. The service was perfect Chris our server was clearly over qualified and just took pleasure in doing things well.

First ate here August 2010, and had good experience. Went back yesterday evening (a Saturday night) and was disappointed. We had 20:30 reservation and when we arrived we stood around a bit aimlessly looking for the hostess. When she finally came to us she said, «It will be 15 minutes, we are giving the waitstaff time to catch up.» What does that mean? I’ve never heard that in my life, and even if it was the case why would you say that to the customers? There seemed to be so many people working, yet service was poor, which tells me their is no good management. The highlight of the evening was Hugo making a giant Caesar salad right at our table… it was the best I’ve ever had, as was the vegetable soup. However it was odd no one mentioned the caesar salad. We saw another table have it, so we asked and received, but it was strange it wasn’t in the specials that were mentioned.

We had a Bridal Shower at Dauphin a few weeks ago. They DO have a private room, however, I found it to be dark and strangely arranged so we opted ahead of time to have the shower in the main dining room in the back where they have a small stage. The food was served buffet style and the servers did a great job setting everything up on the stage area. Everyone at the shower raved about the food. All in all we had a good experience there! I would definitely have another function there. I have never been there for dinner… but I’m sure that would be great too!

I bought a package on LivingSocial for a one-​night stay at Berkeley Hotel along with 3 course dinner and a bottle of wine at Dauphine Grille. We were given a prix fixe menu of 5 appetizers, 6 entrees, and one dessert of the day.
We ordered Marilyn’s Roasted Winter Soup and Moules Frites for appetizers. The soup was roasted chicken and dumplings with winter vegetables. It was pretty bland, nothing to write home about. I enjoyed the Moules Frites, which was steamed mussels in garlic & herbs, served with a side of fries. The mussels were meaty and tender, cooked and seasoned very well. The fries were excellent, just the right amount of potato and crisp.
For our entrees, we both ordered the Hanger Steak. They were cooked to a perfect medium-​rare, seasoned and browned on the outside, and pinkish-​red on the inside. This dish was served with broccoli rabe (which I love) and fingerling potatoes. I would definitely order this dish again.
I ordered a bottle of Chardonnay which came with my package, and polished off the bottle by the end of dinner. Because of this, I don’t recall much about the dessert, except that it’s chocolate and yummy ;)
All in all, I had an awesome dinner!