The Clean Plate Kitchen, Clinton – Review

by Alice Magdziak • January 4, 2016 • Food, Green Jersey, Hunterdon • Comments (0) • 2200

While we were in Clinton doing research for our Shop Local series late last year, we had lunch as The Clean Plate Kitchen. It’s a mostly-vegetarian restaurant with many vegan dishes. They also use many locally-sourced ingredients including the few meat products that are on the menu. We had a fantastic lunch there!

They start you out with some organic popcorn drizzled with olive oil. Ed was immediately a fan. Fresh, clean-tasting popcorn is one of the ways into his heart.

Our first ordered dish was the daily featured hummus with plantain chips. The hummus they offered that day was spicy black bean and it was outstanding. The tall plantain chips sticking out of the bowl were kind of comical but once we tasted them we weren’t laughing at them anymore. They were really good and a nice change from the usual pita triangles you get with hummus. The black bean hummus was pretty spicy which I really liked. It was a little thick which made the hearty plantain chips useful for digging it out of the bowl. I’m pretty sure I even ran my finger around the empty bowl to make sure I got all the last morsels out.

The first entree we tried was a special of the day veggie chili that was so good, I wish I’d ordered it all for myself. It was filled with beans and tomatoes and topped with a little cream sauce and avocado. The chili was spicy but not overly so. It was hearty enough for an entree without making you extremely full. Hopefully, this is on their regular rotation because it’s a winner.

Finally, we tried their vegetable-bean burger with goat cheese on a brioche bun. It was perfectly delicious but wasn’t outstanding like the other two dishes we got. I think the goat cheese I chose to top the burger with was too powerful tasting and interfered with the veggie burger taste. Next time, I’ll choose a different cheese! It came with a brussel sprout slaw which was really good and sweet potato fries that were also good.

The Clean Plate Kitchen is tucked into a cozy space next to the river and the beginning of the main downtown area. It seemed like it might be hard to find but there were plenty of signs showing us the way around the corner and into the back of a street-facing building. It’s got lots of outdoor seating for summer and fall dining but the inside is just as cozy and there’s even a fireplace.