UPDATE: I HAVE REEVALUATED THE CRAB CAKES AND WHILE THEY DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE FILLERS, THE TEXTURE IS VERY FIRM AND CAUSES ME TO QUESTION HOW THAT WAS ACHIEVED. NOT A TYPICAL CRAB CAKE.
The historical building's origins stem from Abraham Jessop; a cooper (barrel maker). The building was built in 1674 and is now home to the Tavern!
Great place, so cute! They have a book of Belgium beers located in a quaint historic building in old new castle. With the river near by it is a great place to have a first date. Walk along the river and make you way to the tavern. Food is amazing!!
Very quaint, rustic, colonial setting (300 year old building) staff wears colonial style garb.
Had the Dutch pot roast with mashed potatoes and string beans. Incredibly rich, thick gravy. Mmm Had the bread pudding for dessert. Amazing, but a huge portion. Looked like a quarter of a loaf of bread. Delicious and I ended up taking half of it home.
I posted pictures of the whole menu and I guess they were removed. I did this because the Google maps link to the menu was extremely out of date and didn't really represent the menu at present. Oh well.
Wife had crab cakes that were not full of fillers but were also not seasoned well...rather bland, but the serving was 2 large cakes. Good if you are hungry for bland crab cakes.
The chicken and Apple curry soup was very good. Another in our party had the seafood soup (tomato based) and raved about it. My wife got Caesar salad which she said was good but be aware it is served with walnuts...so if you have nut allergies, watch out.
Understandable outrage from this bad food is heightened by how much money is removed from your pocket when ordering food here. The prices say to customers "you might need the wealth of the landed English-Gentry to eat here, or at least that of the richer founding fathers". Come for a beer then head somewhere else.
I imagine this place is handicapped accessible however the pathway to the dining area is narrow. You squeeze between people sitting at the bar on one side and people seated at tables on the other. If you want quiet atmosphere you'll need to get through this gauntlet to get to the dining room. My mother needs to hold on to someone to walk and it was a little tricky.
Cool location and space. This would be a nice place to share a drink, or try some new Belgian beer.
However, the food is pretty bad. Fish was fried to a hard aquatic charcoal while the overdone fish itself leaked out of this overly-fried casing. That was sent back. The Smorgasbord is made up of fairly common place cheeses and meats (was that deli pepperoni!?)
No bread & butter served.
The staff was friendly, they are dressed up as servers would have been in colonial times. They all seemed happy to be there and chatty.
The service was incredibly slow...efficient, but slow. We were there in the late afternoon and there were very few other people dining at the time . The bar area was crowded. Don't know if it was the wait staff or the kitchen... therefore you don't know whose fault it is that the food was cold. But regardless, the food was cold.
The smashed red potatoes were bland. The cornbread stuffing was tasty. There was a biscuit of some sort served in the middle with gravy, it was about the size of a golf ball and was devoid of moisture. It literally crumbled into pieces.
Jessop's Tavern is a comfortably, colonial restaurant. Fair priced, delicious food comes highly recommended; you can't go wrong with whatever you choose from their menu!
There is a very large beer selection.
Ironically, the cranberry.relish was fantastic.
They feature a number of ice cream flavors. We sampled three of them: vanilla, chocolate, and motor oil. (yes motor oil not a typo). They were okay not outstanding. Despite its name the motor oil was good.
I had the turkey (as did my mother). I was disappointed that it was some sort of processed white meat rather than simply roasted turkey. The gravy was acceptable but not remarkable. They are not roasting real turkeys so I'm not sure what they are using as a base for the gravy.
Three of us got the vegetable of the day which was broccoli. The serving was close to half a head of broccoli...but it was fresh and not overcooked.
They have large number of Belgian beers along with their matching glasses. Plus in the colder months they have hot alcoholic drinks (hot toddy etc). Perfect when a cold wind is blowing in off the water. It is a bit smaller so if you're dining towards the back you'll be near the bar patrons. This is how it would have been in colonial times but some people don't like sitting near a bar when eating dinner (I don't mind at all) so be aware to request a table towards the front of the restaurant if you're one of those people!
The underlying theme to all the food was that it is not served hot. It all seemed room temperature...not at all good for smashed potatoes or gravy. Broccoli not even warm. The only thing served at an appropriate temperature was the soup.
Jessop S Tavern is a US Bar based in New Castle, Delaware. Jessop S Tavern is located at 114 Delaware St, New Castle, DE 19720, USA.
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