Atlantic City Weekly

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Last October Phat Steaks moved from an unobtrusive building on Route 9 across from the Northfield Post Office to the Tilton 9 Shopping Center. The parking lot is much bigger than the former lot and the restaurant has five booths and a surf board counter that seats five more.

I always thought Phat Steaks wasn't a good name for a steak shop in this weight conscious environment; I didn't realize it stands for "Pretty Hot And Tasty!" The venue has changed but the steaks are still "P.H.A.T."

Hot subs are priced from $5-$5.50 for a half, $10-$11 for a whole. The selection includes a wide variety of cheese steaks, five chicken variations and sausage, meatball, hamburger and pizza burger subs. And for Health Phanatics, there are five low phat hot subs including grilled turkey, grilled turkey with vegetables, vegetarian, grilled chicken and grilled chicken with vegetables.

Cold subs are similarly priced and include the freshest produce and authentic Atlantic city bread to re-create the original submarine sandwich.

The 12-inch pizza is just $5.99; two for $9.99 and add $1 for toppings. Half pound burgers are $3.50-$3.75.

Salads, appetizers and a kid's menu are also available. I recommend Phat Shakes, made the old fashioned way with real ice cream and fresh fruit ($3-$3.75).

Phat Steaks is a great, convenient place to take the family before or after a movie. Hot and cold trays of sandwiches, subs, meat dishes, lunch meat trays, Italian cookies and salads, too numerous to mention here, are also available for your special occasion parties.

Phat Steaks new location is two doors from the Tilton 9 Theater on Tilton Road in Northfield. Hours are Monday-Thursday, 11am-8pm; Friday-Sunday, 11am-5pm. Call 645-8890 for pickup or delivery.

Gaspare's Great Selection

Gourmet food is hardly associated with a strip mall restaurant, but it certainly applies to Gaspare's Gourmet Italian Restaurant and Bar in EHT's Harbor Village Square. We hadn't been to Gaspare's for some time and were pleased to learn that the small family-owned restaurant is still serving homemade gourmet Italian cuisine. Not only is the food good, it is reasonably priced and the portions are large. So large that when we finished our veal parmigian and veal Fran�oise ($16.95 each), we couldn't eat dessert.

The salad was fresh and crisp, the angel hair pasta and the veal were tender and Gaspare didn't skimp on the cheese.

The restaurant is small but the eight-page menu is large. One page is devoted to pizza, Stromboli and calzone; there's a page for wraps, subs and sandwiches; a page for hot and cold samplings, house special antipastos, a children's menu, beverages and desserts. There's one page for seafood entrées and two pages for meat, poultry and pasta entrées, and a full page for party pans and trays. Even a full page of imported and domestic beer and wine selections to enjoy with your meal or for takeout.

Entrées are priced from $9.95 for fettuccini Alfredo with bacon, broccoli or spinach to $39.95 for Casa Nostra veal, lobster tail and jumbo lump crabmeat pasta sauce.

There are 40 choices of pizza, priced from $5.99 to $24.95 for the 18-inch seafood pizza featuring shrimp and scallops with calamari marinara, fra Diablo or garlic white sauce.

More than 40 varieties of sandwiches are priced from $4.50 for the three-cheese grinder to $7.95 for the Chicken Rackafella sub with spinach, bacon, cheddar cheese and tomato.

Gaspare's Italian Restaurant and Bar at Ocean Heights Avenue and Zion Road, Bargaintown, serving lunch (until 4pm) and dinner Sunday-Thursday, 11am-9:30pm and Friday and Saturday, 11am-10:30pm. Call 653-2112.