Trekking out to the suburbs on a Friday night isn’t something we always do, but we found the beehive of suburban activity at Yard House, 400 Route 38 at Moorestown Mall, hard to resist.
Even though the recently opened New American restaurant chain and sports bar was bustling on our visit, the staff was always friendly and had the place running like a well-oiled machine.
That’s all the more admirable considering how extensive the menu is. It seems like Yard House has a lot of everything on the menu: Asian, Mexican, Italian, Southern, gastropub, wings, ribs, beer, burgers, vegan. Oh my. We felt like we spent more time staring at the menu trying to figure out what to try than we did indulging and imbibing.
The lobster, crab and artichoke ($12.55) dip was solid, served piping hot with chips and pita points to help penetrate the beautifully caramelized cheese crust on top.
Yard House has a section on its menu dedicated to Gardein, a vegetarian chicken substitute made up of soy, wheat, pea proteins, veggies and grains. I figured we’d take a vegan bullet for the sake of journalistic integrity. When I told our friendly waitress of our intent to try out the Gardein wings, her whole body language changed.
“Have you tried Gardein before?” she asked.
No, that’s why we were interested.
Not only was she not in a hurry to write that particular item down, but she was radiating fear, worry and dread while trying to maintain a sunny demeanor.
Needless to say, we were a little freaked out. We can recognize a thinly veiled dire warning when we see one, so we curbed our culinary sense of adventure and left alone whatever “Soylent Green” horror the waitress was trying to steer us away from.
Instead, we set our sights on the street-taco section of the menu. The baja fish taco ($3.95) and the grilled Korean porkbelly taco ($4.85) were both perfect and satisfied our taco itch. The vampire taco ($6.50), on the other hand, was an obnoxious train wreck. What undid the entire effort was the cheese-crusted tortilla; inside were carnitas, chipotle salsa, chorizo, crema and guacamole. We wish we could have gotten a better idea of what those combined flavors tasted like, but that cheese tortilla overpowered and obliterated everything that tried to compete with it.
Next we ventured south for the Nashville hot chicken ($16.65). The chicken itself was just OK — perfectly fried, but it had more of a spicy bite than it did flavor. But what really made the dish something special was the sweet potato pancakes that came with it. The pancakes were hearty and rich enough on their own, but the added syrup-like honey hot sauce really pulled the dish together.
We stayed down South for dessert in the form of the mini peach apple cobbler ($3.95), which was the perfect size and texture. The cobbler itself was crisp and crumbly and when it hit the vanilla ice cream, it became a warm, creamy and sweet experience.
Yard House may have cast its culinary net a bit wide, but the operators really put their best foot forward in terms of service and enthusiasm. If you’re in the neighborhood, they’ll definitely have something that will appeal to your tastes.