Gourmet Restaurant at the Renault Winery

Renault Winery
72 N Bremen Ave.
Egg Harbor City, NJ
(609) 965-2111

My wife and I have been dining here since we met. We absolutely love the winery and scoot down here whenever we can. The winery historic and one can read all about on the web site. After the ups and downs of the wine industry, the gourmet restaurant was added in the early 1980s. It has been an attraction ever since. We entertained hosting our wedding reception here, but opted for something a little closer to home.

The restaurant serves is a six-course meal, served European style. The menu is not published ahead as the menu changes weekly. Only the entrée is selected by the customer as the other courses are crafted by the chef. An appetizer is followed by soup, the pasta, and finally an intermezzo prior to the main course. Entrées include filet, veal, Chilean sea bass, rack of lamb, etc. Following the main course, a fresh salad is served before the presentation of the dessert tray. Only once have we been unimpressed, although not disappointed, in the chef’s selections.

Last evening we were treated to a wonderful meal. The appetizer was a chorizo-filled empanada with a roasted pepper sauce. It was tasty. Next up was a chard tomato bisque. I am not a particular fan of tomato “soup”, but was most impressed with this. The flavor was complex. Following the bisque were homemade gnocchi. The finestest gnocchis I have ever had plain and simple. The intermezzo was an apple sorbet topped with apple brandy. This was refreshing. Gert had a stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. I rarely order chicken out, but this dish was superb. I had a veal tenderloin. It was tasty, but nothing exceptional. Gert and I swapped vegetables. She took my broccoli and I her green beans. Both were very nicely prepared. After our main courses, a salad of fresh greens topped with almonds and a pomegranate dressing finished off this wonderful meal. We split a slice of banana cream pie (we have had it before) that is heavenly.

Of course, this being a winery means that we had wine throughout the meal. The Royal Rouge was the first sample during the appetizer. This table wine is the wine I like most. It is a mellow red that seems to fit with virtually everything. I usually have a bottle of it in our rack at home. The second tasting was to be a Pinot Grigio, but our waiter substituted a new white. I did not catch the name of it and do not see it on the web site. It was to be a smei-dry white. I was not a fan, but am not a huge white wine drinker to begin with. This wine did not accompany the gnocchi well at all, I thought. I had another Royal Rouge with my veal tenderloin and a sherry during dessert. This was the first time, I believe, I have had the Renault sherry. It was served as a full glass, which surprised me. It was not as creamy as some sherry, but fine just the same.

One should enjoy the tour of the winery. Besides learning of the history and how wine is made, the tasting room is unlike any other. There is a gift shop in which one can pick up wine to bring home. The Renault Winery is one of our favorite restaurants and always provides an enjoyable meal.

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