Good Morning Asbury Park!
Frank's Deli & Restaurant
November 25th, 2012
Asbury Park, NJ
Abstract
One of Stephan's favorite meals is breakfast so when we travel we often leave breakfast to Stephan. This trip had him asking the locals for the "best" breakfast spot in their opinion.
Through the opinions of a few people we wandered about a mile from the hotel towards Main Street where we found Frank's. Upon entering it was much like any other diner; a myriad of tables, shiny metal with leather-topped stools at the bar and a full length of the restaurant server area leading down to the grill area and then an entry off into the "back room" that all diners seem to have behind the bar. It felt homey and comfortable and we just settled right in and got to the menu.
Through the opinions of a few people we wandered about a mile from the hotel towards Main Street where we found Frank's. Upon entering it was much like any other diner; a myriad of tables, shiny metal with leather-topped stools at the bar and a full length of the restaurant server area leading down to the grill area and then an entry off into the "back room" that all diners seem to have behind the bar. It felt homey and comfortable and we just settled right in and got to the menu.
Frank's
We had a little guessing game about what type of deli Frank's is... our best guess is Italian with a little bit of Greek influence since both cuisines are featured as part of the dinner menu. Irregardless, the first thing you see when you walk in the front door is this bakery case packed with muffins, pastries and other baked goods as big as my head!
While perhaps a slight exaggeration when I use my head as a size indicator, I'm not kidding at all when I indicate that these were not-your-average muffins... these were the King Kong of the muffin world! If that wasn't amazing enough further down the wall we see the house-made bagels and English muffins.
A look over the menu gave us something called "pork roll" which none of us had heard of before, the usual suspects like pancakes, french toast, a myriad of egg & meat combos... and... to Nick's surprise... "Cold Cereal... w/ half & half" to quote Nick:
While perhaps a slight exaggeration when I use my head as a size indicator, I'm not kidding at all when I indicate that these were not-your-average muffins... these were the King Kong of the muffin world! If that wasn't amazing enough further down the wall we see the house-made bagels and English muffins.
A look over the menu gave us something called "pork roll" which none of us had heard of before, the usual suspects like pancakes, french toast, a myriad of egg & meat combos... and... to Nick's surprise... "Cold Cereal... w/ half & half" to quote Nick:
"Who eats cereal with Half & Half!?"
Our Food
The Muffins!
Each of us ordered a muffin that first morning (Oh, did I not mention we visited Frank's two and a half times?) Unfortunately for my teeny stomach, the muffins came out before the rest of the food.... this was not COMPLETELY disappointing because, well, these muffins were fantastic.
We got a little over zealous and started eating before pictures this morning... so pardon the bite marks :) I think it just gives you the opportunity to see more of the muffin.... yeah... that's it!
We got a little over zealous and started eating before pictures this morning... so pardon the bite marks :) I think it just gives you the opportunity to see more of the muffin.... yeah... that's it!
Tara: Morning Glory
Stephan: Apple
Nick: Pumpkin
As seen on Nick's muffin, each of the tops were dusted with brown sugar or some sweeter streusel like topping which just made these muffin tops something to fight for (in other words, it made you want to bite people's fingers off if they tried to "taste" your muffin!)
Our Meals
Tara:
I ordered my standard breakfast... "Ham, egg and cheese on a grilled English muffin, please!" Usually I ask for my sandwich at the same time as my muffin so I can at least eat part of my sandwich before I indulge my pouch with the yummy goodness of the muffin which is always really filling.
So after I had already eaten about half of the muffin top of my muffin, this sandwich appears in front of me!
That plate is only a step down from their standard oval dinner plate. The circumference of my English muffin was easily four inches across the middle! And look at those tasty nooks and crannies! (Sorry Thomas'... Frank's has you beat on the nooks and crannies!) What you can't see is the layers of ham under that egg... and at least two if not three pieces of cheese holding it all together!
I managed my way through about three-quarters of the sandwich before I crumbled into the "pick-it-apart" stage where I start eating only the parts that I like most... in this case, the cheese smothered ham.
Stephan:
Stephan loves his corned beef hash and nearly every breakfast place we walk into the first question out of his mouth is, "Is your corned beef hash home made?" If the answer is yes, I can just about always guarantee that it will grace a plate that is hitting our table during that meal. Frank's did indeed have home made corned beef hash and you bet it was on his plate:
Stephan ordered two eggs over easy with corned beef hash and a side of home fries. Yes... those home fries came on a plate the exact same size as his meal plate...
Stephan's feedback on his meal:
So this was really good, of course I am a sucker for breakfast, and when you have a bakery in the back and most or all of the stuff is home made, it is win.
If I look at this as a foodie, it is blah, I mean nothing special because well it's a local diner breakfast. However, when I look at it from the idea of I love breakfast diners, it was awesome.
Homemade corned beef hash, this is great in my book just making the effort, honestly however it was a little taste less and had more potato then meat. The meat however was tender and grilled nicely.
The eggs were over medium, I love my eggs runny almost sunny side, so this was unfortunate.
It's weird I would go back again and eat the breakfast, but breakfast isn't something I break down a lot.
Nick:
I ordered a Sausage Egg and Cheese breakfast sandwich and a side of the corn-beef hash. The sandwich came on a whopping kaiser roll with 2 eggs, 2 large sausage patties and an ooze of cheese. The sausage was not that spicy, which isn't really a bad thing, and while i scrapped off most of my poppy seeds the roll was great. Other than a struggle to keep the inside of my sandwich from slipping out the back it was great.
I can't really say too much about the corned-beef hash. From what I picked at it was good, alot more potato than beef, but it also had ALOT of onions for me, so I barely touched it, Stephan will have to elaborate for me.
I ordered my standard breakfast... "Ham, egg and cheese on a grilled English muffin, please!" Usually I ask for my sandwich at the same time as my muffin so I can at least eat part of my sandwich before I indulge my pouch with the yummy goodness of the muffin which is always really filling.
So after I had already eaten about half of the muffin top of my muffin, this sandwich appears in front of me!
I managed my way through about three-quarters of the sandwich before I crumbled into the "pick-it-apart" stage where I start eating only the parts that I like most... in this case, the cheese smothered ham.
Stephan:
Stephan loves his corned beef hash and nearly every breakfast place we walk into the first question out of his mouth is, "Is your corned beef hash home made?" If the answer is yes, I can just about always guarantee that it will grace a plate that is hitting our table during that meal. Frank's did indeed have home made corned beef hash and you bet it was on his plate:
Stephan ordered two eggs over easy with corned beef hash and a side of home fries. Yes... those home fries came on a plate the exact same size as his meal plate...
Stephan's feedback on his meal:
So this was really good, of course I am a sucker for breakfast, and when you have a bakery in the back and most or all of the stuff is home made, it is win.
If I look at this as a foodie, it is blah, I mean nothing special because well it's a local diner breakfast. However, when I look at it from the idea of I love breakfast diners, it was awesome.
Homemade corned beef hash, this is great in my book just making the effort, honestly however it was a little taste less and had more potato then meat. The meat however was tender and grilled nicely.
The eggs were over medium, I love my eggs runny almost sunny side, so this was unfortunate.
It's weird I would go back again and eat the breakfast, but breakfast isn't something I break down a lot.
Nick:
I ordered a Sausage Egg and Cheese breakfast sandwich and a side of the corn-beef hash. The sandwich came on a whopping kaiser roll with 2 eggs, 2 large sausage patties and an ooze of cheese. The sausage was not that spicy, which isn't really a bad thing, and while i scrapped off most of my poppy seeds the roll was great. Other than a struggle to keep the inside of my sandwich from slipping out the back it was great.
I can't really say too much about the corned-beef hash. From what I picked at it was good, alot more potato than beef, but it also had ALOT of onions for me, so I barely touched it, Stephan will have to elaborate for me.
Summary
Frank's was breakfast the second day in Asbury Park and on the third day... I walked up there at 9 in the morning to bring back four muffins to the sleepers at the hotel. I guess that might indicate our general opinion about Frank's. We recommended it out to others, we went there more than once, we took the advice of the original waitress and ordered her suggestions on the second day (pork roll, incidentally, is sort of like Canadian bacon according to my companions) and we weren't disappointed.
We tried the pancakes (chocolate chip at least), pork roll on sandwiches, muffins (corn, morning glory, pumpkin, banana and apple) along with the other foods pictured above and enjoyed the majority of it. The service was good (for diner service :) ) and best of all... the tables and generally area and all associated plates and flatware were clean! (Incidentally so was the bathroom.)
I would definitely hit up Frank's again if we were in the area and I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a good breakfast while passing through or staying in Asbury Park.
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