River Dock Cafe

Sometime ago my buddy Mike Pomposello invited me to Staten Island to eat at the River Dock Cafe. My response was “hell to the no bro! We don’t do no Staten Island. That’s far!” That was that. LOL.

Later that month we had dinner at Bagatelle and we ended up speaking about the same Staten Island spot. He began to tell me how much food they had, the type of food, the view, and that it was in fact steps from the ferry.

Okay, now my interest was sparked.

Violating my no Staten Island rule, I told him if the opportunity was available again, to please let me know. So when Mike extended the invitation a second time, I decided that it was time to expand my horizons and get on the boat! So I joined him and a few others on the short boat ride and off to Staten Island we went.

Initially, I was going to have a friend who lives out there come out on my behalf, but I’m glad that I went out myself. Soon enough you’ll understand why.

We were joined at the table by the owner who was all too eager to share his stories with us. He’s a super cool dude who is following his dad’s footsteps in the restaurant business. With dad now in a semi-retired state, it’s time for young simba to step up and run things. Looks to me like he’s getting off to a pretty good start.

Shut up, Angel, you talk too much! Tell us about the food! Oh, right, the food!

Okay, to say that these guys were extremely generous with us would be an understatement. We were there as guests, and we were treated like royalty, like family, like friends, and boy were we fed! I mean, my jaw dropped as the assortment of food made its way out. Several courses consisting of a variety of items from the entire menu!

Have a look at some of the items we tried:

This first batch was simply amazing. All of us looked at each other in great amazement as the staff placed plate upon plate at our table. We required additional space to accommodate all this food. Take a look at these pictures! Now for those of you who don’t regularly follow my blog, I am on the path to getting back in shape. However, on that night there was no diet, I had to try a little bit of everything. That being said, none of the food I ate felt greasy, or heavy. Even those fries in the picture below were not greasy or oily. In terms of dieting, pretty much everything I ate here was clean. Also note that we were sharing these plates, so I did behave like a civilized person of high society. Something that I am totally not, I’m a beast and I wanted to devour it all!

Honestly I am at a loss for words. I don’t even know where to begin. We received so much food, and everything was amazing. It is doubtful that any of you would come here and eat the amount of food and variety that we tried. So I will say this to you guys, you can have seafood, meat, dessert, or any combination thereof and you will love it. As you can see in the following pictures, we had plenty of seafood, but also some chicken and fries, and beef, etc. The owner wanted to showcase that they don’t only serve good seafood, but good food overall. The chef here was a personal chef responsible for providing regular meals to a very rich person in the Middle East. As such, his skills are substantial, and it comes across in his dishes. Also, he was a very nice man to boot.

Attempting to pick a favorite item from all that I ate is nearly impossible. I simply can’t. I loved everything I ate. The wings were delicious, and as I mentioned earlier, not greasy. This is important to me because I am health conscious. Even when I wasn’t training, I was never a big fan of greasy items. The grease always made my stomach uncomfortable and gave me headaches. I am pleased to say that I ate a little bit of everything that was placed in front of me, and I did not get a headache! That may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is to me. It tells me the food is clean and good quality. These days my body is extremely sensitive to unhealthy items, they literally make me sick. I left here feeling great and wanting even more!

As a matter of fact, I do want to go back there. I’ll probably wake up one day, get up, get dressed and catch the ferry over. Writing about this now, I’m craving their food again. If anyone is interested in a short boat ride and wants to try some really good food, reach out. Of course you must understand I’ll have to vet you before we meet. I can’t be hanging out with no crazies. Speaking of crazies, here is the owner, and the group of bloggers that came out to dine at this fine establishment. I’m actually excited to go back and eat there again! Maybe I’ll take a trip out this weekend.

Oh, and for good measure, they make some pretty damn amazing drinks here! Make sure you ask about their special lemonade drink, hmm… Oh yeah, I’m going back!