Ferry House serves up traditional European food with a twist

I wandered into the Ferry House on a lark one night freshman year, and knew I was hooked before I took the second bite of my appetizer.

It's kitchen reigns near the top of Princeton's culinary scene, and many meals later I continue to return for its beautiful, delectable fare.

The Ferry House's prominent use of duck, mushrooms and cream betray owner Bobby Trigg's classical French training, but the menu as a whole evinces a hodgepodge of influences that defy easy categorization. Asian preparations and sauces lend twists to otherwise traditional European dishes. For example, Trigg takes a classic herb-battered calamari and drizzles it with a tangy-sweet Vietnamese inspired ginger dressing to create the sublime platter of calamari that hooked me on my first visit.

More recently, he has begun to incorporate the Central American flavors many of the restaurant's employees brought when they immigrated to the United States, and he might pair a leg of duck with black bean empanadas, instead of more traditional roasted potatoes or a vegetable puree.

Trigg delights patrons by crafting lunch and dinner menus daily, but both are dominated by certain recurring themes. Every menu offers a filet mignon, a duck entree, a risotto, a mushroom salad and a seafood main course — the day-to-day changes are apparently the sauces and side dishes.

The filet mignon, like all of the Ferry House's dishes, is gorgeously presented in three dimensions. On a recent visit, it was served atop a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, accompanied by lemon-garlic marinated artichoke hearts and framed by decorative splays of fresh herbs. The first succulent bite reveals that, unlike some chefs, Trigg understands flavor as well as he does appearance. The beef exploded with flavor, and tender artichoke hearts could have stood alone as an appetizer.

Equally delicious is the pepper crusted tuna, a sushi grade cut that melts in your mouth and manages to be rich and silken without being overpoweringly fishy.

Trigg's excellent risottos often incorporate mushrooms or duck, and the slight al dente crunch proves that he crafts the dish with a care too often lacking at restaurants.

The cuisine, however, is occasionally overdone. The duck in a duck breast and arugala salad contained so much pepper that it drowned out the duck, the arugala and, impressively, the astringent balsamic vinaigrette mentioned on the menu, and Trigg can also combine too many influences on a single plate.

I recently sampled a pesto crusted salmon accompanied by herb mashed potatoes, asparagus and a mushroom-cream sauce — each of which was near perfect when tasted separately, but incongruous and overwhelming when served together.

I tend to recommend the simpler dishes, and shy away from ones that seem cluttered with sides and sauces, though even those will rarely leave you feeling truly disappointed.

The waiters bring out the dessert selection on a platter for your perusal, so you might as well abandon any pretense of keeping your resolutions to eat only healthy food.

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The house specialty is the superb "New Jersey's best" creme brulee, but my favorite (if they have it) is the Black-forest bread pudding, a delectable concoction of warm pudding, rum-cherries, and rich dark chocolate; each bite dissolves exquisitely in your mouth and the memory lingers on your tongue long after you've finished.

Although we can expect some changes in the coming weeks as Trigg makes the transition to a lighter, spring menu, he is only beginning to contemplate thematic changes and refuses to say what we should expect.

He maintains that after French, Vietnamese is his favorite cuisine, and he is planning a dining vacation to Miami, so it seems probable that the menu will retain both its Asian and Latin influences. Having sampled a variety of his menus during the past three years, I'm unconcerned that the restaurant might not be up to its usual par.

The Ferry House's interior is cozy, and the rough-hewn green walls adorned with changing modern art keep it from appearing stuffy despite the preponderance of suit-wearing businessmen.

I recommend trying to snag one of the charming tables by the windows overlooking Witherspoon Street, as the back of the restaurant can be a bit dark and unwelcoming despite the service's best efforts to make you feel at home. Speaking of which, the restaurant's service is superb — attentive but not intrusive, and I've never felt either rushed or ignored on busy weekend evenings, when reservations are recommended.

Trigg reports that he receives strong support from the University community and that many of the academic departments keep running tabs.

A three course dinner for two with tax and tip, but excluding BYOB wine, will generally run $100 to $130, while a similar lunch might set you back $70, so I suspect that Trigg is referring more to professorial than to student support.

The Ferry House will impress a date, and is well worth your parent's money if they come to visit; I have also used a dinner at the Ferry House as the medium for a bet I know I'm going to win.

However, even if you're lovelorn, don't gamble and your parents live in California, I recommend sampling the Ferry House at least once in your four year stint at Princeton to experience one of the area's most memorable meals.