The Ebbitt Room

We had our anniversary dinner here on 6÷29÷2016. We had a few drinks at the bar first and we cannot say enough about the bar tender and the drinks. They were phenomenal. We then sat in the dining room for dinner. I ordered the Mahi Mahi special. Incredible. Nicole ordered the Steak and Cake (crab cake) Both meals were awesome. Then we shared the homemade mint ice cream. Wowwww. It was made with real mint, no chocolate chips. You could taste the flavor of the mint leaves. Whether you’re staying there or not you have to try it. Our dinner total was $ 143 not including tip or the pre dinner drinks. Dress attire is casual but no jeans it’s a classy kinda place. ;)

So we have gone to this restaurant before and the food was very good but on this visit I must say that I was extremely disappointed with the portion size of the flounder that I had. If there was more than 2oz of fish I would be shocked. If I didn’t have some of my wife’s chicken (which was delicious) I would have left the restaurant and found a place to get more food.
For a 4 dollar sign restaurant they never cleaned the crumbs off the table
When we ordered dessert, they we out of vanilla ice cream… Really???
There is no excuse for this type of service.
…buyer beware!

Unfortunately, the Ebbitt Room has just been put in the «tourist trap» category for this season. I went tonight and between two drinks at the bar and an average meal, my bill came to $ 250 with a 20% tip. For that sort of money, you would expect the experience and food to be outstanding, right? Well, you would be wrong. First, we requested a particular table, and because we always come very early (when they open), we’ve never had a problem. This time, though, they could not accommodate us even though we are regular customers (we normally go several times a year — -once a week during the summer). The meal, too, was underwhelming. I had the vegetarian selection, which was a duck egg over eggplant and leeks. The eggplant was undercooked; I cook mine much better at home. My husband’s NY strip was mediocre as well. Also, he requested a few peppers on the charcuterie board, but that, too, could not be accommodated (really? A restaurant has to have peppers). The «special» dessert was some sort of vanilla cake with strawberry filling and buttercream frosting. Sounds great, right? It wasn’t. The cake tasted as if it had been made a week ago, frozen, and defrosted, and the buttercream wasn’t creamy at all; it’s as if the cake were in the refrigerator. They should have left it at room temperature so that the frosting would be creamy.
The service was good, so I have no complaint about that.
I really wanted to have a great meal because prior to this, the Ebbitt Room has been one of my favorite CM restaurants (see my previous reviews), but I won’t be returning this summer. Overall, if I had to grade this experience, I would give it a C, so if you’re happy spending more than $ 200 for a C meal, have at it.

The food and service were phenomenal. This is a great fine dining experience in a beautiful atmosphere. I would definitely recommend and return.

My wife and I have been wanted to try this place for a while. I am glad we decided to try it on our most recent trip to Cape May. Everything was fantastic. Good was well prepared and the service was solid. We will be returning to this location and recommending it to family and friends.

Stayed at the red cottage and had an early dinner at the Ebbitt Room. Beautiful comfortable dining room with professional friendly staff. Our waiter Jeremy was knowledgeable about the food and very attentive. Our meal starting with the cape may salt oysters and ending with crème brûlée was delicious and perfect in every way. The carrot soup which was a special that evening had chucks of lump crabmeat that made it extra special. It was such a wonderful experience that we are planning to return the first chance we get.

Went for dinner with a friend during the off season. This place was hopping with a lively crowd and live music (piano). We started with the deviled egg appetizer and then each ordered entrees that we split. I had a sea bass and my friend had the pork chop, everything was amazing. They have a solid wine list as well. Service was friendly and very responsive. I am married to an ex-​chef, so am judgy. This place did not disappoint! If you are in Cape May, this is a local gem worth visiting. I see that other reviews mentioned it being overpriced, I did not find our food to be over priced for the portion and quality. Definitely worth checking it out!

We had dinner here last night. It was a little pricy but worth every penny. We had the deviled egg appetizer which was very good. Apparently, the toppings on these vary. Our had Tuna, Duck and Salmon (you get three eggs). I had the pork chop which was excellent and my girlfriend had «Steak and Cake” — Filet Mignon and Crab cake. She said it was one of the best meals and ever had. The service was exceptional!

We enjoyed the PSI very well but may have prefer this place. Everything is well cooked, seasoned — as orginal as comforting.

My plan was to take some photos of the lovely old homes of Cape May and be on my way back home. Even though my trip home would be almost 4 hours, I’m really glad I stayed for dinner at the Ebbit Room at the Virginia Hotel.
And I’m happy to report that yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (on the roof!) and some excellent food here.
The restaurant is impeccably decorated and the Christmas decorations are perfect for the season.
I planned to start with a salad, my default choice, but opted for the deviled eggs when I heard that was the house specialty. The toppings vary by night. Tonight’s option was steak, trout, and fried ricotta. The ricotta had a nice touch of sweetness and the trout was a nice complement to the egg. I opted for two trout topped eggs since I don’t eat meat.
I love that they serve hot bread (what’s wrong with restaurants serving cold rolls?). The highlight of the bread basket are the rosemary biscuits, which are surprisingly light and also have microgreens from the farm. I try to avoid too much bread, but couldn’t resist the whole biscuit. The butter with chives and honey is excellent.
The salmon is cooked perfectly with a wonderfully crisp skin. I order salmon often and I wish other places made it like this.
Service was outstanding with Leo at the bar and Sylvia in the dining room. If you’re looking for a beautiful spot for dinner this holiday season, the Ebbit Room is an excellent choice.

My wife and I had dinner here Saturday night. We went early for the «early Bird» special (what’s wrong with me?) $ 35 for a three course meal each. The food was excellent, the service was very god the atmosphere was absolutely beautiful. Added a couple of drinks to the tab got our bill well over $ 130 but was well worth it.

Add another landmark restaurant onto the growing pile of overpriced, overhyped dining experiences that have become all-​too-​typical of a night out in Cape May. Expensive, pretentious, and just plain average is the only way I can describe our experience at Ebbitt Room last week.
I’ve had this place on my radar for years, waiting for my little ones to reach an age where we could leave them behind and enjoy a nice, fancy, grown up dinner after a long day at the beach. I think places like this ultimately suffer when there’s this much hype built around them. It creates incredibly high expectations, leaving very little room for error — something that is compounded by the fact that you’re looking at upwards of $ 200 – 250 per couple to drink and dine here.
While the décor and the service are indeed excellent, everything else is completely overrated for what it is: A mixed bag of dishes ranging from mediocre to decent, leaving us ultimately disappointed and underwhelmed by the time the evening ended. It’s a real shame given how much promise lies within these walls.
We started with one of their signature dishes, the deviled eggs appetizer. It’s almost criminal what you’re charged relative to what you get here, and none of the varieties were particularly stand out. I’m not sure why everyone raves about these so much. A better starter were the braised pork cheeks. From the menu: Handkerchief pasta, corn, chiles, and cherry tomatoes in the pork’s natural jus. I recommend sharing this because it’s pretty hearty as an appetizer for one.
As for entrees, I ordered the $ 34 Beach Plum Farm pork chop. When asked how I wanted my pork chop cooked, I told our waiter to make it the way the chef would order it. Normally that’s a respected answer that earns me a delicious experience, but that was not the case on this night. I tend to only order pork chops in a higher end place, because pork chops are hard to get right. You want a nice sear and a little crunch on the outside, but you want it moist and tender on the inside. (See: One 53 in Rocky Hill, NJ)
Everything looked right with my pork chop, but unfortunately I found it to be incredibly tough in terms of texture. Instead of each bite melting in my mouth, I found myself having to chew my face off. I gave up after a few bites. A real bummer.
My friends fared slightly better with a Steak & Cake entrée, consisting of a filet and crabcake, which they described as «just OK.» My wife, on the other hand, admittedly loved her soft-​shelled crab entrée, which was the touted special of the night. But there was one dish all four of us agreed was the highlight of the meal: the side of truffle macaroni & cheese. This was, indeed, sublime.
Extra points for the service, which totally lives up to the hype. Our waiter was attentive, but not in the way. And I’m sure if I wanted to send my pork chop back, he would have been happy to oblige, but by then I was pretty much ready to leave and get on with the night. Thankfully, they make a great Manhattan here, which eased at least some of my aggravation.
I’m giving three stars for the Ebbitt Room because there were indeed several good moments sprinkled throughout an otherwise lackluster experience. The thing that I think disappoints me the most about this place is the value you get for the money you pay. When a restaurant like this wants to charge $ 15 or more for a cocktail and upwards of $ 40 – 50 for an entrée, you need to be firing on all pistons at all times. Relying on the fact that you cater to tourists in a town with weekly guest turnover shouldn’t be used as an excuse to phone it in.
Bottom line: They can do better here if they tried a little harder. Come for drink. Dine someplace else.

Great food. I ordered the bacon wrapped flounder. The crunchiness of the bacon was nice but the flounder itself lacked flavor. My friend ordered the Maine lobster Caesar salad which was really delicious. My friend’s pork chop was huge and great but a bit sweet. Another friend ordered the salmon and loved it. My shrimp appetizer lacked flavor. The desserts were alright– panna cotta was a bit bland.
The space is a little squished. the hostess seemed a bit confused when we asked to be seated before our entire party had arrived.
Overall, great place!

This restaurant has a nice décor and ostensibly looks like a place to have a upscale dining experience, but our experience was less than satisfying. After making reservations on open table, we still had to wait an additional 30 minutes to be seated. We ended up sitting on the deck outside and had cocktails brought to us (after waiting 10 minutes for the outdoor server) while we waited.
After being seated, we ordered and had the duck. It tasted spoiled, so the server offered to bring an alternative dish another hour later. We ended up eating at 10:30 after arriving for our reservation at 8:30.

I was really excited to try this place bc of their farm to table concept (my fave) and the great reviews. The building is very charming and so is the décor. I made a reservation on opentable for an early Friday night dinner to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. I requested a quiet table preferably in a corner somewhere since we will be dining with our 11wk old baby. When we arrived at 540pm, the hostess sat us at a tiny table right by the door where all guests would enter into the dining room. Way too much foot traffic and noise so I asked her if she got my request online for my reservation and asked to be seated further inside. Not sure if she got the request or not, but she moved us to a corner table adjacent to the bar.
Now that we are seated at a much better area of the restaurant, we were ready to get dinner started. Our server was friendly and service was ok. I asked to see the prix fix menu since he didn’t mention it or offer us the menu. Luckily I had done some research prior to coming and I had saw that it was available online from 5 – 6:30pm. Way better deal since you get 3 courses for $ 35, score! We also brought our own wine, but apparently there’s a corkage fee of $ 35. Umm we passed on that real quick haha
For dinner we both opted for the prix fix choices:
Pale Ale Crispy Calamari w/​Pickled Bell Pepper, Creamy Ginger Aioli — the flavors are tasty, but the batter on the calamari is not as crispy. The coating is very thin and serving the aioli all over the top as opposed to serving it on the side didn’t help keeping it from being soggy either. The pickled peppers added that nice punch of acidity any fried item needs.
Beach Plum Farm Deviled Eggs — not impressed with this dish. I can’t remember all 3 of the toppings. I think one was some type of sausage, one had steak, and the other had fried fish. Meh. I rather the traditional kind & add crunchy bacon to it. $ 12 for 1 ½ pieces of egg is kind of insane.
Maine lobster Caesar salad — (not part of the prix fix) — the flavors were just not there. Not sure if it’s the mixing of shellfish & cheese that doesn’t go well together or the mediocre dressing they called Caesar. There was a good amount of lobster, but it didn’t taste as fresh. Definitely wasn’t worth $ 17.
Truffle fries — (not part of prix fix) — nice truffle flavor w/​the addition of Parmesan. Most of the fries were crunchy and some were a little soggy.
Grilled Flat Iron Steak w/​Potato Pave, Asparagus, Romesco Sauce — this dish was not visually attractive. The steak was cooked perfectly, but was heavily salted. Nothing special about this dish. The romesco sauce was lackluster.
Roasted Free Range Half Chicken w/​Grilled Vegetable Pistou, Lemon-​Saffron Vinaigrette — the chicken had crispy skin, but was very dark. It was also heavily salted which was unpleasant. This dish, too, was also visually unattractive. The vegetables were mushy and had an odd cinnamony flavor to it. Bleh.
French Vanilla Crème Brûlée — custard was tasty, but a little thin in texture. The sugar was not caramelized enough. Sigh. I love crème brûlée and was a little disappointed in this one.
Mixed Berries, Whipped Cream, Strawberry Syrup, Mint — we got a plate of about ¹⁄₃ — ½ cup of mixed berries w/​about 2 tbsp of whipped cream on top. There was no strawberry syrup or mint. How can you call this dessert? If I had to pay $ 10 a la carte for this dessert I would have been seriously pissed.
Overall, I am deeply saddened by this dinng experience and unfortunately I will not return. I didn’t feel that amazingly special service everyone mentioned they received for their wedding anniversary dinner. I had high expectations for this restaurant and it definitely did not meet them. I did not sense any sort of farm to table vibe within the menu items that we chose besides for the eggs. The dining room got extremely loud and obnoxious especially the couple who sat next to us. We felt like we were in some sort of nightclub bc everyone was screaming and trying to talk over the noise. Not your typical romantic ambience. So sad, too bad.

The Ebbitt room is that quintessential old Cape May classy dining venue that you really shouldn’t miss. Located in the beautiful Victorian style Virginia Hotel on Jackson St, the Ebbitt room takes you back to the turn of the century with all its style and class.
Most nights have a live piano, and this is probably the best spot in Cape May for the over 40 crowd to enjoy some drinks, sitting on the beautiful porch overlooking old Cape May.
We came for dinner and enjoyed the oysters, pork chop, crab cakes and filet. Everything was very good, just short of epic. Service was solid, but it was noisy with the bar crowd noise spilling over into the dining area. My restricted diet prevented me from being a more adventuresome.
Overall a great spot for drinks, dinner, and hanging out in a classy venue, sort of like your own personal throwback in time ala «Midnight in Paris.»

went for restaurant week. It was awesome, had the corn chowder delicious, mahi mahi was outstanding, the lemon dessert was crazy good. on a regular night it would of been pricey but during restaurant week 3 of us $ 109 with booze.
Bartenders were great, service was great, ambience a little noise but fine. Great place to have drinks and listen to he awesome piano player.

This place was excellent on a Saturday night in March. The restaurant a very warm and relaxing atmosphere, and a pianist played the entire time we were there. Our waiter was excellent and was very accommodating to my girlfriends dietary restrictions.
We started out with the pork belly as an appetizer which was delicious. Then we both ordered the steak special which was a dry aged NY strip. The steak was huge and well worth the $ 38. I recommend this place to anyone looking for a fine dining experience in Cape May.

3^rd trip to the Ebbitt Room, still my favorite place to dine fine in Cape May! Easily the best meal I’ve had in NJ outside of some of AC’s fancy hotels. Trust the many reviews and 4 solid stars, this place is worth trying.
For starters, I like the Meat and Cheese board… great way to start a meal! Either 3 or 5 cheeses and meats on a nice tray good for sharing… Ask what cheeses and meats they have available if you are picky… I am picky, but have been pleased with whatever they picked for me each visit.
The Ebbitt room has more non seafood offerings than many of the other Cape May restaurants… So I have some thinking to do about my entrée…I’ve had the Veal Saltimbocca, the Pork Chop, and the Cap Steak. All were fantastic and cooked as requested. The Cap Steak came cut-​up on the plate… I prefer to slice my own meat, but this was the first time I’ve had such a cut of beef and was pleased nonetheless… The Potato Purée, which was served under the beef, was TO DIE FOR! It blows the mashed potatoes at 410 bank street away! Those 410 potatoes should be embarrassed by comparison.
The Ebbitt Room is part of the «Congress Hall» family of restaurants and uses the Beach Plum Farm for fresh vegies, herbs, and… PORK! We did not make it to the farm, but heard its a fun walking tour if you haven’t tried it before…
Dessert…Altho both of us were too full for dessert, we split the Chocolate Custard… One bite and I shocked at how rich it was… I’m so glad we shared it! It was sooo delicious, almost like a hard chocolate mousse…
I’m a huge fan of the service here… We have had some very friendly and efficient servers on our 3 visits. It’s very dressed up, but not pretentious. The server that served us at the Blue Pig Tavern for Brunch, served us Dinner at the Ebbitt room. Apparently Congress Hall shares more than just their food, but also their better servers!
It is tight quarters… it seems like a little Italian restaurant where the tables are all on top of one another. This has worked out nicely for us as we happened to be seated by lovely people on each of our visits and struck up some friendly conversation with the table next door… She even offered me the bone from her pork chop, how sweet!
80+ reviews and 4 stars… this place is the real deal. Give it a shot and see if you agree! I can’t think of a better place for dinner on the Jersey Shore, aside from some of the Casino’s in AC. When in Cape May, this is the meal I look forward to the most and they have never let me down!

We were very fortunate to stay in this awesome hotel, and while the restaurant was closed that night, the bar was very much opened! Our awesome bartender, Leo, is one talented cocktail maker and we sipped gold nectar out of a straw!
I had the pear martini, best drink I’ve had in a very long time! You really can feel the pear, but not in an over powerful factory flavored way, the martini is made with real pear juice and elderflower liquor (one of my favorite), my only complain with this drink is that it wasn’t self refilling! Also, garnished with fresh raspberries. Come on! Awesome!
My husband had the beach plum mojito and it was made from fresh berries, apples, and mint, it was delicious!
The drinks were very yummy, original, and perfectly crafted. Leo was a very kind fellow and it was nice to share this moment with him, in the empty beautiful place!