We had a chance to check out the new summer menu at jrdn; our favorite spot for boardwalk people watching and yummy eats.

We were excited about the new menu options, because we’ve basically tried (and in some cases retried) most things on the old menu… and now, we have a whole new jumping off point.

Per usual, we started with drinks…

The sundown roll was the first new item we tried. The sushi rolls at jrdn are some of our favorites; and this was no exception. The combo of salmon and spicy tuna, with avocado is one I always do at our make your own sushi nights at home; and it was nice to see it out and about.

The crispy taro was amazing… and I totally need to find a way to incorporate this in a future dish.

If you know us, you know we are getting the beef tartare. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And this was a cool take on tartare. We did think there was a little too much caramelized onion, and it totally distracted away from the beef. Loved the flavor profile, just too much that became overpowering.

I really liked the caroline bbq take. Since a classic ingredient of beef tartare is mustard, it was a neat play on flavors to pair it with a mustard based bbq sauce. I see what you did there, and I am totally here for it.

Saving the best for last.

Seriously, this was our favorite of the three new dishes we tried. And I say this as a member of the clam team in the mussels v clams debate. These were some of the best, and most flavorful mussels we’ve ever had. The chorizo was spicy, but not so spicy it overpowered the other flavors. The broth was full of tomato, onion and cream, and created a perfect broth for the mussels to swim in. The mussels were cooked to perfection.

The only complaint to be made, was a couple didn’t open, and so we didn’t get as many mussels as we could possibly have. But that’s really not even a complaint. And while yes, we look forward to trying more of the new dishes on our next visit, I can pretty much guarantee we’ll be ordering the mussels again, regardless. They were just that good.