Kelsey & Kim

My father grew up in Atlantic City and we often came down to visit at least once a year. I always enjoyed walking on the boardwalk and my father likes going to the casinos. Since we come down often enough we do have a few regular spots that we like to go eat. One that place that we go to at least once when we are down there is a restaurant called Kelsey & Kim.

Kelsey & Kim is a barbecue restaurant in Pleasantville, New Jersey, about 10 miles outside of Atlantic City. It is a small storefront takeout place with only 4 tables for eating inside. It is a mom & pop operation with pop being Kelsey Jackson and mom being his wife Kim. The restaurant is located in a run down section of town but the food was always good. Not great barbecue but certainly very good. After eating the good stuff in the deep south, one can only settle for very good in the northeast.

Kelsey used to cook in the Trump Marina Hotel Casino. He opened the restaurant in Pleasantville 16 years ago. Over the years they have tried to expand with Kelsey usually running the main store in Pleasantville and his wife running the other store in Galloway, the next town over.

Well to our surprise they closed the store in Galloway and opened up a sit-down restaurant in Atlantic City. The restaurant is a lot more upscale and is located in the Inlet section of town and right near the hotel we usually stay at. The building used to be a Chinese take-out restaurant and the owner would often try and give me lessons on speaking Chinese but they have closed after a few years and the building was empty for some time.

This version of Kelsey & Kim's is not like the one in Pleasantville. The decor inside is quite nice and has a more upscale feel to it. And instead of just selling barbecue the menu has been expanded to include many southern dishes and breakfast.

This time we stopped by for breakfast as I was in the mood for some fried chicken and waffles. My father ordered the special which included 2 huge pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links, and a side of hash browns. You could get grits instead of hash browns but we are not that southern.

The service was very warm and friendly. Because they cook the food to order I kind of knew that my dish was going to take some time due to the fried chicken. There was a couple that came in a bit after us and ordered some eggs and toast and were served their food before us. We were getting hungry but I figured that they were still working on my dish. I guess the waiter saw that they were served before us an came over to apologize. He said that the fried chicken takes a bit to cook and then gave us 2 glasses of orange juice on the house. A small gesture but a very nice touch.

When the food came out a few minutes later, the plates were huge. My father's pancakes were about 8 inches wide and the plate was overflowing with the sausage and eggs and bacon. The hash browns were served on a separate plate. As for my dish, I got a nice sized waffle with 2 pieces of fried chicken on it, a thigh and a leg. I could have gotten wings or white meat but I prefer the dark meat.

The waffle was light and very crispy and you could tell the fried chicken was fresh. It was burning hot and I had to wait a minute before I could take a bite. But when I did take a bite it was great. The fried chicken had a thin coating on it that was still quite crunchy and the meat was tender and moist. I was forced to help my father eat his dish but we still left about 1/2 a pancake and some hash browns on the table.

Overall it was a very nice meal and very friendly service. And the price wasn't that bad, the total bill came to $16 including tax. I don't think I would give it 3 stars outright but maybe a very high 2 stars.

Jersey Jeers

It is not very often that one finds a meal that you will rave about, but I didn't realize that it is even rarer that you come across a meal that you actually can't stand. Unfortunately this revelation occurred when I went to Barbera Fish Market in Atlantic City. Usually a dish is edible and one would expect that a place that has been open since 1919 can't be all that bad. Wrong.

Barbera is located right across from an Atlantic City landmark, White House Subs. Many a time I have seen the fish market while going to get a sub. I was curious enough to look up reviews on the web and found that they had some decent comments on the place. I decided to forgo White House for once and walked across the street.

The place looked quite interesting and is really more of a fish market that a restaurant. There are no tables inside and just a counter by the window for people to dine-in. There are some nice outdoor tables right next to the building. The place is a family owned business and is now being run by Dominic Alcaro. He was there to take my order of fish and chips and a crab cake sandwich.

While I was waiting for my order, his assistant came out from the back and asked me if I wanted it crispy. I was kind of taken aback by the question as I have never been asked that question about my fish. Thinking it meant a nice crispy coating to the fish, I said crispy would be fine. I got my order a few minutes late and took it back to my room to eat.

When I opened up the container, I found out that crispy meant burnt. The fish and chips consisted of seven small fish squares. Each piece was smaller than a chicken McNugget and had a very thin corn meal coating on them. The fish was dry as toast and had a very strong fishy taste. Even submerging them in tartar sauce could not help and I ended up throwing away most of the fish. The fries were quite mediocre but edible. The best part of the meal was the cole slaw which isn't really saying much.


Since I didn't eat much of the fish and chips I was still hungry enough to eat the crab cake. At least the crab cake wasn't that bad. It was 4 inches wide and had mostly filler with bits of crab. Nothing like the lump crab cakes you get in Baltimore but then again for only $3 I wasn't expecting much. If I had only eaten the sandwich I would have given the place 1 star, but the fish and chips was the worst fish and chips I have ever eaten and rates a zero.


This got me thinking about other "worst" meals and that is when it dawned on me that it is easier for me to remember the "best" meals than the worst. Most meals are at least OK and I would eat there again if I was at least in the area. But in this case, I would make a detour to avoid the place.

I really wanted to like the place as the history of the place is kind of interesting. They are the last fish store in the city and have been around for over 80 years. About 5 years ago, the city wanted to take over the small building to put up some more stores but they fought the city by getting over 2,500 signatures in support of the business and won. Why the city would choose that little area when there are dozens of vacant lots around town that they could have selected didn't make sense.

Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh as the people working there were quite friendly, the decor of the place is something out of the 50's with old pictures and newspaper clippings on the walls as well as fake seafood. There is even a personalized signed picture of Elton John on the wall. It does seem that there are people that do like the place and I also did say that I preferred crispy not knowing it meant well-done fish. Maybe my fish and chips was an aberration but it was definitely the worst I have ever eaten and it is so much easier to cross the street to get a great sandwich.