We were big fans of Cranbury Station and sad to see it apparently disappeared, but then the newcomer called Station Bar And Grill on the same site claimed it had the same menu with better ingredients so we gave it a chance, and after one visit at least, it seems pretty much like Cranbury Station.

We started out with warm poofy bread. The salad was decent and the bean and ham soup was pleasant but could have had more of a ham presence.

Fish-and-chips had substantial fries and four large pieces of fish (scrod). The fish had a nice flavor though the coating was a bit soft, so you may be better off with our longtime favorite, the fried seafood combo. This includes very good flounder, some clam strips and a large crab cake that was tasty, even if the crab-to-cake ratio wasn’t up to Maryland standards.

The best of the quartet was the fried shrimp. While this crustacean often gets the “fried whatever” treatment, the Station has a nice preparation that doesn’t hide the essential shrimpiness. As in the earlier version of the restaurant, there was a pleasant surprise of unbilled steamed vegetables with the seafood combo, but this time around there was an improvement via a higher garlic content.

The menu seems longer, ranging from diner-type items to fancier-sounding specials like pork osso bucco, so we’ll be back soon to test things out some more. We are also curious about what is offered on “Spanish night.” They also have pasta night and seafood night.