Dining on the 5th

A Must-Visit Gem in Atlantic City: The Cardinal **Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️** If you're searching for an exceptional brunch spot off the beaten path of the Atlantic City boardwalk, look no further than The Cardinal. This venue is a complete standout, offering not just a meal, but an experience. From the moment you arrive, the top-notch hospitality sets the tone for a delightful visit. The food at The Cardinal is nothing short of exquisite, bursting with flavors that are both unique and comforting. The live music during brunch, featuring talented musicians like Max Davey and her duo partner Steven, adds a vibrant and electric atmosphere to the setting. Steven's banjo skills are particularly notable, enhancing the brunch vibe with cool and melodious tunes. The Cardinal also boasts a well-designed outdoor area complete with fire pits and a biergarten, making it an ideal spot for pet owners and anyone looking to enjoy a meal in a cozy, inviting outdoor setting. And let's not forget about the happy hour—rated the best in Atlantic County—available twice a day, from 5-7 pm and 9-11 pm. It's the perfect way to wind down with some of the best cocktails in the city. In summary, The Cardinal is a top-tier destination in Atlantic City. Whether you're a local or just passing through, this place promises a fun, enjoyable, and absolutely delicious experience. Highly recommended—do not miss out on this Atlantic City treasure! With love - Rich & Sara

What an absolutely amazing find! This place is such a vibe with a cozy atmosphere and unique, delicious food. We went on a day with a Harry Potter theme which was so cool to be a part of. Service was fantastic and everything we ate was amazing. Can’t wait to return when the weather is warmer so I can take advantage of the outdoor vibes.

I pulled over to find a brunch spot and luck was on my side because I happened to pull right in front of Cardinal and saw people eating breakfast! (If that wasn’t a sign, I’m not sure what is!) If you haven’t been here, then this is definitely a must on your next visit . I know this will be a staple spot for me. The service is amazing. The atmosphere is probably one of the best locally. They had great live music which was a great start to the day. The food was delicious. Steak 5/5! Cooked to perfection. My omelette was equally delicious and so large in portion that it could’ve fed two. Would love to come back during the evening hours because they have fire pits and comfortable seating

I've had many experiences with cardinal since their inception in ventnor and now AC. The food is incredible and so is the service. I had one 4 star experience but they have since completely changed my mind. I had a birthday party there last weekend and I can't express how great they did. Sage the coordinator was communicative and so helpful. They made an adorable drink menu and set up for me. Our bartender (I'm so bad at names) was on point. Speedy and helpful with drink suggestions while still serving the regular restaurant as well as our event. They made me feel so special for my bday. I am a forever customer after this.

Hidden gem in Atlantic City! I highly recommend checking this place out! I’ve been here multiple times and it’s always a great experience. The handcrafted unique cocktails that mixologist Brian makes are amazing. Don’t get me started on the fresh menu! Everything I’ve ordered here has been a hit; my personal favorite the Cesar salad with preserved lemon shavings, or the fried brussel sprouts with a tofu hummus. They have something for everyone (that’s saying something as I am vegetarian). Recently tried the signature cocktail Ayurvedic Sour, Tumeric infused gin with lime and salt. The place is always clean and staff is always friendly and attentive. I highly recommend checking this place out, whether it is for brunch, lunch, dinner or happy hour! You won’t be disappointed. They also have a beautiful outdoor area. P.S. sister told me to mention the pork belly as it was melt in your mouth delicious! lol Pictured: fried Brussels sprouts, crispy broccoli, Cesar salad, truffle fries and the signature cocktail mentioned above. And of course the pork belly with creamed corn.

Just a random birthday dinner while in Atlantic City. It seemed a bit pricey, but after eating that meal I understood why. It was AMAZING! Would recommend the pork chop meal and Brussels sprout appetizer. Love from Kentucky

Found this place totally by accident, looked out the window of our hotel and thought it looked interesting. Went in for a drink to check it out. WOW! Brian, the bartender was a fantastic mixologist and a very nice person, tried an app. and it was great. Went back for Happy Hour 2 days later with more people and had a lot of food off the happy hour menu and more fantastic drinks. Met the owner and more staff and I can't tell you how nice they are. If you are in Atlantic City and looking for food and/or drinks, go there, you won't be disappointed. We also had dessert later at one of the fire pits. Holy cow, blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream like nothing you've ever tasted and the burnt cheese cake, amazing. Even the coffee was exceptional.

Took my parents for brunch and it was lovely. We got some build your own bloody Marys and Benedict’s. Lots of vodka and lots of food. Seems like it would be a great place in ac to just chill off the boardwalk at night, I definitely want to go back for cocktails and corn hole.

My wife and I had an amazing experience at Cardinal. Very friendly and informative staff who went out of their way to accommodate us. The food and atmosphere were both top tier. I highly recommend.

Let me tell y'all about this place. First off, the ambiance is amazing. Industrial garden vibes and it was so cool. Everyone we spoke to from the staff was nothing but helpful and polite. I wish I remembered our servers name because she was lovely! They didn't have blackberries for the cocktail I ordered and she quickly let me know and gave me alternatives. I ended up getting it with strawberries and it was so yummy! It was a silver tequila cocktail. My boyfriend tried two different cocktails and he loved both. The bartender gave us a fun fact about it being called "ladder 8" because of the ghost busters. Everything we ate was TASTY. I got the mushroom and goat cheese grilled cheese and you'll see the picture only has half of it because I couldn't stop eating the first half. My boyfriend got the lamb burger and didn't leave a crumb of it left. The ingredients were obviously fresh and everything seemed like it was created with a culinary intention. When I think of a "farm to table" restaurant this is what I imagine. I would 100% recommend this to anyone. My ONLY complaint was the French fries. I asked for extra crispy and they were still on the soggy side but that's okay because it left room for me to try their cheesecake which also was so well cooked.

Amazing flavors and good portions. The outdoor space is a lot of fun and inside there is a great, eclectic energy. The window bar is fun place to sit with friends and watch the evening sky. You’ve gotta try the Halibut and those preserved lemons on the Caesar Salad… ❤️🤯 fantastic.

What an amazing gem. Felt like I hit the jackpot with this find. We were in town for a concert and were in bit of a rush. Tried very limited food, but almost all of it was great. Highlight of the visit were the drinks. All the drinks were great, had good amount of alcohol in them. Our server Seth was super informative. If anyone wants a good drink with great buzz, meurta Verde is what you want. Old fashioned was good as well. My wife had ricotta gnocchi and was having about it for the next several days. Salmon with thinly sliced cucumbers was good. Definitely will stop by here again whenever we go to AC.

This restaurant is a vibe! I adore the outside area with games and picnic tables. A great place to hang out in the summer while having a quick lunch or a fun brunch on the weekends. I ate inside the restaurant and ordered a lamb burger. The burger came with fries and it was delicious. The goat cheese and Taziki sauce gave the burger an amazing flavor. Fries were decent, but maybe needed a little more salt. The service was outstanding! Definitely check this place out.

Honestly—what a lovely vibe. Summer cocktails, outdoor dining & excellent incentive dishes. Seth was our server and was such a sweetheart. Will be back!

Wonderful spot. even though they messed up my order, the quality of this place deserves 5 Stars. Only complaint is I did mention that my order wasn’t to par and they didn’t do anything about it.

Wonderful dining experience! Next stop in AC, Cardinal. Very nice restaurant on St James Place. Craft cocktails and upcale food. Met Elyse, bartender, we talked about infusing gin. I sent my gin recipe spreadsheet to her. Mike, chef owner, greeted me. I had made a reservation while I was at ACBG. He must have looked me up from my email and asked if I was a photographer. Complimented me on my photographs of Marcus Samuelson, celebrity chef when he was at Aqua Vit. That was a incredible touch of customer service. I ordered Duck Wings, Scallops from Barnegat and Ayutveic Sour Cocktail. Delicious! If I had one criticism, the scallops were a bit too salty.

Enjoyed every bite. Refreshing to dine and have such a great experience across the board. It’s few and far between now a days. The duck was everything I hoped and dreamed!

Cardinal is the best restaurant in this area for sure! Great food and atmosphere, beautiful cocktails and very nice stuff. It seems like we gonna have a dinner at this place everyday while we’re staying in Atlantic City. It’s the once place here where you can get good quality food, not a greasy piece of pizza. You can also enjoy live music to make your dinner even better :)

From being greeted, to seated and served…everyone working on NYE was welcoming and pleasant. Great cocktails… Figure of Speech was unique and delicious. We had a couple starters (caviar was amazing) and did the pre-fix menu (the short ribs!!!!). All the items we ordered were fantastic and a tremendous value. Our server was friendly and efficient, offered good recommendations and reassurance of our choices, and made for an overall enjoyable dinner. We are so happy we chose it and will highly recommend to others. We will absolutely be back on our next trip to AC!

Came here with my extended family (10 of us). There was plenty of parking for two cars in the private lot. The vibes were amazing first and foremost - you get to walk through a handful of shipping-container turned bars, a huge art mural, outdoor game space, and garden area lit up by overhead string lights. We were quickly seated outside - fresh air, music, and the firepits were cooking. The service was fantastic - the waiter was so nice to all of us including the kids. He gave the kids coloring crayons and marshmallows to roast in the firepit as an added bonus! The food was incredible - we had a few of the starters (duck wings, oysters) and kept the wine flowing. Unique quality menu items (I went with the pork chop and was very pleased) that were not overpriced. I'll keep coming back!

I LOVE this place! I always order the Brussels sprouts salad with salmon on it, but everything on the menu is delicious and unique. It is one of the most interesting interiors in Atlantic City, with original artwork on the walls. It’s the best place to eat when visiting Anchor Rock Club or just walking the boardwalk. Parking is a plus!

We were there on a Friday evening. The food was amazing, we got a Caesar salad and split a salmon dish. The Caesar salad came with a homemade onion jam that was so good. The salmon had a really nice flavor and a crispy top. Elise, our bartender, did a great job mixing our drinks and serving our food. We will go back again!

This is one of the best places hands down for a bar menu. The food and drinks are all fabulous. We tried almost everything on the menu and we were so happy. The duck wings can't be beat anywhere. I was here with other foodies from Philadelphia so trust me, this is excellent. Very cool place and actually beautiful. Can't wait to come back!!

Last night we had a family gathering at the Cardinal. The food was fantastic, the service was exceptional and the atmosphere very pleasant. We had a large group and the the service staff was on point, always checking for anything we needed. The entire group raved about the food. We will definitely return. Thank you Cardinal for a memorable evening

Industrial vibe paces to sit on couches, read play games excellent food great service a great hang out cozy vibe. All around awesome place. Very experienced in drinks I never even heard. Truly loved it and will be back!!

I walked into Cardinal one night before going into Anchor Rock for a show and I keep coming back bc the food is amazing and the bartenders are friendly and kind. It’s the kind of place you feel good about visiting and feel good about after you leave.

Came over this weekend for a bachelorette party so brunch was the ending of the weekend. We came over here right before we left to go home. The place is absolutely beautiful, i love the artwork and lights everywhere. That and the music really set the tone. The food was delicious! Our waiter Seth was amazing. He absolutely took over every table, did an amazing job, joked with us, and was nonstop serving awesome energy at every table. Keep up the good work!

We ordered apps and meals for our dinner. Everything was absolutely perfect. Brussel sprout and acorn squash apps very flavorful. Gnocchi dish was plentiful and tasty. Brussel sprout salad was large and yummy (!). Staff were friendly and professional. Since it’s winter, outside area was closed but looks like it’ll be a fun atmosphere. This restaurant is the closest to a Philadelphia dining experience that the AC area has.

Legit! Two Long Islanders just visiting. Did a Google search of great restaurants between Resorts and Caeser's. They get a 4.6 I'm giving them a 5! So good! The setting is perfect. The bartender and server were perfect. The steak and brussel sprouts were perfect. My wife's pasta special with crab meat was perfect. Highly recommend.

Staying at the Hardrock hotel for a show, searched up farm to table restaurants near me and boy did it steer me in the right direction. Literally an 3 minute ride away! Elise our server was enthusiastic about the menu as she shared about some of her favorites. She was spot on about the pancakes. So fresh and light. We went for brunch and can’t wait to go back for dinner before leaving New Jersey. The avocado fries, lemon ricotta pancake, the croquettes, even the bacon just superbly done. Everything was just incredibly fresh and tasty. The added bonus is how reasonably priced everything is. What a gem 💎 of a place! I literally want to try everything on the menu, next will be the salmon. I’ll come back to this review and post pictures next time.

We stopped in here for brunch on Sunday in April after spending the night in AC. I found it on Google maps when looking for a brunch or lunch spot and their menu looked good. We sat at one of the bars. We waited a few minutes for a bartender to greet us and provide menus. There is a dining section behind this bar and they must have been busy because he was cranking out drinks. We ordered a couple drinks and our meals - an omelet and a salad with a side of biscuits. The food was served pretty quickly. The taste and flavor was good. Someone else at the bar ordered chicken and waffles and it looked like enough food for 3-4 people to share. The atmosphere was casual and easy going. Prices were comparable to similar places we have been but lower than I was expecting being in AC anyway. They have a nice outdoor space but it was crazy windy the day we were here so we didn’t sit outside. We had an overall enjoyable experience.

The salmon was perfectly cooked and well seasoned. The duck was tasty but a bit on the chewy side. The chicken sandwich and burger were decent. We also enjoyed the drinks but they are a bit pricey when not on happy hour.

Took advantage of a pre-fix dinner as promoted by Do Atlantic City . Great place, a short walk off the boardwalk with parking. The food and service was good. Will certainly return in the warmer months to take advantage of the outside area and garden bar.

Food was good, But… the Service🙄. First time visit, staff were great, very friendly! We sat at the bar for brunch, unfortunately, we came in hungry & we had a wait. Spent over two hours, luckily they offer a bottomless Mimosa option, that helps curb your hunger for sure. Definitely a good place to visit. Just be prepared to be there for a while!

Went for the first time on a Thurs night. We were greeted warmly - as were our 3 kids. Food and drinks were all excellent. Birthday-ing husband got a candle/flaming thing in his carrot cake. My quibble is that several items we wanted were unavailable - several different wines, avocado fries. I would absoluely go back and, if no hurricane present, sit in the patio area which looked very pleasant.

we popped in on Sunday right after brunch. They have the happy hour menu available which is a bunch of appetizers and the bar is open. We were hungry so we sat down and ate. I had Korean wings shrimp cocktail. The shrimp cocktail was disappointing. There was only three shrimp in the shrimp cocktail. My lady had the raw bar oysters and she had duck wings. The food is good. Portions are good. The only thing to disappointed me was that they were only three shrimp and the shrimp cocktail will definitely come back again during regular hours to try their brunch and or dinner menu. A lot of the places in Atlantic City people are left to go to the casinos and you don’t have to go to the casinos to have a good time to eat. There are many little eclectic little staples all over Atlantic City area that you could eat and enjoy and spend less moneyjust like this place if you’re looking to spend less money and have a nice time and not have to pay ridiculous amount of money for parking because Cardinal has their own parking lot.

Pretentious. The food was mediocre, and had very few choices. Dishes were more expensive than other places in the area, and the affordable choices were fried chicken sandwiches. Basic fries and a $35 cauliflower steak seemed excessive.

This was my first time there and my really good friend ordered the pan chicken entree. The description was misleading as it came with risotto and we thought it would come with separate chicken and then a side of risotto, but it came in a big bowl as a broth. Of course we brought it up to our server and also the owner that was there and they were not very nice about it and said it is the way it is and we even showed them the menu how it was described and it did not match how it came out and they just walked away I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 19 years. I was always taught to at least bring it up to the owner before you post a review to let them fix it. They refused to do anything and did not care. I still tipped our server way more than 20% because I would imagine that the owner controls everything with his attitude. Even though there was no wait, it was a little odd that I made my reservation yesterday and when I walked up, they had no record of it even when I showed them the reservation on my phone

Businesses should not falsely advertise. Businesses should not double down on their false advertising when called out on it by a customer. Their website says they have $1 oysters at happy hour. They do not. Their staff member shrugged when I told them this and said that the new price is the new price. Cool. Everything else about my experience is tainted by this. It does not really matter that the rest of the meal was decent or that the employee with the huge mustache and the d20 pin seemed very sociable and knowledgeable about his craft. But I won't remember that. I'll remember a three dollar overcharge instead.

I genuinely wanted to enjoy this place, as the menu and ingredients seemed full of promise. However, the scallops dish I ordered fell short in every aspect. The scallops were only seared on one side, and the quinoa, though cooked adequately, was overwhelmed by diced hot peppers, which were not mentioned in the description and completely ruined the dish for me. The vermouth cream was disappointingly watery and bland, although my tastebuds may have been thrown off by the spicy quinoa at that point. Had it not been for the high price, I might have rated it higher, as the staff were exceptionally friendly and attentive.